A Case Study On Improving English Learning Motivation Of High School Students

Researches on learning motivation abroad began in the1950s, so did theChinese researches from the beginning of the1970s. As an important non-intelligencefactor in foreign language learning, language learning motivation is attracting moreand more attention in recent decades. The new English Curriculum Standards(2003)advocates learners to be equipped with self-directed learning skills for a long lifeeducation. Getting a better understanding of students’ learning process is becomingincreasingly significant and positive learning motivation is prone to fulfilling thewhole learning process.This research deals with a case study on3students’ extra-class continuationcourses for over3months in Senior Grade Two and Grade Three in Changchun, JilinProvince. For the3students, learning English is only a bitter experience which madethem encounter failures again and again. In English class, they always got nervousand felt embarrassed because of their own disappointing performance. As a result,they lost interest, confidence and dream in learning English. They even thought thatEnglish is horrible because this subject only brought them embarrassment, sadness, afeeling of nervousness or scare, but no sense of achievement at all, and some of themeven hate the subject. They were short of learning motivation. This research mainlyrefers to achievement motivation theory and attribution theory as the theoretical basis.The external expressions of the3students’ English learning motivation werepresented by means of interviews and teaching journals. Observations of the3students’ learning behaviors and performance from different perspectives reflectingthe features of the3students’ language learning motivation are as follows:(1) Each student has different external environmental impact in the wholelearning process, which results in differences in individuals’ learning motivation.(2) There are some strategies to stimulate students’ English learningmotivation; each one can take effort as long as teachers have a detailed and up-to-dateunderstanding to students inside and outside class, keep trying to provide externalstimulation according to student’s own characters such as encouragement, anddeveloping their own goals and sense of achievement.(3) An English teacher should have strong subject knowledge attainment, goodcollectivity spirit and cooperation consciousness, and continuously find out theshining points of every student which can be used in students’ learning process through the communicative means of knowledge, emotion and thoughts betweenteachers and students. To teach English well, a teacher is expected to take bothteaching methods and a comprehensive understanding of students’ interests intoconsideration.The present study has drawn the following implications:(1) Attention should be paid on students’ attribution tendency, for differentattribution may play different roles for the behavior and their learning performance.(2) Each student can produce inner power in learning with the help of migrateof original learning, and above all teachers can help him accomplish the wholelearning process.(3) It is necessary to cultivate students’ interest as long as they have thepotential.(4) It is required to set a specific purpose and the method to achieve in astudent’s language learning.