A Case Study On Students' English Learning Motivation In High School From The Perspective Of Directed Motivational Currents

Learning motivation is an important research field of second language acquisition,which has experienced four developmental stages: the social psychological period,the cognitive-situated period,the process-oriented period and the social dynamic period.Since the 21 st century,the introduction of nonlinear system dynamics has provided a new perspective for research on learning motivation.As the latest research achievement in the field of second language learning motivation,Directed Motivational Currents has taken the step of connecting the specific learning goals with individual motivational behavior over time with the purpose to explore how to stimulate and maintain high-level motivation.It is of great theoretical and practical significance to apply this frontier theory of motivation to the stage of high school education,which can not only expand the research perspective of motivation theories but also guide the classroom teaching work of front-line teachers.This study lasted for one semester(20 weeks),which conducted a qualitative investigation on three Senior Three students' English learning motivation based on the theory of Directed Motivational Currents.There are three specific research questions:(1)How does motivation change in a semester among high school students at different levels?(2)What factors that lead to the change of English learning motivation among high school students?(3)From the perspective of Directed Motivational Currents theory,how can English teachers help high school students improve their English learning motivation? According to the average scores of three examinations,students were divided into three groups: top group,middle group and bottom group,and one student was randomly selected from each group as the research object.The selected students were asked to keep reflective journals for 20 weeks.At the end of the semester,they were asked to draw the English learning motivation trajectories with 1 week as the research time scale.According to the change of motivation intensity in each key period,the research subjects were interviewed retrospectively.The findings of the study are as follows: Firstly,during the semester,the English learning motivation of students at different levels showed obvious individual characteristics,and that of the participant at middle level best matched the characteristics of Directed Motivational Currents.More specifically,the overall motivation of the high-level student kept relatively stable in the upper middle level with minimum fluctuations;the motivation of the middle-level student showed a wholly continuous upward trend and maintained a high level during the second half-semester;the motivation of the low-level student ranked last as a whole with salient fluctuations.Secondly,the factors that affected students' English learning motivation mainly came from three perspectives: subjective initiative(personal goal setting,individual learning routines,emotional loading),teachers' influence(teaching methods,teacher feedback)and academic environment(exam pressure,peer influence),which had different influences on students at different levels.Thirdly,based on the theory of Directed Motivational Currents,English teachers should be committed to helping students to set clear English learning goals,cultivating students' good learning habits,giving more positive feedback,and paying attention to student's state of mood in English learning to better stimulate and consolidate their English learning motivation.