The Influence Of Learning Tasks On Situational Interest In College English Class

Situational interest, which is stimulated by the activity or learning task, is able to promote an instant and positive psychological state of learners. It can stimulate and keep the learning motivation of individuals who have little or even no pre-existing interest in one subject. Learning task is one of factors which could influence learners’situational interest. Effective learning task will stimulate learners’interest and learning engagement. At present, the influence of situational interest is mainly studied in P.E., mathematics, reading and writing. College English, as one of the important compulsory subject, plays a significant role in students’learning and their future occupational development. However, situational interest in College English class has not been paid much attention, as well as studies on the influence of learning task on situational interest.Therefore, taking non-English major class as the research background, the present study, based on the classification of task of Brown et al.(static, dynamic and abstract task), attempts to explore the influence of learning tasks on the five dimensions (attention, enjoyment, challenge, exploration, novelty) which are used to evaluate students’ situational interest. Research questions are addressed in this current study:What different effects do the three tasks have on the dimensions of students’situational interest? Which task can stimulate situational interest of the learners to the most extent? Is there a relationship between learners’English competence and their situational interest when the same learning task is conducted?The sample was comprised of85non-English major freshmen enrolled in three intact parallel classes from School of Information&Engineering at Central South University. The three classes were randomly assigned to one of the tasks. After finishing the tasks, the author allocated questionnaires immediately to the participants, some of whom were selected to take part in the interview in order to evaluate students’situational interest. The data was analyzed through SPSS17.0. Results are summarized as follows:Firstly, dimensions of students’situational interest were influenced differently by static task, dynamic task and abstract task. Dimensions which were stimulated most in the three tasks were exploration in static task, attention in dynamic task and novelty in abstract task.Secondly, abstract task could influence students’situational interest most in the three tasks.Thirdly, there existed different correlation between students’English competence and dimensions of situational interest. In static task, there existed correlation between English competency and students’attention in high score group and enjoyment in low score group; in dynamic task, correlation existed between English competency and attention and enjoyment in high score group, novelty, challenge and exploration in medium score group, novelty, attention and exploration in low score group; in abstract task, there was correlation between English competency and challenge in high score group, novelty, enjoyment and total interest in medium score group. There was no correlation between English competency and other dimensions of situational interest in the three tasks.From the perspective of learning task design, the present study studied situational interest in College English class. This will help us to realize the influence of learning task on students’situational interest. Finally, the author made suggestions to make use of learning task in stimulating situational interest and enhance efficient English learning.