An Investigation and Analysis of Attribution Preference and Gender Difference of Non-English Majors‟ English Learning—Based on Investigation of Non-English Majors in Tianjin Polytechnic University

Abstract

Abstract-This paper investigates 97 non-English majors' attribution preference of their English learning (including 52 female students and 45 male students) by using Weiner's attribution theory. All of the participants are from the Tianjin Polytechnic University (TJPU). According to the data, this paper discusses and analyses the new trends and features between the gender difference and students' attribution preference of their English learning. The results show that the female and male students' attribution preference are basically correct and reasonable and tend to be the same, but some problems still exist. Index Terms-English learning, attribution preference, gender difference I. INTRODUCTIONAttribution theory, as one of the new research topics in the contemporary psychology, is widely applied in the education, management and clinical practice in recent years. It can provide the theoretical basis to explain and infer people"s actions and the causality of activities. From the perspective of the foreign language education, the scholars in China have studied it in the following three aspects: (1). the research of students" self-attribution. (2). the research of the attribution training. (3). the attribution research of teachers" teaching. However, it is rare now that the study of attribution preference of male and female students (Zhang, 2007). This paper focuses on studying the attribution preference in non-English majors" English learning and whether gender differences exist between male and female students or not, which can offer the real and accurate information for teachers and the teaching practice, so that students" English learning can be improved effectively. II. LITERATURE REVIEW A. Attribution TheoryIt is very important for learners to explain his/her successes or failures about his/her learning from the cognitive point of view. This is because the learners" motivation of learning the similar things can be decided to some extent by how s/he gave the attribution explanation about his/her former results of learning. Attribution refers to people always attribute their successes or failures, perceived by themselves, to some certain reasons. In seeking to understand better the ways in which people make sense of events in their lives, the social psychologist Fritz Heider began to develop in the 1940s and 50s what he termed a "naive" psychology of the layperson (Heider, 1944(Heider, , 1958. A central aspect of Heider"s theory was that it was how people perceived events rather than the events in themselves that influenced behavior. When required to give reasons for the outcomes of events or the behaviors, Heider suggested that people would tend to refer to a limited range of internal (personal) and external (environmental) factors. Psychologist Bernard Weiner drew together Heider"s view of attribution and the theory of control, and he proposed his own influential version of attribution theory in 1970s

Attribution Theory, Personality Traits, and Gender Differences among EFL Learners

“…The results showed that the difference between means of these two groups was not significant in any of the attribution sub-constructs in this study. These results confirmed some other researchers (e.g., Martin, Kovac & Hryshko, 1989;Travis, Phillippi & Henley, 1991;Wu, 2011) ideas about lack of gender differences between male and female students in their attributions for their success and failures in learning English as a foreign language. According to Hyde (2005), men and women are quite similar in most psychological variables.…”

“…Takahashi (2003) investigated the relationship between reading proficiency level of university students and their attribution. Wu (2011) studied attributional preferences of English learning among students studying in non-English majors. Lim (2007) conducted a research on the effects of attributions and task values on foreign language use anxiety.…”

Successful language learning in a corporate setting: The role of attribution theory and its relation to intrinsic and extrinsic motivation

“…Still, within the field of educational motivation, and most precisely in the context of foreign language (L2) learning, attribution theory (AT) has not received sufficient attention. A few studies have explored the attributions to success and failure of foreign language students from a qualitative approach (e.g., Gabillon, 2013;Gonzalez, 2011;Williams & Burden, 1997Williams, Burden, & Al-Baharna, 2001;Williams, Burden, & Lanvers, 2002;Williams, Burden, Poulet, & Maun, 2004;Yan & Li, 2008), while a few others have attempted to measure these attributions quantitatively by using questionnaires that were not always properly designed, piloted and statistically validated to be fit for the study (Gobel & Mori, 2007;Ishikawa, Negi, & Tajima, 2011;Pishghadam & Modarresi, 2008;Pishghadam & Zabihi, 2011;Wu, 2011).…”

A Study of College Students’ English Autonomous Learning in the Network Environment

“…Under the network teaching environment, English autonomous learning is beneficial to the cultivation of the students' learning and language abilities, but students have difficulties in using the network for autonomous learning. They don't know how to choose material from huge database; they seldom use effective learning strategies, and they cannot monitor their learning process and evaluate their learning efficiency [1].…”

“…However, according to the study of Wu [1] in a survey of college students' autonomous learning ability, college students in China are weak in autonomous learning and they don't know how to learn and how to improve the ability of autonomous learning. Also quite a lot of college students are not able to make use of the powerful online learning resources.…”