A Comparative Study Of English Learning Motivation Of Middle School Students In Urban And Rural Areas In Dalian

We have learned a lot about all the factors that influence the second language learning, motivation is sure to be the most important factor to decide the second language learning a success or not. A language can be learned better with the motivation. It is impossible for a student to achieve his long-term goal with no motivation. The importance of the motivation in second language learning is obvious, so many researchers like Gardner, Lambert, Williams, Brown, Dornyei have done a lot about it. The Chinese researchers like Gao Yihong, Wen Qiufang, Qin Xiaoqing have also done a lot in different student groups. But most of them are on college students or urban ones. Few researchers are interested in the students’motivation in rural areas. Particularly, the differences between the study on motivation of urban and rural middle school students is even less.As we know, the development of the rural and urban education is imbalanced, the rural education seems to play an important role of the whole country’s education. How to improve rural students’learning environment and how to increase rural teaching quality should attract the experts and the scholars more. For improving students’ English learning level, it’s important to know the difference of middle school students’ motivation in urban and rural areas, exploring the factors that influence on it and proposing corresponding implication are also significant for us to make the gap narrow.This thesis focuses on the English learning motivation of the middle school students’in urban and rural areas in Dalian. The data that was gotten from the questionnaire shows differences and similarities on their motivation. We can use it to make comparison between English learning motivation of the two kinds of areas from intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, instrumental motivation, integrative motivation and the absence of motivation. In the urban, urban students’intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, instrumental motivation, integrative motivation are higher than those of rural students as a whole and the absence of motivation of the rural students’is obviously lower than that of urban ones. After interviewing with the teachers, we know more about the factors influencing differences of rural and urban students’motivation. They are family atmosphere, level of the teachers and the community context.The implications by the study include:To establish harmonious teacher-student relationship is the most important; rural students’family education should be valued, parents’quality and the degree they care about their children’s education should also be increased; Try to provide favorable community atmosphere is more convenient for the development of rural education.The thesis is about five chapters. Chapter One is the introduction of the background, significance, purpose and the questions to be answered of the topic. It also introduces the second language acquisition, foreign language learning and main body of the thesis. Chapter Two is about the general review on different kinds of definitions of the motivation, especially the main types and main motivation theories. Chapter Three shows how to design the study and how to carry out it. Chapter Four which is the most important one is the results of the students; investigation and the interview with the teachers in urban and rural areas. Chapter Five is the conclusion part which includes the main finding, the implications and the limitations of the thesis.