A Study On The Reading Motivational Variables Of Undergraduates Of Non-English Majors In China

There have been rich researches on general English learning motivation, cognitive psycholinguists put forward that learners' attribution to success, self-efficacy, goal setting and differences in psychological need of obtaining achievement would result in different learning motivational types. Wigfield & Guthrie divide reading motivation into competence and efficacy, achievement value and goals, and social aspects of reading. And according to Day, materials and reading ability are related to the expectation of success/failure in reading in a second language.Thus, this thesis projects a small picture of non-English majors' motivation to read in foreign language. In the analysis of the collected data, SPSS12.0 is used. Factor Analysis, Correlational Analysis and Independent-Samples T Test are employed to examine learners' reading motivation.The findings are as follows: 1) Seven factors are extracted and further integrated into six by the author, and Intrinsic Value of Reading English, Attainment Value of Reading English, Interest in Cultures, Integrativeness, Grade-related Extrinsic Utility Value and Expectancy for Success are labeled to the factors respectively; 2) Intrinsic Value, Expectancy for Success, and Grade-related Extrinsic Utility Value are significantly correlated to learners' language reading proficiency; 3) gender is found to be significantly different in three variables, they are Intrinsic Value of Reading English, Integrativeness and Interest in Cultures; major is different in Intrinsic Value of Reading English, Attainment Value of Reading English, Interest in Cultures and Integrativeness.The author also put forwards several suggestions about teaching English reading in Chinese colleges.