Abstract
Motivation is one of the most important factors affecting students’ performance of English learning, which is widely concerned by foreign language teachers and researchers for a long time. However, how to promote students’ motivation in learning English by knowing their English learning motivation types at the initial stages and the factors that influence their sustaining motivation in the long process of English learning is still in need of exploration in the Chinese context. The paper aims to investigate Chinese non-English majors’ motivation in English learning to facilitate teachers’ understanding of ways to increase it.
Highlights
Motivation is one of the most important factors affecting students’ performance of English learning, which is widely concerned by foreign language teachers and researchers for a long time
In China, English is studied as a compulsory subject for all the college students who are non-English majors, i.e., as is often the case in foreign language learning contexts in which L2 is primarily learned as a school subject, English learning is mainly conducted in the classrooms where the language is not typically used as the medium of ordinary communication
What are the possible factors that influence students’ motivation in English learning, including internal factors relating to students themselves and external factors relating to learning context?
Summary
Motivation provides the primary impetus to initiate learning the L2 and later functions as the driving force to sustain the long and often tedious learning process (Oxford and Shearin 1994: 12). According to Ellis (1994), language teachers readily acknowledge the importance of learners’ motivation, not infrequently explaining their own sense of failure with reference to their students’ lack of motivation, but teachers are often unaware of their students’ specific motivations for L2 language learning. Teachers’ lack of knowledge about their students’ real reasons for learning a language is one of conditions that impede our full understanding of students’ motivation for L2 learning (Oxford and Shearin 1994). Hedge (2000) says, there are a multitude of reasons why learners may well be highly motivated to begin learning a foreign language, but it is quite another matter to sustain that motivation. It is important to find out the underlying causes of students’ motivation in English learning and the possible factors that influence students’ sustaining motivation, especially in a practical sense to teachers who want to stimulate students’ motivation
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