An Investigation into the Relationship between Non-English Majors’ EFL Motivations and Their Autonomy in English Learning

【作者】 刘宏刚；

【导师】 卓新贤；

【作者基本信息】 西南石油学院 ， 外国语言学及应用语言学， 2005， 硕士

【摘要】 自20世纪80年代Holec将自主学习（Learner autonomy）概念引入外语教育领域以来,国内外学者围绕这一新兴课题进行了大量卓有成效的研究。但是这些研究主要集中在自主学习概念界定及其理论基础的剖析和怎样培养学生自主学习能力这三个方面,而个体差异与自主学习的相关性研究,特别是学习动机与自主学习的相关性研究还不是很多。在为数不多的文章/著作中,国外学者讨论的焦点是从理论上论述动机和自主孰先孰后（即,是动机决定自主还是自主决定动机）的问题,而没有进行二者相关性的实证研究。国内目前尚没有专门针对动机和自主相关性的研究。 本研究尝试将英语学习动机作为影响自主性英语学习能力的一个因素,采用定量与定性分析相结合的方法,通过对来自沈阳航空工业学院和西南石油学院的471名大学二年级本科生进行的“非英语专业大学生英语学习动机与自主性英语学习能力相关性调查”来探究学习者英语学习动机与自主性英语学习能力的关系。 本研究涉及如下主要问题: 1.非英语专业大学本科生的英语学习动机和自主性英语学习能力之间总体上是否具有相关性?如果有,二者之间的相关情况如何?原因何在? 2.不同类型的英语学习动机与自主性英语学习能力之间的相关性如何?原因何在? 通过SPSS 11.5社会统计学软件包将问卷的结果进行了Pearson相关分析,得出以下结论:第一,学习动机与自主性英语学习能力之间总体上呈显著正相关(r=.395^**);第二,情境型动机与自主性英语学习能力之间没有显著相关（r=.054,p=.263）;第三,工具型动机和文化型动机与自主性英语学习能力分别呈显著正相关(r=.394^**和414^**);第四,内在兴趣动机、社会责任动机、出国动机、成绩动机以及信息媒介动机与自主性英语学习能力均呈显著的正相关(r=.513^**,239^**,187^**,400^**,288^**);第五,文化型动机与自主性英语学习能力的相关性(r=.414^**)要强于工具型动机和情境型动机与自主性英语学习能力之间的相关性。在所有的子动机中,内在兴趣动机与自主性英语学习能力的相关性最强更多还原

【Abstract】 Since Holec imported the concept "Learner autonomy" (LA) to the foreign language education in the 1980’s, researchers home and abroad have conducted lots of studies of LA. But the main foci of these studies lie in (1) the definition of LA; (2) analysis of the theoretical basis of LA and (3) ways to foster learners’ LA. There are few studies of the relationship between motivation and LA. The perspectives of these studies narrow down to one issue: which comes first between them? Up till now, there have been no special quantitative studies of the relationship between motivation and LA.Taking EFL motivation1 as one influential variable on LA, this present study tries to probe into the relationship between EFL motivations and LA by conducting the Investigation into Non-English Majors’ EFL Motivations and their Autonomy in English Learning with the adoption of quantitative and qualitative approaches. This study involved 471 second-year non-English majors from Shenyang Institute of Aeronautical Engineering (SIAE) and Southwest Petroleum Institute (SWPI).The following two questions are addressed in this study:1. Are there any correlations between non-English majors’ EFL motivations and their AEL~2?2. If yes,1) How much and to what extent motivation correlates with AEL in general? Why?2) How much and to what extent the sub-motivations correlate with AEL respectively? Why?With the aid of SPSS 11.5 (Statistic Package for Social Science 11.5) on data processing, Pearson correlation analysis was performed and the five main findings were addressed. Firstly, there is a positive correlation at the significant level (.000)between motivation and AEL in general (r=.395**3). Secondly, there is no significant correlation (because the significance.263 is above .05) between motivation of learning situation and AEL with r=.O54. Thirdly, there exists a positive correlation at the significant level (.000) between (A) instrumental motivation and AEL and (B) cultural motivation and AEL with r=.394** and r=.414** respectively. Fourthly, there are positive correlations between AEL and (A) motivation of intrinsic interest (r=.513**); (B) motivation of social responsibility (r=.239**); (C) motivation of going abroad (r=.187**); (D) motivation of individual development (r=.264**); (E) motivation of immediate achievement (r=.400**) and (F) motivation of information medium (r=.288**) respectively. Finally, compared with motivation of learning situation and instrumental motivation, cultural motivation holds much higher correlation with AEL (r=.414**). Motivation of intrinsic interests, among all the sub-motivations, correlates with AEL (r=.513**) much more closely.Quantitative analysis (analyzing questionnaire results) and qualitative analysis (analyzing interview results) were conducted to interpret the correlations between motivations and AEL. And then, it suggests that AEL can be promoted by means of triggering their motivation of intrinsic interests, facilitating the transfer from instrumental motivation to the motivation of intrinsic interest and creating the supportive environment to cultivate students’ motivation of learning situation. In the end, the limitations of this present study are summarized and the recommendations for the future studies on the similar topic are proposed.更多还原