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2.2.2 Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation ...4
2.3 Motivational Intensity .5
2.4 Main Theories of Motivation ...5
2.4.1 Gardner's Social-educational Model .5
2.4.2 Dörnyei's Three-level Framework 6
2.5 Previous Studies on Motivation ...7
2.5.1 Previous Researches on Motivation Abroad .7
2.5.2 Previous Researches on Motivation in China ..8
2.6 Significance of the Study ...8
3 Research Methodology .8
3.1 Research Questions ..8
3.2 Research Design ..9
3.2.1 Subjects .9
3.2.2 Questionnaire ...9
3.3 Data Collection and Data Analysis ...9
4 Results and Discussions ..10
4.1 Distribution of Motivation Types of Non-English Major Postgraduates ...10
4.2 Differences of Comparative Motivational Intensity Groups on Motivation Typ13
5 Conclusion and Implications 14
5.1 Major Findings in This Study 14
5.2 Implications for English Teaching and Learning ...15
5.3 Limitations in This Study and Suggestions for Future Study ...16
1 Introduction
1.1 Need for the Study
It has been universally considered that motivation is one of the key factors in success in developing second language (L2). Over the past decades, a considerable great many studies have been conducted to investigate motivation's nature and role in language learning process in terms of the crucial and major influence that it exerts on language acquisition.
Most motivation researches were initiated by Gardner and Lambert who laid the foundation for the theory of learning motivation. Later, Gardner (1985) identifies two major types of motivation, namely instrumental motivation and integrative motivation. Besides the theory, they put forward the social-education model of motivation and the Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) which further became the standardized assessment instrument.
However, the social-education model was mostly grounded on the social milieu rather than in the foreign language classroom. More and more researchers held that motivation depends greatly on the context, people involved and specific circumstance. Chinese scholars have not paid much attention to motivation research until the 1980s.
Although a lot of researches have been conducted, making great strides and achieving some achievements in this field, the research concerning motivation still has limitation. The survey about the relationship between motivation and motivational intensity and between inpidual factors and the types of motivation have not reached an agreement. There is a lot of space left for further researches and it is indispensable to make more analyses in China for the purpose of having an overall knowledge of the effect of motivational intensity on learners' EFL motivation. In addition, some analyses have led to inconsistent results. As an illustration, some studies display that motivation has great predictive power to learners' language proficiency while other studies do not. Besides, most of the previous Chinese studies of English learning motivation have been carried out among undergraduates, but only a few studies have focused on learners' learning motivation with the consideration of postgraduates. Compared to the undergraduates, the postgraduates are of a particular group with more clear-cut learning purpose, academic interest and even work experience.
Therefore, this study is undertaken for the following purposes: firstly, to make a classification of postgraduates' motivation types; secondly, to find out the difference of motivational intensity among motivation types; finally, to benefit English teachers and English learners in their practice. For English teachers, this study can help them to identify the learners' motivation and adjust their teaching methods to arouse learners' motivation in class and provide them possible ways to foster learners' motivation; For English learners, it can benefit them in understanding their motivation types better and improve their English learning efficiency. In order to fulfill these purposes, a survey was conducted to investigate their motivation and motivational intensity.