| Motivation is a highly complex and multifaceted issue shaping one of the most crucial human characteristics.In other words,motivation is the changing arousal in an individual that instigates,terminates,and evaluates the cognitive processes in which primary desires and wishes can be prioritized and acted out.Therefore,in order to better promote students’ English learning,it is very necessary to understand students’ motivational tendency.The theory of second language motivational self-system(L2MSS)is the further development of the traditional research on language learning motivation,which breaks through the traditional view of motivation and thus has stronger persuasive and explanatory power.In recent years,many studies have been done to test the validity of L2MSS in different contexts.Besides,many researchers also tried to explore interrelationships between the L2MSS and other variables.Meanwhile,self-efficacy representing level of confidence in learning are often regarded as another important factor which can influence second language acquisition.Therefore,it would be interesting to explore the relationship between the L2MSS and self-efficacy.However,many as relevant studies on college students are,there is still a lack of research on high school students.To fill in this gap,this study was designed to investigate by means of quantitative methodology 1)the overall profile of high school students’ L2MSS and self-efficacy;2)the relationship between high school students’ L2MSS and self-efficacy;3)the relationship between high school students’ L2MSS and English academic achievement.In order to achieve the goals of the study,218 high school students were invited to fill the questionnaires.The quantitative data were processed and analyzed using Statistical Product and Service Solutions(SPSS)Chinese Version 19.0.Based on the analysis of the collected data,simple descriptive statistics,Pearson correlation analysis and regression analysis were used in this thesis.The major findings can be summarized as follows:1)Firstly,L2MSS of high school students is at a medium level,which means that students don’t have strong motivation to learn English.Besides,among the three dimensions of L2MSS,i.e.ideal L2 self,ought-to L2 self and L2 learning experience,the level of L2 learning experience is the highest,which means that most of students have a positive attitude towards English learning owing to their past learning experience.Secondly,the result shows that students’ self-efficacy is at a medium level,indicating that they have moderate confidence in English learning.More specifically,among four dimensions(listening,speaking,writing and reading)of self-efficacy,it shows that students are more confident in their reading and writing.2)All the three dimensions of L2MSS are significantly and positively correlated with high school students’ self-efficacy.Regression analysis shows that learning experience and ideal L2 self could significantly predict students’ self-efficacy,while ought-to L2 self could not predict so.Looked at together,the predictive power of learning experience towards students’ self-efficacy is the strongest of the three dimensions of L2MSS.3)Among the three dimensions of L2MSS,ideal L2 self and L2 learning experience are significantly and positively correlated with students’ English academic achievement while ought-to L2 self is positively but not significantly correlated with the academic achievement.The results of regression analysis reveal that only learning experience can significantly predict students’ academic achievement.Based on the above findings,the present study suggests that teachers should help students know their learning motivation and promote their L2MSS.Teachers should also make students realize the importance of confidence and help them build up confidence.Teacher should try best to create a better English classroom environment because a better English classroom environment for students could contribute to enable students to have a good learning experience. |
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