A Study Of Secondary Vocational School Students' English Learning Motivation

For centuries, a great number of scholars have been researching into human motivation. The study of motivation has even paralleled the history of psychology. Given such a long history of concern and interest, however, only in the past 40 years has the systematic study of motivational processes in education settings received significant and sustained attention by researchers in psychology and education.Based on Need Theories, Learning Theories, Growth and Mastery Theories, Humanistic Theories, and Cognitive Theories, the thesis conducts a study of secondary vocational school students'English learning motivation in classroom. With the quantitative analysis a primary means and the qualitative analysis an auxiliary one, the study is divided into three stages. At the first stage, the author chose 95 students from two classes of science, surveyed them through questionnaires, and collected the academic records of their recent entrance examination to learn the current situation of their English leaning motivation and their present English level. The two classes had the same textbook, similar educational background and learning environment, and were parallel in the number and the academic achievement. The author labeled the two classes as Class A and Class B. Class A worked as the experimental class taught by the author herself and Class B as the control class taught by an experienced English teacher-Ms. Chen. Then the author analyzed the questionnaires collected carefully and worked out some strategies for stimulating the students'learning motivation in classroom, which were only applied in Class A and not in Class B for later contrast. At the second stage, after the strategies had been implemented in Class A for one month, altogether two interviews were carried out and were labeled as Interview One and Interview Two. To be objective, Interview One was conducted by Ms. Chen among students in the author's class aiming at finding out their attitudes towards the author's teaching strategies and the disadvantages and advantages of these strategies. Interview Two was conducted by the author among students in Class B targeting at learning about the teaching methods applied by Ms. Chen as well as her students'feedback on her English classes. Six students were chosen from each class respectively. Among the six students, three were male; the rest were female. They were selected from the high-score group, the medium-level group as well as the low-score group. After the interview, the author adjusted the teaching strategies according to students'feedback. At the third stage, three months after the new strategies were applied, the author tested Class A and Class B. Based on the results, the author proved the teaching strategies proposed to stimulate secondary vocational school students'learning motivation and the enhancement of their learning motivation were helpful in their English improvement.Altogether, the study proposes and solves three research questions. They demonstrate that after the experiment, the students in Class A have improved their learning motivation and English performance; Class A and Class B exhibit great variances in Interest and Attitude while those in Effort and Learning Goal are not observable; and the main predictors of the exam are Interest and Effort. The results display the importance of students'interest in learning, their positive learning attitudes, and their efforts in studying. Therefore, the study has some implications for English learning and teaching.