On Chinese Middle School Students' Motivation Of English Learning

Motivation is a very important factor which can influence the outcome of students' learning second language (L2). It is studied by more and more scholars, who define motivation from different perspectives, and classify motivation into several types based on different standards. For example, Gardner and Lambert (1972) divide motivation into two types: instrumental motivation and integrative motivation, while Deci and Ryan (1985) divide motivation into intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Here a new classification of motivation is built up, which divides motivation into internal motivation and external motivation. The internal motivation is further divided into interest, sense of achievement, responsibility, opportunity for advance, and self-perfection. The external motivation is further divided into reward/punishment, utility value, group attitude and pressure.A survey is conducted in Hefei No. 48 Middle School, where 179 students are randomly chosen from over 1000 students. A questionnaire with 36 items and an interview with 12 students are the instruments of the study. The questionnaire is modified time and again on the basis of Gao Yihong's questionnaire (2003). The results of the study are summed up as follows:1) All the 9 subtypes of internal and external motivation exist in the process of students' learning. Internal motivation has more positive effect on students than external motivation in the process of ESL;2) The development tendency of students' motivation shows a decline from Grade 1 to 3;3) Students with different levels of language proficiency show different degree of motivation intensity: high achievers have greater internal motivation than low achievers;4) Female students have greater interest and sense of achievement than male students, and male students are faced with lots of pressure, which affects their Englishlearning.Therefore, English teachers in middle schools should prepare effective teaching materials as well as use various teaching methods to promote students' motivation, and ultimately to promote students' English level.The originality of this thesis lies in its different choice of subjects from previous studies that are usually focused on college students. The subjects in this study are all middle school students. Besides, this thesis is also original in the classification of students' internal and external motivation based on the previous theories.