A Survey Of Learning Motivation Of Junior High School English Underachievers

Learning motivation is one of the most important factors affecting students’learning of foreign languages.The new English syllabus emphasizes the cultivation of students’ learning motivation.Especially for junior high school English underachievers,the ways to motivate them has been a common concern among experts,teachers and parents.Almost every school has a number of English underachievers in different classes.Poor academic performance not only makes them lose a lot of learning and further development opportunities,but also to a certain extent affects their physical and psychological health.This thesis uses literature search,questionnaire survey,case study and other methods to study the classifications and theories of English learning motivation systematically,and makes a survey on English learning motivation among some junior students of a school in Nanjing Qixia District by questionnaires.On the basis of predecessors’ research,this thesis comprehensively searches and collects materials about the learning motivation of junior high school English learners at home and abroad to understand the history and development of the study,to master the most advanced theories and to make accurate reorganization and analysis of related literature,which provide theoretical support for this research.This thesis is intended to address three questions:1.What are the differences of the learning motivation between underachievers,top students and average students?2.What are the differences of the attribution style between underachievers,top students and average students?3.What is the key period,direct cause and fundamental reason that lead to junior high school underachievers in English learning?In view of all the research issues,the author edited an effective questionnaire on the basis of others’ work to do the survey among nearly 800 students in a junior high school in Qixia District.Then,through the analysis of the data obtained from the questionnaires,the author tried to obtain the present situation of learning motivation and attribution style of junior high school English learners.Next,by comparing the differences between underachievers,top students and average students,the author tried to find out the main reasons that lead to the formation of junior high school underachievers in English learning.Finally,combined with the results of the questionnaire statistic analysis and comparison,the author made an outline of some specific and detailed questions needing further studying,and interviewed some of the underachievers one by one in order to get some more comprehensive and deeper understanding of what they meet and how they feel during their English learning process.Hopefully,we can find out some common and personal reasons behind those underachievers’ bad English performance,so as to work out some practical ways to help them.The main findings of this study are:1.There are significant differences in some factors of the learning motivation like hobbies,personal development and self-cognition between underachievers,top students and average students,while there are no significant differences in external environment and sense of personal achievement.2.There are significant differences in attribution way between underachievers,top students and average students.Underachievers tend to attribute the failure of English learning to some stable or uncontrollable external factors such as task difficulty and bad luck,while top students often attribute to unstable and controllable internal factors like efforts.3.The key period that leads to the formation of junior high school underachievers in English learning is the last two or three years in primary school.The direct cause lies in English words,and the fundamental reason is the lack of"three forces":Lack of motivation,they are not interested in English;Lack of pressure,they don’t care about the result of their study;Lack of perseverance,they will give up easily after working hard for a short period of time if there is no much progress.At the end of the thesis,the author put forward some methods to stimulate the learning motivation of the underachievers and improve their attribution style according to the research results.Also the author provided some specific measures to transform the underachievers.1.Explore vocabulary teaching methods to help underachievers remove the obstacles to memorizing words.2.Teach students in different levels and feedback timely to help the underachievers build confidence.3.Cultivate some good learning qualities of the underachievers.