An Applied Study Of The ARCS Model In English Teaching For Grade Four Students In Primary School

As is known to all,learning motivation and interest are the important factors that affect English teaching and learning effect in primary school.However,not all the primary school students learn English with high motivation and strong interest,so finding a teaching model or some teaching methods to improve young learners’ learning motivation becomes the concern of primary school English teachers and researchers.The ARCS Model is such kind of teaching model that can be applied into instruction to cultivate and sustain young learners’ English learning motivation after the author read some related literature.According to professor John Keller,four major factors influence students’ motivation,namely,attention,relevance,confidence and satisfaction,which are short for the ARCS Model.The main idea of this model is that,in order to stimulate students’ learning motivation,students should arouse their attention and interest in each lesson at first.Secondly,teachers help students understand the learning content of each lesson is closely related to themselves.Thirdly,students should feel that they have the ability to complete learning tasks of each lesson,thus they may generate confidence.Finally,teachers let the students feel satisfied after completing the learning task.The author of this paper applied the ARCS Model to English teaching for Grade 4 students in an attempt to improve their English learning motivation.After the three-month teaching intervention for 42 students,the author found that,students’ English learning motivation has improved significantly.Among the motivational factors mentioned in ARCS motivation model(attention factor,relevance factor,confidence factor and satisfaction factor),relevance factor and satisfaction factor are more significant in the improvement of students’ learning motivation.