Abstract

The thesis presents a study of the relationship between Chinese EFL learners’ achievement motivation and their language proficiency. The subject of this study were 35 third year students from the faculty of foreign languages of University, and a questionnaire of achievement motivation was administered to these subjects. The correlation and regression analysis between subjects’ language proficiency and their scores of achievement motivation were conducted. The results showed that there do exist a significant relationship between the subjects' language proficiency and their achievement motivation. Moreover, the present author offered some suggestions for cultivating and improving the students’ achievement motivation. It is hoped that the findings will enhance foreign language teachers’ understanding of their students’ achievement motivation and assist them to make the adjustments necessary for achieving their educational goals.

KEYWORDS:achievement motivation; English major students; strategies

摘  要

本文是中国英语学习者成就动机与语言水平关系的实验研究。研究对象是来自XX大学外语学院的35名学生。作者使用成就动机量表对被试的成就动机进行了测量。并对被试的语言水平和学习成绩进行了相关分析和回归分析。研究结果表明，被试者的成就动机和学习成绩之间存在显著的相关关系。另外，作者还提出了一些培养和提高学生成就动机的策略，目的是让这项研究有助于提高教育事业者对学生成就动机的理解，并且有助于他们对教育目标做一个必要的调整。

关键词:成就动机 ；英语专业学生; 策略

1. Introduction
The issue of students’ achievement motivation is often highlighted in academic literature and has always been a subject of much concern to parents, teachers and society in general. Motivation is the driving force behind our actions and affects our needs, desires and life ambition.  Achievement motivation is ones’ inner drive to achieve. Atkinson highlights the importance of motivation when he says “Motivation influence both efficiency in the execution of an activity (and there for the level of performance)，and persistence or more generally, the time spent in a particular endeavor.”.It can be inferred that if students’ are not motivated adequately they will not utilize their potentials to the optimum. Therefore, it is necessary for educator to be aware of their students’ achievement motivation and assisting them to make the adjustments necessary for achieving their educational goals.