The Relationship Between Motivation and Achievement

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English Language Teaching March, 2009 The Relationship between Motivation and Achievement ——A Survey of the Study Motivation of English Majors in Qingdao Agricultural University Peipei Li & Guirong Pan Foreign Languages School Qingdao Agricultural University Qingdao 266109, China Tel: 86-532-8608-0418 E-mail: Willa@qau.edu.cn Abstract The survey conducted in Qingdao Agricultural University reveals the relationship between motivation and achievement as follows: instrumental motivation influences both high achievers and low achiever; while high achievers have greater integrative motivation than lower ones; Interest plays an extremely important role in study and high achievers have a strong sense of achievement. Keywords: Motivation, Interest, English Learning 1. Introduction Among the factors influencing students’ learning, motivation is thought to be a very important reason for different achievement. Qin Xiaoqing (2002) says that motivation is a very important factor which determines the success or failure in second language learning, for motivation can directly influence the frequency of using learning strategies, willpower of learning, goal setting, and the persistence in learning. Qin (2003) also says that learning motivation influences the learners’ autonomous learning ability, and determines the learners’ confidence in overcoming learning difficulty. These theories on motivation demonstrate that motivation, as one of the crucial factors determining the success in language learning, attracts much attention of the researchers. Theorists define motivation differently, which reveals the difficulty of describing it in clear and simple terms. Motivation is commonly thought as an inner state of need or desire that activates an individual to do something to satisfy them. Motivation is typically defined as the forces that account for the
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