A Study On English Majors’ Situational Interest In Oral Presentation Activities

Situational interest is a temporary and positive psychological disposition which depends on the characteristics of activity. As the stimulant and mediator of learning behavior, it has a great influence on student’s learning outcome. And it can be easily influenced by other factors like environment etc., due to the instantaneity of situational interest. Besides, situational interest can be divided into several dimensions, and each dimension contributes to the overall situational interest to a distinct extent.On account of its theoretical and practical significance in the education field, situational interest has attracted lots of researchers’ attention. Currently, related studies focus on the impact of characteristics of learning content or materials and learning strategies on situational interest. Studies related to classroom activities are rare which are another important factor affecting situational interest. Thus, based on oral presentation activities which are widely applied in the present English classroom, this study attempts to explore the extent to which different dimensions of situational interest in oral presentation activities contribute to the overall situational interest, aims at finding out the positive effect of oral presentation on classroom practice and the exiting problems with the expectation that this study can provide some implications for the English teachers. The current study focuses on the following three questions:(1) To what extent did students feel situationally interested in the oral presentation activity?(2) To what extent did the five dimensions (Novelty, Challenge, Exploration Intention, Instant Enjoyment, and Attention Demand) contribute to overall situational interest?(3) What was the relationship between situational interest and students’learning outcome?In this study, junior English majors from six parallel classes in Central South University were selected as the participants.131students took part in the questionnaire investigation, among which21students were interviewed. And the questionnaire was adapted from the situational interest scale developed by Chen et al.(1999). Data collected was analyzed by SPSS17.0and LISREL8.7. Major results are summarized as follows:(1) In oral presentation activity, students’situational interest, topic interest and individual interest were triggered to a high degree.(2) Among the five dimensions of situational interest, Instant Enjoyment is the determiner of situational interest, Exploration Intention, Novelty, and Attention Demand has an indirect impact on situational interest. Challenge does not influence Situational Interest. Exploration Intention and Novelty are the sources of Instant Enjoyment, Attention Demand is mediated by the two variables. Challenge has nothing to do with any of the other variables.(3) Students’ situational interest has a positive and great impact on their learning outcome.In light of the results of the present study, some suggestions were given from the perspective of the activity itself, teacher, learner and context.