| Although second language acquisition(SLA)concerned the learning of any additional languages,previous studies tended to focus on English learning motivation,paying much less attention on the motivation of learning languages other than English(LOTEs).Such an imbalance between English and LOTEs in motivation research raised the question of whether the motivation theory that has been based on English can be adequate to account for the motivation for learning LOTEs.In addition,among the scarcity of studies on language learners’ LOTE motivation,most were carried out in Europe and the United States.In China,where the government has been promoting the learning and teaching of LOTEs in recent years,the language learners’ motivation for learning additional foreign languages has been underrepresented.Therefore,this study aimed to investigate the English majors’ motivation to learn LOTEs in Chinese universities and the factors influencing their motivation.Adopting D?rnyei’s(2005)L2 Motivational Self System as the theoretical framework,the present study attempted to answer the following research questions: 1)What are the motivational profiles of Chinese English major students learning LOTEs?2)What are the factors that influence these students’ motivation for learning LOTEs?3)How are these students’ motivations related to their LOTE learning behaviors?Participants in this study were second-year and third-year English majors studying LOTEs as their third language(L3)at two universities in eastern China.The compulsory LOTE courses are part of their degree programs.The study mainly adapted the validated questionnaire developed by Taguchi,Magid and Papi(2009)and collected 203 valid copies to examine the motivational profiles of these LOTE learners.Based on the quantitative data,12 students were chosen for semi-structured interview and elicited metaphor analysis to facilitate better understanding of their LOTE motivation and to explore the factors influencing their language learning motivation.Analysis on the questionnaire data showed that the ideal LOTE self,LOTE learning experience,multilingual posture,cultural interest,instrumentality-promotion and instrumentality-prevention were at high levels while the ought-to self was at a medium level.When comparing the grade difference,it was found that the second-year English majors have stronger ought-to LOTE selves and put more effort in LOTE learning than the third-year students.Besides,the English majors who chose Japanese as their L3 showed a higher level of cultural interest than the students who took European languages(German,French,and Spanish).The qualitative data indicated that the English majors’ motivation to choose a specific LOTE and to learn the LOTE was under the influence of pedagogical context and the broader social context.The pedagogical context involved the course requirement,LOTE teachers,classmates,and the immediate learning experience.The social context consisted of learners’ interest on the LOTE-related culture,their connection with the target language communities,and the status of global English.Multiple regression analysis on the quantitative data revealed that the LOTE learning experience,instrumentality-promotion and ideal LOTE self were the significant predictors of the English majors’ motivated learning behaviors.Among these three determining factors,LOTE learning experience explained the largest percentage of variance,followed by instrumentality-promotion and ideal LOTE self.Based on these findings,the study concluded that language learning experience could be laid more emphasis on as it was found to be the strongest predictor of motivated learning behaviors.Moreover,it might be worthwhile to take contextual environment into consideration when exploring the complexity of Chinese English majors’ motivation to learn an LOTE.This study also provided some empirical evidence to support the validity of L2 MSS in understanding English majors’ LOTE learning motivation in Chinese context. |
