A Survey Study On The Correlation Between English Learning Motivation And English Learning Strategies Of Non-English Major Postgraduates

In the last few decades, there appeared a nation-wide English rush in China, which caused the traditional "teacher-centered" class shifted to a "student-centered" one. Thus, many researches began to show concern for individual learners" factors, among which learning motivation and learning strategies attracted researchers' much attention. Based on this background, a lot of researches have been conducted to study on these two factors respectively both home and abroad, either in the aspects of theory or the empirical exploration. However, there is still a blank for the research on the correlation between the two among the non-English major postgraduates. Therefore, based on the related theories and through questionnaire investigation researches of the general situation of English learning motivation and English learning strategies of the non-English major postgraduates, this thesis aims at exploring the deep correlation between the two and establishing a linear regression model between the them, with an expectation of putting forward some feasible suggestions for improving English teaching and learning.The thesis is composed of six parts. Opening with an Introduction, the thesis provides the purposes and significance of the study. In Chapter Two. literature review is made in aspects of definitions, classifications and other main theories. Chapter Three introduces the research methodology. Through investigating part of non-English major postgraduates of Shandong University at Weihai, the data were collected and processed through SPSS 17.0. After analysis and discussion in Chapter Four, several aspects of findings are offered by the present study:1) Non-English major postgraduates have a comparatively strong motivation and are likely to employ different kinds of learning strategies for English learning. Among them, instrumental motivation plays the leading role and compensation strategies are most frequently employed.2) There is a significantly positive correlation between English learning motivation and strategies. besides, students who are highly motivated employ learning strategies much more frequently.3) A regression model is established through simple linear regression, that is, Y=26.591+1.125X (X=English learning motivation, Y=English learning strategies). Then, in Chapter Five, some implications and recommendations are drawn from the results suggesting that both English teachers and students should improve themselves from different angels. Finally, Chapter Six Conclusion sums up the major findings of this thesis. Meanwhile, limitations are also found in order to put forward suggestions for future research.To sum up, knowing about the correlation between English learning motivation and English learning strategies, teachers can improve their teaching methods and strategies in order to inspire the students' learning motivation. In this way, English teaching will get better results.