The Study Of Relation Between Teachers' Motivating Styles And Students' Motivation To Learn

English becomes more and more important in the world, and the researches on English learning and teaching have become the main concern of teachers and researchers. They have carried out a number of researches on various factors of learners, including cognitive, affective and biological characteristics, among which motivation has been considered a key factor to influence learners. Learners with strong motivation can always achieve greater success. Then, what is motivation? What are the factors that have great impact on learners' motivation to learn? How can learners' motivation to learn be inspired and enhanced?The scholars at home and abroad generally have considered motivation as inner power to inspire, and sustain an activity and guide it into a certain goal. Motivation can be classified into integrative and instrumental, intrinsic and extrinsic, etc. In English learning, students' motivation to learn can be simply interpreted as reasons to learn English. To Chinese college students, motivation to learn can be classified into instrumental, cultural and study situational motivation. And there are various factors influencing motivation to learn. But in China, classroom is the most important and the main source of input of English language. Classroom factors, especially teachers' influences, are the key factors to influence students' motivation to learn. And teachers' motivating styles and teacher's praises have great impact on students' motivation to learn English.This research took the teachers teaching college English and first grade students of non-English major in Sichuan University as subjects, and employed quantitative and qualitative methods, including questionnaires and classroom observation, to explore the relation among teacher's motivating styles, verbal rewards (praises) and students' motivation to learn and the features of teacher's motivating styles, the features of verbal rewards of teachers with different motivating styles and the features of other teaching behaviors. The results of this research showed: 1. There are three types of teachers' motivating styles, namely, high autonomy supporting, medium controlling, and high controlling. And what kind of motivating styles teachers employ has little to do with their gender and teaching years. However, motivating level of college English teachers is generally low and tends to be the style of controlling. 2. Teachers with high autonomy supporting style offer more praises, while teachers with high controlling style give few praises. There are obvious differences in tone, feedback and comment on students' answers and other teaching behaviors between teachers with high autonomy supporting style and with high controlling style. 3. Teachers' motivating styles are positively correlated to instrumental, cultural, study situational and the total level of students' motivation to learn; the autonomy supporting students perceived is positively correlated to teachers' motivating styles; the autonomy supporting students perceived is positively correlated to instrumental, cultural, study situational and the total level of students' motivation to learn. 4. Teachers' verbal reward (praise) is positively correlated to instrumental, study situational and the total level of students' motivation to learn. The more praises students receive, the stronger motivation to learn they will have.This research will help teachers understand students' motivation to learn English, and employ the corresponding motivating styles and teaching strategies in order to stimulate and enhance students' motivation to learn.