The Correlation Between English—learning Motivation and Identity Construction

谢科

Xie Ke，English major，school of foreign languages and literature，Wuhan University

Abstract： This paper presents the results of a small-scale study of correlation between English-learning motivation and identity construction.We designed a questionnaire that includes 24 questions and put in on the Internet.The assignment for me is to figure out the correlation between English-learning motivation and identity construction，which is the emphasis of this paper.The conclusion is People who are more motivated to learn English are more possible to get identity construction，whereas the correlation between them are not so obvious.

Key words： correlation，English learning，identity construction.

Introduction

With the sweeping globalization，English in China has been playing a greater role in numerous fields like economy，culture，education and technology （Hu.2008） and consequently an astronomical number of learners have made efforts to acquire the language.Given this grand magnitude，the nature of identities and motivation of those learners has attracted wide interest of Chinese English educators （Norton and Gao，2008）.Questions are asked as follows： is there any correlation between L2 learners motivation and their identity construction？ If so，how is that correlation？

Methodology

The research is made by a professor and three English-majored students from school of foreign language and literature department of Wuhan university.It is the professor who provided the topic which is “the correlation between English-learning and identity construction”.The authors main assignment is to research and analyze the correlation between English-learning motivation and identity construction，therefore，this paper will mainly concern about this part.We have designed many questions to make data analysis.The questions are set to tackle with two main questions.First，we employ those questions to analyze the relationship between English-learning motivation and English-learning purpose.Secondly we hope to figure out the correlation between English-learning motivation and identity construction.The participants of the study are all kinds of English learners，and the major method to obtain the replies of those questions is issuing questionnaires on the Internet.Eventually it took 2 days for us to select the 120 valid questionnaires.

Findings and discussion

The first step is to figure out the relationship between English-learning motivation and English-learning purpose.To some extent，different purposes indicate different degree of motivation.Motivation is very abstract，so we addressed the two questions which can embody motivation： how often do you proactively talk to foreigners？ And how often do you use English everyday？ We estimate that it is learning English for tests and for overseas study that indicate the greatest English-learning motivation，and the other two purposes indicate the lower degree English-learning motivation.endprint

According to the information from the chart，71% people whose English-learning purpose is for overseas study always or often choose to proactively talk to foreigners，so does the 81% people whose English-learning purpose is for interest.On the contrary，as to the other two purposes，the proportions are both less than 50%.Therefore，we prove that the purposes，for overseas study and for interest，are more likely to indicate the greater English-learning motivation.

From the chart，we observe that 51% people whose English-learning purpose is for overseas study always or often have westernized conducts in their daily life like interrupting teachers to show their own ideas，so dose the 54% people whose English-learning purpose is for interest.As to the other purposes，we observe that the proportions are both between 40% and 50%，which presents not so much difference.Also，66% people whose English-learning purpose is for overseas study are more likely to use English in their daily life，so dose the 83% people whose English-learning purpose is for interest.However，the proportions of the other two purposes are both less than 50%.Whats more，as for the feedbacks of the last question，“how much do you agree to the western social ethics and values presented in the western movies and TV dramas？” we even cannot find the difference among the factors.

Conclusion

In conclusion，people who are more motivated to learn English are more possible to get identity construction.However，the correlation between them is not so obvious，especially when the topic is about the western social ethics and values.That is to say，English-learning motivation effects identity construction just in some aspects，but when it comes to the social ethics and values，it would not be easy for people to totally accept them.endprint