Motivation And English Writing Proficiency Among Senior High School Students

Learning motivation plays a very important part in students’studies, and it is one of the most important dynamic factors for foreign language learners. The new English curriculum puts great emphasis on students’affection goal. It requires teachers to stimulate students’learning interest and turn it into stable learning motivation. The mail subjects of English learning motivation are college students in China and we lack the investigation on senior high school students. Besides, many students lack English learning motivation in our school, and they don’t like writing English compositions. So it’s urgent to cultivate and arouse students’ learning motivation.Learning motivation can be divided into intrinsic and extrinsic ones. Intrinsic motivation includes interest, self-efficacy and attribution, and extrinsic motivation includes learning situation, practical value, praise or punishment.The author has designed a survey based on motivational theories in behaviorism, cognitive psychology and humanistic view. In order to investigate the different effects of the six factors in learning motivation on students’studies and the relationship between students’learning motivation and their writing proficiency, the author has conducted the survey on102senior two students of two classes in Huangpi NO.3High School through questionnaires, observation and interviews. The questionnaire is modified on the basis of Gao Yihong’s questionnaire and the reality of the local students. The results of the study are summed up as follows:(1) Interest is the most important factor influencing students’ learning in intrinsic motivation, followed by attribution and self-efficacy. Practical value is the most important factor influencing students’learning in extrinsic motivation, followed by learning situation, praise or punishment.(2) There is a positive correlation between learning motivation and English writing proficiency. Interest and self-efficacy are more significantly related with English writing proficiency than other factors. Moreover, attribution, learning situation also influence English writing proficiency, which is least affected by practical value and praise or punishment. Overall, intrinsic motivation has a bigger effect on writing proficiency than extrinsic motivation.In the end, the author analyzes potential causes of the results and proposes some tactics to stimulate learning motivation and improve writing proficiency. For example, reforming the old educational contents and methods, guiding students to attribute positively and increase self-efficacy, timely feedback and assessing properly students’ learning, building a good learning environment and harmonious relationship between teachers and students. This thesis has some limitations. However, the survey is based on both theory and practice, and it may offer some implications for teachers and students.