Research On Senior Middle School Students' English Learning Motivation

Over the last few decades, there has been a prominent shift in the field of L2 (second language or foreign language) education research, with less emphasis on teachers and teaching and greater emphasis on learners and learning. To date, research has focused on individual different characteristics of the student such as personality, intelligence, language learning aptitude, language learning strategies, motivation, and cognitive style. Motivation is considered to be one of the main determining factors in success in developing an L2. It determines the extent of active, personal involvement in L2 which enables learners to develop their potential L2 skills. Motivation is one of the key factors that determine the rale and success of L2 attainment.Much research has been done on motivation in EFL both at home and abroad. In China, the new Senior English Course Syllabus also emphasizes the development of the students' affect, including their learning motivation, regarding it as one of the components of the course syllabus and fostering leaning motivation is becoming one of teaching principles.This study is undertaken for several purposes: first, to raise Chinese teachers' awareness of L2 motivation;second, to examine senior middle school students' beliefs concerning EFL motivation (from the angels of goal-setting, valence, self-efficacy and attribution) and find out existing problems;finally, to provide suggestions on how to motivate senior middle school students based on the findings of the study.This thesis consists of four chapters:In Chapter One, we had an overview of motivation research both at home and abroad in the recent decades of years.In Chapter Two, we discussed the definition of motivation and identification of motivational components. Language learning motivation not only includeschoosing language learning, but also involves sustaining efforts and persistence. The author studies motivation from the angles of learners' goal-setting, valence, self-efficacy, and attribution of previous performance, as they have been theoretically and empirically confirmed to be important motivational components.In Chapter Three, we conducted a survey on motivation of senior middle school students. In order to have a good understanding of students' beliefs concerning EFL motivational components, the author has conducted a survey among 430 senior middle school students to find out their general beliefs on English learning motivation and beliefs that negatively influence the increase of motivation. Results of the survey show that existing problems include low level of self-efficacy, improper success attribution, and too much emphasis on exam goal-setting. This study has also uncovered different beliefs among students of different grades and genders: with the increase of school grades, students' intensity of motivation decreases, which accords with Gardner's conclusion on motivation sustain;besides, girls have a little higher degree of motivation intensity.In Chapter Four, the author provides some suggestions as to how to alter students' negative motivational beliefs and increase students' level of motivation based on the findings of the survey with the hope that English teachers in China will pay more attention to the students' learning motivation so that their English teaching will be better.