An Empirical Study of English Learning Attitude and Motivation of Ethnic Minority University Undergraduates from Yunnan Province, China 英语论文.doc

An Empirical Study of English Learning Attitude and Motivation of Ethnic Minority University Undergraduates from Yunnan Province, China Abstract： This research adopted empirical quantitative questionnaire survey and studied English learning attitude/motivation and their relationships with English achievement of ethnic minority students in Yunnan, China. The participants were 837 ethnic minority students from two universities in Yunnan province, southwest China. The questionnaire, adapted from SLA Batteries of Gardner/Lambert (1972), consisted of 63 items concerning why to learn English. First, we treated the collected data with SPSS factor analysis and descriptive statistics in order to explore the most important types of attitude and motivation and eight types of attitudes and motivations emerged. The order of the eight attitudinal and motivational types was arranged from the highest mean value to the lowest as follows: study intensity, extrinsic motivation, parents’ expectation, teaching factors, intrinsic motivation, integrative motivation, attitude to English native speakers and study anxiety. Second, Spearman Correlation indicated that the self- evaluated English achievement was positively and significantly correlated in order with integrative motivation and intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Key words: attitude, motivation, English achievement, ethnic minority university students 1． Introduction 1.1 The Background of The Study The socio-cognitive model, also called the instrument model and integrative model, is initially put forward by Gardner/Lambert (1972). The intrinsic and extrinsic model is proposed by Deci and Ryan (1995, 2006) while the theory of FLL motivation is set up by Dornyei (1990, 2005). Noels and her colleagues (2001) introduce a new interpretation: a comprehensive model of SLA/FLL motivation (intrinsic/extrinsic/integrative orientation and motivation). Gao et al. (2003) hold that the empirical studies concerning FLL motivation in