A Study On The Correlation Between Extarcurircular Reading Intrinsic Motivation And Reading Abilities

Reading is a main channel of inputting the second language. In the Chinesecontext, learners lack adequate English language input. So English reading hasbecome one of the most important ways for English learners to acquire English.Extracurricular reading is the extension of reading in the classroom. It helps studentsto consolidate existing language knowledge and reading skills, then to improvereading ability. But at present in China, most students don’t do much reading.Especially in the countryside, students mainly focus on their textbooks. Reading timeis not enough and most students read little outside class. In view of this situation, inorder to improve students’ reading ability, stimulating and cultivating students’reading motivation will become the key of resolving the problem because themotivation means that success. Harter (1981) divided motivation into intrinsicmotivation and extrinsic motivation. And many researches show that intrinsicmotivation contributes more than extrinsic motivation in successfully learning asecond language. Therefore, in the teaching teachers should mainly insist stimulatingthe intrinsic motivation, as well as pay high attention to external factors. To meet thischallenge， based on reading motivation theory, the author made full use ofextracurricular reading resources, applied extracurricular reading strategies, carriedout reading activities，and conducted reading training in the experiment. The authortries to find out the answers to the following two key questions in the study:(1) Can extracurricular reading training stimulate students’ reading intrinsicmotivation?(2) Is there any correlation between intrinsic motivation and reading ability?The author based the research on reading motivation theory, conductedexperiment among80students from Class3and Class4(experimental class, andcontrol class respectively) in Grade2of No.2Middle School of Taiping, in Conghua，Guangzhou. The experiment consisted of two questionnaires, two tests and aninterview. During the experiment, in Class3extracurricular reading resources are made full use of to conduct reading training，while the students in control class weretaught as usual. The results of the questionnaires and tests were put into computer andanalyzed by SPSS16.0. Such statistical procedures as independent samples-test andcorrelation analysis are applied. By analyzing the results of the experimental researchand interview, the author concluded that the following reading training can stimulatestudents’ reading intrinsic motivation. There is positive correlation between intrinsicmotivation and reading ability. Stimulating intrinsic motivation can promote theimprovement students’ reading ability.The study can help the teachers in the countryside to have a better and morecomprehensive understanding of reading intrinsic motivation. Teachers can also makeuse of the strategies which this study provides to stimulate students’ intrinsicmotivation, promote the junior middle school students’ extracurricular reading in thecountryside and improve their interest in learning English.