Research Into The Motivation Of Senior Middle School Students' English Learning And Its Implications For English Teaching

All human behaviors come from certain motivation. As a kind of activity, English learning results from certain motivation. If we have a basic understanding of the strength and type of the English learners' motivation, it will be useful for English teachers to adjust the teaching behavior to foster and arouse the learners' motivation, and meanwhile to make sure that the process of learning is smooth and will achieve better pedagogical results.Students begin to receive formal instruction in English at primary schools or even in kindergartens. But most Chinese senior middle school students' English level is low and some of them even don't want to learn English though there are some top students. Motivation plays a very important role in English learning. Gardner and Lambert introduced their classic constructs of "integrative" and "instrumental" motivation in the learning of a non-native language. Motivation can also be classified into "intrinsic motivation" and "extrinsic motivation" according to some educational psychologists. Based on the saying "Motivation is the key to all learning", it is necessary to investigate English learning motivation of senior middle school students to better motivate their English study.The thesis consists of three chapters with an introduction and a conclusion.In the introduction, the author states the importance of studying motivation in FLL and expounds the rationale. According to Jakobovits, four major factors influence foreign language learning, that is, language aptitude (33%), intelligence (20%), motivation (33%) and others (14%). Learners' motivation plays an important role in English learning. In this part, the research problem is raised.Chapter 1 is a review of related research. Series of former studies reveal that positive relationship exists between motivation and foreign language proficiency.Chapter 2 centers on research into the motivation of senior middle school students' English learning. Statistical methods are employed to analyze data from questionnaires on motivation orientation of English study of the students in Senior Grade Two of No. 2 Middle School of Xiangtan. Students' low level of English mainly results from their inadequate efforts which have resulted from their low motivation.Chapter 3 introduces some implications drawn from the investigation about how to motivate senior middle school students' learning and how to improve English teaching in senior middle schools.In the conclusion, the important points are restated. Some implications of the findings in foreign language teaching are discussed. Hopefully, the paper will be of some help to our English teaching and learning.