An Empirical Study On The Art Undergraduates' English Learning Motivation

Motivation has been considered to be one of the most important affective variables influencing students' performance in foreign language learning. Much research has been conducted to introduce and explore the theory concerning motivation or empirically probe into its internal structure or try to reveal whether there is any relationship between motivation and students' English learning achievements. Only limited amount of studies have been carried out on art undergraduates, the majority of whom always have poor English foundation and do not show strong interest in learning English. To know the overall motivation situation of art undergraduates including motivation types and motivation intensity and to effectively arouse students' interest in English are the jobs that need to be done urgently.This investigation was carried out on the basis of theories and research in the motivation field. The motivation of art undergraduates and some important variables influencing their motivation in English learning and teaching classroom were studied with a combination of the quantitative and qualitative analysis. Some suggestions are put forward to teachers based on the resultant findings.By using SPSS17.0software (Statistical Package for the Social Science) and with the help of interviews, the results of this study are listed as follows:1) Art undergraduates have eight motivation types respectively named: individual development, intrinsic interest, going abroad, external requirements, social responsibility, learning situation, teacher's performance and achievement.2) According to the descriptive statistics of eight motivation types,"external requirements" gets the highest mean score (3.86), while the mean value of "social responsibility"(2.73) ranks last.3) According to the descriptive statistic of motivation intensity, the mean value of motivation intensity is30.48, which is slightly above the average, which implies although art undergraduates are mostly poor in English; they are willing to study English and make efforts to study it. However the motivation intensity is not strong enough to urge them study very hard or have great interest in it.4) According to the independent T-test of motivation of males and females, female art undergraduates have both strong integrative and instrumental motivation, while male art undergraduates are mainly motivated by instrumental motivation.5) Correlation analysis of subjects' motivation intensity and motivation types shows that all motivation types have correlation with motivation intensity (p<0.05) at the significant level except two motivation types including teacher's performance (p=0.06>0.05) and achievement (p=0.68>0.05).6) The questionnaire and the interview show that some important variables in English learning and teaching classroom including the influence of the textbook, teachers' influence on students' motivation and the influence of physical setting and students attitudes toward English class all affect art undergraduates'motivation and achievement.Based on these findings, a full understanding of the status quo of art undergraduates can be attained. Pointing at the motivation features of these students who are mostly motivated by external requirements and greatly affected by variables in English learning and teaching classroom, some useful suggestions are given to the English teachers from the perspectives of establishing harmonious teacher-student relationship, adopting effective teaching method, setting appropriate teacher role, stimulating art undergraduates' interest, choosing suitable teaching material and giving positive feedback. This study has a great significance in exploring the empirical motivation research of art undergraduates and puts forward useful classroom teaching strategies for English teachers.