Vocational School Students’ Motivation In EFL Learning: Current Situation And Suggested Remedies

With the development of the teaching of English as a foreign language(EFL) in the secondary vocational school(SVS), the importance of motivation has been recognized by increasingly more EFL teachers. Up to now, however, many teachers have problems in the understanding and manipulation of students’ motivation in EFL learning. Meanwhile, with the growth of second language teaching research, scholars in the field of SVS EFL teaching research have been paying increasingly more attention to the study of students’ motivation in EFL learning. Studies so far are however handicapped by inadequacies in the coverage of the different aspects of motivation and in the application of appropriate methodologies. In view of the problems in the understanding and manipulation of students’ motivation in SVS EFL teaching practice and of the weaknesses in SVS EFL teaching research, and through an integrated methodology combining empirical and theoretical methods, this study attempts to conduct a systematic survey of the current situation of SVS students’ motivation in EFL learning and propose a system of strategies for manipulating and enhancing students’ motivation.Empirically, this study makes a questionnaire survey of the current situation of SVS students’ motivation factors(i.e., learning attitude, enthusiasm, and degree of satisfaction) in EFL learning in terms of the differences among the students of different genders, schools, grades, and specialties, and in terms of the factors that affect their learning motivation, taking as its subjects of study 392 male and female students from different grades and specialties of four SVSs in China, employing a self-designed motivation questionnaire as the main tool of data collection, and utilizing SPSS16.0 as tool of data analysis. Results generated from the analysis of data reveal(1) that, though students of different genders do not differ significantly in their EFL learning motivation, students of different schools, grades and specialties do differ considerably in their motivation in EFL learning, and(2) that students of different schools, grades and specialties and with different levels of motivation also differ in the types of factors affecting motivation, including the types of self-awareness, sources of motivation, learning objectives, learning interests, favorite learning methods or styles, learning obstacles, learning attributions and favorite teachers, with better motivated students receiving influences from more positive types within each set of factors.Theoretically, in the light of contemporary systemic thinking and some salient theories of motivation in second language learning, and on the basis of the findings of the above empirical survey of the current situation of SVS students’ motivation in EFL learning, this study proposes a system of strategies that can be adapted and applied by SVS administrators, teachers and even students themselves for manipulating and enhancing students’ EFL learning motivation. The postulated system of strategies consists of two components, i.e.,(1) a systemic meta-strategy, or strategy for manipulating strategies, which is used to systemically conceptualize, organize, revise and enrich the set of operational strategies in the second component, and(2) a set of operational strategies to be selected, modified, extended and flexibly applied to motivation management and enhancement, which at least include the strategies of stimulating students’ interest in learning English, training students’ strategies for learning English, reforming teachers’ teaching methods or styles, fostering a broader view of English learning in the students, selecting the most appropriate teaching materials, and enhancing the overall competence of teachers.This study may contribute to EFL teaching and learning in SVSs both practically and academically. In terms of educational practice, it may hopefully help to enhance administrators’ and teachers’ understanding and improvement of the present situation of SVS students’ EFL learning motivation. In terms of teaching research, this study may hopefully help to broaden the scope of SVS students’ EFL learning motivation studies.