| The first-year experience in college is crucial for subsequent academic development(Harvey et al.,2006),and it has previously been noted that first-year language students at universities appear to undergo considerable motivational changes(Bavendiek,2008).Though the study on motivation has already been regarded as an essential field in Second Language Acquisition study,little attention has been paid to the dynamic nature of the construct.In 2005,Dornyei proposed L2 Motivation Self System,a motivation classification system which divides motivation from the language,learner and learning situation perspectives into Ideal L2 Self,Ought-to L2 Self and L2 Learning Experience.Since then,this model has become the most influential one in this century with excellent vitality.Based on Dornyei’s L2 Motivational Self System,this study explores the motivational fluctuation among the freshmen.The research participants are 258 first-year non-English majors enrolled in a tier one university in Hubei province.This paper explores following three questions:1.Are there differences among the variables in freshmen’s L2 Motivation Self System during the initial year?2.What is the relationship between students’ L2 Motivation Self System and Intended Effort in learning English?Is there any change over time?3.What changes do female and male learners’ L2 Motivation Self System demonstrate over time?A longitudinal mixed-method approach was employed in the present study.The questionnaire,adapted from the one created and used by Taguchi,Magid,and Papi(2009),which has high reliability and validity,was administered twice at the beginning and the end of the semester(after 12 weeks).The collected data were analyzed by SPSS 17.0.The descriptive statistics demonstrated the general features of participants L2MSS;the paired sample t test was used to compare overall students’motivation as well as girls and boys’motivation in separation at two times;the pearson correlation and multiple regression were used to explore which component predicts students’ motivated learning behavior best at two times.At the end of the semester,the semi-structured interviews were conducted among 20 students.Major findings of the present study are as follows:1)freshmen’s L2 Motivation Self System has undergone significant changes during the first semester.Though the Ideal L2 Self was stable during the semester without significant development,the related variables,i.e.Cultural interests and Attitude toward L2 community have improved significantly.Besides,the Ought-to L2 Self and L2 Learning Experience all increased significantly.2)students’ learning efforts were regulated by their L2MSS,and the prominent predictors of motivational behaviors changed with time from L2 Learning Experience,Instrumentality-promotion,and Cultural interests to L2 Learning Experience,Ought-to L2 Self and Attitude towards the L2 community.3)during the first semester,both males and females’ Ideal L2 Self showed no significant change,and the value for females was higher than their male counterparts all the time.In contrast,male learners and female learners all presented the significant development in their Ought-to L2 Self and the related variables like Instrumentality-prevention and Parental expectation,and the value for female learners was lower than that of the male learners.Moreover,though the girls in this study reported a higher level of L2 Learning Experience than boys,it was found that boys experienced a significant improvement in their perception of the learning environment and experiences.The results above justified that learners’ motivation is in the dynamic process of changing.Then,sufficient discussions on the results,including the reflections on the theoretical foundation and the real-life reasons,are presented.And the author also acknowledges some pedagogical implications of the current research and shows some suggestions for further research at the end of the thesis. |
