Incentive Strategies Based On A Comparison Of English Learning Motivation Before And After CET-4

The advancement of the times and the progress of the society make ours a world of mutual connection and influence. Political affairs, economic and cultural exchanges are getting increasingly closer between different countries and areas throughout the world. English, a lingua franca, serves as a very important medium of communication between the people of the world. Naturally, as one of the most important basic subjects in China’s higher education, the status of English is self-evident in our country. In this information age, English teaching is taking on a new look. It is no longer confined to the classroom. Computer, multimedia and Internet have become the ways and means of English teaching in the21st century. Students can get access to all kinds of the related knowledge about English and English culture. Thus, for English teachers, how to stimulate students’learning motivation and encourage them to learn English well through abundant resources is particularly important.College English Test (CET), including CET-4&CET-6, has played an important role in public English teaching. Because of its strong authority, credibility and extensive social influence, many colleges and universities take passing CET-4as a precondition for graduation. At the same time, many companies, enterprises and government departments make CET certificate one of the major standards for choosing interviewees. Under such influence and pressure, students attach more and more importance to the value of the CET certificate. Therefore, the author plans to do some investigations and researches to find out the changes of students’motivation before and after CET-4, and what learning strategies we can use to stimulate their English learning enthusiasm accordingly.The author chooses some freshmen and junior students, including economics majors, accounting majors, business administration majors and clinical medicine majors, for random sampling survey at Yangtze University. None of the freshmen have taken CET-4test, so they are chosen as the English learning motivation subjects before CET-4. Junior students, who have had at least one experience of taking CET-4, are chosen as the English learning motivation subjects after CET-4. It is hoped that the investigation and analysis can provide a little reference for exploration of public English teaching, and pave the way for my future English teaching at the same time.The questionnaire is divided into two major parts. The first part consists of15questions about the basic situation and the second part is the investigation of students’ English learning motivation. It is designed from the perspective of intrinsic&extrinsic motivation and it contains25items.From the data of the survey, the intrinsic motivation of English learning in non-English majors is weak on the whole. Generally, they lack interest in English learning itself. The majority of the students take English merely as a stepping stone to a certain goal. They consider English learning from the aspect of its practicability, and extrinsic motivation is dominant.Based on the survey and analysis, the author sees the necessity and possibility of arousing the students’motivation of learning English from several aspects.Freshmen have just won the difficult victory in the College Entrance Examination, like nirvana of phoenix. To freshmen, their plasticity indicates that we can do something for them, especially at the beginning of college life:to help students adapt to college learning mode and develop good study habits and help students to set reasonable goals. High quality study mainly depends on one’s own efforts, so the freshmen should improve their ability of autonomic learning. In addition, it is necessary to stimulate their interest in English learning through introducing to them the English-speaking countries’ culture and so on to broaden their horizon, which can have a good effect on arousing the enthusiasm of freshmen’s study.In addition, for the junior students, the college life has passed more than half. They have adapted to the study and life style at the university and they are able to make their own judgments and choices. As to English study, many junior students have higher and clearer demands. Teachers’professional level and teaching styles can exert a great influence on students’interest in English learning. For those juniors who have already passed CET-4, keep their sense of accomplishment, and stimulate their enthusiasm in English learning through different kinds of activities. As to the juniors who have not passed CET-4yet, passing curriculum examinations, and particularly passing CET-4is the most important for them. And they make it clear that the teachers’level especially influences their interest in learning English. So, the teachers need to reconstruct these students’confidence and encourage them to step over CET-4, which will certainly act a starter for their further English study.