Abstract

This paper attempts to investigate the relationship between Taiwanese college students’ motivation and their English performance on three Taiwanese popular tests, including College Entrance Exam (CEE), General English Proficiency Test (GEPT), and National English Test in Proficiency for All on the Web (NETPAW). Participants were 36 college freshmen in a private university in south Taiwan. In addition to their English scores from CEE (2011), all subjects took a similar test of GEPT and NETPAW in September the same year, and filled out a questionnaire dealing with their English learning motivation (Gardner, 1985). All available data were processed by SPSS for descriptive and predictive analyses. Findings showed that students’ English scores of CEE, GEPT and NETPAW were strongly correlated to one another, and their motivational intensity was predictable of their GEPT and NETPAW scores. The finding was expected to provide more understanding for English teachers to take students’ individual differences into consideration when designing curriculum, instruction, evaluation, and to help develop favorable English learning behaviors, particularly, motivational intensity.