Motivation Of English Learning In Rural Senior High School

In the process of foreign language learning, motivation has been considered to be one of the main factors in determining learning outcomes. Many researchers in psychology and education such as Maslow and Gardner take different approaches in motivation research and propose many different theories on motivation. Motivation is considered affective attitudes in learning process. The New National Standard of English Curriculum also points out that affective attitudes are important factors which influence students' learning and development.The author finds that quiet a few students do not have a high motivation in English learning while she works at Nanqiao Senior High School as a volunteer. So she has done some research to have a good understanding of rural senior high school students' motivation guided by motivational theories. The study focuses on motivation orientations, attributions of causes for success and failure, and comparison between boy and girl students in factors that influence their English learning motivation.One hundred and forty subjects randomly selected from six classes of Grade Two in Nanqiao Senior High School have taken part in this investigation. The study adopts questionnaire and interviews as its instruments. The questionnaire aims to explore the reasons for students' English learning, factors influencing their learning motivation, and attributions for success and failure. Interviews were carried out at the end of the first semester of the academic year 2005-2006 to find out the effect of the motivational strategies the author had taken in the teaching process based on the problems exposed in the investigation.The investigation indicates that most students, especially the girls have instrumental motivation;more girls are interested in English and see repaying their parents as one important learning motive;most students attribute success or failure to effort or learning strategies while some students attribute to uncontrollable factors such as learning environment or lack of language learning ability;traditional teaching method decreases students' motivation;and that lack of learning materials and teaching equipment influence students' English learning motivation.Based on the findings, the author has done some research from motivational strategy perspective and teaching perspective to find out appropriate ways which fit the existingteaching conditions in such rural schools. To motivate the students, some approaches are carried out in the classes the author teaches, such as creating basic motivational conditions;promoting learner autonomy through increasing students' involvement;increasing students' interest and the effect of teaching by integrating traditional teaching method with communicative approaches;and making up for the lack of teaching materials and teaching equipment by carefully planned presentation and organization of the contents, homework, and supplement of materials.The interviews at the end of the first semester of the academic year 2005-2006 indicate that the guidance of motivational theories and improvement in teaching approaches which the author adopts in her teaching practice are of great value in helping to motivate students.