On The English Learning Motivations Of Students In Art Vocational Schools From The Perspective Of Authenticity Teaching Theory

The research on the authenticity of English teaching has become a hot topic in the foreign language teaching at home and abroad. With the development of Communicative Approach Teaching and Task-based Language Teaching, the concept of authenticity has become quite an important factor which will help solve the problems existing in foreign language learning, also with the further research carried out on authenticity, extended from the language materials to classroom activities using various nonverbal material, inter-communicational situations, social and cultural factors, etc.In the process of English learning, motivation is one of the indispensable factors that have great influences on the success or failure of foreign language learning. Learning motivation is a kind of internal force or internal mechanism to promote, guide and maintain people’s learning activities. Between learning and motivation exists a dialectical relationship that the learning can promote the motivation, in reverse the motivation will stimulate the development of learning, with a typical complementary relationship. Once the formation of learning motivation finished, students will take the initiative to have a strong interest in learning, they can be more focused on absorbing the knowledge in class, but also have a power to keep on their attention and interest in learning process. Therefore, learning motivation plays an essential role in learning.This thesis is from the perspective of Authenticity Theory; based on Van Lier (1996) Interactive Teaching Theory; and combines with the principles of authentication in Interactive Teaching Theory to study the English learning motivation of art vocational schools students. According to the observation and understanding, the foreign language learning motivation of the students in the art vocational schools has unique characteristics. Art vocational school students’foreign language learning motivation can’t be classified completely according to the traditional classification methods, because of their specialized courses, art vocational school students do not have purely internal motivation or external motivation, which means that their foreign language learning motivation is a complex multiple motives to a very great degree.This thesis develops a discussion on the possibility of combining the English learning motivation of art vocational school students with the theory of authenticity as well as a research on their motivation characteristics which lasts for a semester.This paper studies the three problems as following:(1) According to Leo Van Lier (1996) theories, what does the authenticity of the selected art vocational school students’English learning motivation turned out to be?(2) What are the factors that influence the formation of the authentic motivation of art vocational schools students’English learning?(3) What are the strategies of authenticating art vocational school students’English learning motivation?This research mainly adopts the questionnaire, the interview method and observation method, according to Leo Van Lier’s (1996) theories, studying the authenticity of art vocational school students’ motivation in foreign language learning. In total, the research is divided into three parts:1. expound the views of Van Lier theories on authenticity and part of other researchers’ view on motivation;2. do some research and analysis;3. analyze the reasons of the research results and put forward some enlightenment and suggestions for future English teaching.The author of this study has the hypothesis that the art students’ foreign language learning motivation can be divided into two categories, one category is that the majority of students possess-the Blind Motivation (This group of students lack of authentic motivation, and they disjoin with their own character and fail in combining the three essential factors of motivation:Intentionality, Affect and Effort. Therefore, these students cannot unremittingly learn English under the guidance of motivation and severely obtain satisfying learning effects); the second category is the authentic motivation which few students have in the process of learning English (this kind of motivation is the organic integration of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation which is also closely related to students’ initiative). Meanwhile authenticity of motivation is what this paper intends to demonstrate as well as the type of motivation the author hopes to achieve in the future teaching practice.The number of art vocational school students is increasing year by year, yet there are very few systematic researches on the authenticity of English learning motivation of art vocational schools students. Art students’ learning motivation has its particular characteristics, this study can enrich and develop the study of internal structure of motivation theory to some extent, and lay theoretical and practical foundation for future research. Learning motivation is one of the most dynamic factors to influence the effect of English learning, through the investigation and study on the types of art vocational school students’ learning motivation in English learning, stimulating their learning motivation and the effective use of learning strategies, this research can provide art vocational schools teachers with various strategies to stimulate students’ learning motivation and improve the English achievement of art vocational schools students.This thesis makes a detailed analysis of the results, based on which provides methods and suggestion on the cultivation of authenticity of students’ foreign language learning motivation. The limitations and lack of this study turn out to be that the amount of investigation objects is small and the sample information is little. Thus, there still needs to be further research on the field of authenticity of motivation.