Motivation and strategies to learn English: The case of pre-service teachers of Chinese

This paper reports a study of motivation and strategies toward learning English used by preservice teachers of Chinese. The aims of the study were to investigate whether pre-service teachers of Chinese are unmotivated to learn English if they are not going to use English substantially in the future and to examine the learning strategies the participants adopt during English lessons. Gardner’s (1985) Attitude/Motivation Test Battery was modified and administered to elicit pre-service Chinese language teachers’ motivational orientation to learn English, their preferences and needs to learn English, as well as their learning strategies in learning English. Findings from this study pose significant implications to current educational reform in China and may help educators to identify appropriate strategies to facilitate the learning of a second language by non-English major teachers. Copyright © 2007 Asian ESP Journal.