An Investigation On The Effect Of L2 Motivational Strategies On Motivation At Different Achievement Levels Of Elementary English Learners

"How to motivate students?" has always drawn the great attention of English teachers in China; on the other hand, in the domain of the second language (L2) motivation research, researchers'foci have been diverted to what techniques or strategies can be used to facilitate L2 learners' motivation and how these strategies may function. However, no matter in the relevant research or practice, students'differences have always been neglected, namely, most of the researchers or practitioners try to discover the "general rules" of the whole students'sample or apply these rules into the whole group, while they do not pay much attention to how these general rules can be specific in sub-groups. Among the influential factors in L2 learning and teaching, achievement enjoys the special attention of researchers and teachers. Many studies have shown that L2 motivation affect achievement; some researchers argued that motivation and achievement influence each other. Therefore, it is of certain necessity and importance to study the effect of motivational strategies in different achievement groups. In the present study, with the method of mass investigation, the researcher attempted to explore the effect of two controversial motivational strategies (teacher-centered vs. student-centered) on motivation at different achievement levels of elementary English learners against the background of New Curriculum Reform in China.For the reason that the two sorts of motivational strategies actually respectively represent teachers'control over students and students'control over themselves, which is generally in accordance which the self-determination theory (SDT; Deci&Ryan,1985), in which "autonomy" serves as the cornerstone, the researcher took SDT as the theoretical basis for the present study. SDT not only defines motivation as a continuum of motivational orientations in different self-determined degrees, but also clearly indicates how contextual factors influence learner motivation. Learners'three basic needs serve as important intermediary components:need for competence, need for autonomy and need for relatedness. By answering these basic needs, learners'intrinsic motivation can be promoted, or their extrinsically motivated behaviors can be transferred into more internalized ones.The study was composed of two stages. The first stage was to achieve vital and reliable instruments. In this stage, all the instruments were discussed in a group of junior English teachers in Beijing to make sure the scales could be applied and the wording of the items were appropriate. After that, the scales were tested in 170 Junior high students who represented a population similar to that of the main study sample but were not included in it. Based on the item analysis, the final scales were attained. The second stage was to carry on the main study. The investigation was implemented in 800 sample students in 8 average junior high schools who were in Grade 8 and evenly distributed in the X district of Beijing. After the questionnaires were collected, the data were analyzed with the aid of SPSS 16.0 for frequency, correlations and path model requirements.The results showed that the effect of motivational strategies on learner motivation was different in terms of English achievement level, and that only teacher-centered motivational strategies did work. At high achievement level, teacher-centered strategies could promote learners'intrinsic motivation, identified motivation and external motivation, and eliminate amotivation through the elevation of learner's self-perceptions of competence and autonomy. At average achievement level, teacher-centered strategies could increase learners" intrinsic motivation, identified motivation and demote amotivation through the promotion of learners'self-perceptions of competence and autonomy. At low achievement level, neither teacher-centered nor student-centered strategies could influence learners'self-perceptions of competence and autonomy, while students'low self-perceptions of autonomy would cause serious amotivation in their English learning.With the information of the follow-up interviews, the researcher tried to account for the previous results in the following. The results of different affective models in different achievement levels may be attributed to learners'different systems in which belief, motivation, self-efficacy, autonomy and achievement tended to affect one another. The promotion of external motivation only occurred in high achievement group, which could be traced to some external contingencies like monetary awards, titles and so on. The findings that low group students only got amotivation affected might indicate that they were continually overwhelmed by this amotivated situation, and might have given up their English study. The reasons why two motivational strategies provided different influences might be attributed to cultural psychology factors and their different functions on "skillful experience"...