The Influence Of English Majors’ Motivation Upon Their Learner Autonomy

In 2000, Ministry of Education formulated curriculum requirements for College EnglishMajors, in the hope of keeping up with the fasting developing pace of Chinese highereducation, which provided guidelines for universities and colleges. In the requirements, itclearly presents that universities and colleges should teach students to learn independently,which emphasizes on learners’autonomous learning ability. It further emphasizes theimportance of Learner Autonomy. Nowadays, job-hunting for CEMs is very difficult, solearning well in order to be outstanding is essential for them to find a satisfactory job.Besides, it requires the students to learn independently in college, thus, their LearnerAutonomy ability is badly needed to be improved. While, motivation as an important factorinfluencing Learner Autonomy, it gradually attracts much attention in the field of languageteaching.Since Henri Holec published Autonomy and Language Learning in 1981, introducingLearner Autonomy, which attracted many scholars to study on this concept. Since then, manyscholars have devoted themselves to promoting the study of Learner Autonomy. Motivationis also extensively discussed in the field of psychology and language teaching. Recent studiesfind that foreign language learning motivation has close relationship with learners’LearnerAutonomy. Scholars tend to study on the relationship between motivation and LearnerAutonomy, instead of studying only on one aspect, either motivation or Learner Autonomy.In the present research, the author applies the classification of motivations inSelf-determination Theory, which divides motivation into Intrinsic Motivation, ExtrinsicMotivation and Amotivation. This paper adopts the theory as the theoretical basis and intendsto explore the influence of CEMs’motivation upon their Learner Autonomy.In this empirical study, the author chooses 55 subjects of English majors in oneuniversity in Ji’nan, Shandong Province. The author also employs Self-determination Theoryas the theoretical basis of the research, chooses questionnaire as the research instrument inthe process of data collecting and also applies software SPSS17.0 to analyze the datacollected. The present research aims at examining the features of CEMs’Learner Autonomy,the features of CEMs’English learning motivation and to what degree, CEMs’Englishlearning motivation (IM-Knowledge, IM-Achievement, IM-Stimulation, External Regulation,Introjected Regulation, and Identified Regulation) influences their Learner Autonomy, orwhat’s the correlation between CEMs’English learning motivation (IM-Knowledge,IM-Achievement, IM-Stimulation, External Regulation, Introjected Regulation, andIdentified Regulation) and their Learner Autonomy. By analyzing the questionnaires, the author concludes that Intrinsic and ExtrinsicMotivation greatly influence CEMs’Learner Autonomy. In addition, the author also findsthat CEM’s Intrinsic Motivation influences much greater on their Learner Autonomy,comparing with CEM’s Extrinsic Motivation. Specific analysis of the correlation betweenindividual motivation and their Learner Autonomy reveals that CEM’s IM-Knowledge,IM-Achievement and IM-Stimulation influence their Learner Autonomy most. Finally, theauthor proposes three ways for college English teachers to foster CEM’s Learner Autonomyability, through meeting learners’interest or curiosity, effectively recognizing students inteaching activities, creating autonomous learning environment in order to promote theirIM-Knowledge, IM-Achievement and IM-Stimulation. Following theses three ways, Englishteachers can foster the students’Learner Autonomy and help them to lay solid foundation fortheir future study and future life. The author also proposes suggestions for CEMs. They canfoster their own Learner Autonomy ability through setting learning goals, buildingconfidence and learning to become autonomous learners. The present research furtherdevelops previous studies on motivation and Learner Autonomy and makes some progress incombing motivation and Learner Autonomy to improve language teaching practice andlanguage learning in college.Through the discussion and analysis of the influence of CEM’s motivation upon theirLearner Autonomy, the author tries to convey that how motivation, especially IntrinsicMotivation influences CEMs’Learner Autonomy. In order to foster students’LearnerAutonomy, their Intrinsic Motivation must be stimulated accordingly. The author intends toarouse college English teachers’attention to notice the importance of stimulating CEMs’Intrinsic Motivation in the teaching process. It is sincerely hoped that the present study cangive some clue and of any help for college English teaching program. The author also hopesthat the research can provide useful information for future studies on motivation and LearnerAutonomy.