A Survey on English Learning Motivation of Students in Qingdao Agricultural University

Abstract

—This article illustrates how the creation of the European Higher Education Area is subverting the traditional roles of students and teachers in tertiary language education. It portrays the shift which has been made from the previous teacher-directed, lecture-based system which has traditionally prevailed in European Higher Education to the present-day student-centered, meaning-based model. The new learning modalities and teacher and student roles to which the European Higher Education Area has given rise are all practically examined, using five pedagogical innovation projects as a backdrop. Evidence is then furnished by presenting the results of a qualitative study on the attitudes which student-centered learning is generating in the participating student body. A survey administered in June 2006, 2007, and 2008 to the regular participants in the pedagogical innovation projects yields very positive outcomes for a tertiary education system which is centered on the student and testifies to the progressive consolidation of the new credit system at the University of Jaé n in Spain.