The Impact Of Teacher’s Application Of Motivational Strategies On Students’ English Learning Motivation

Among all the factors that influence foreign language learning, learning motivation is regarded as one of the most important. Meanwhile, classroom is the major learning environment for the learners. Therefore, it is critical for the language teacher to use motivational strategies to motivate learners. So far, most of the researches are focused on the motivational strategies used in the classroom, few are concerned with exploring the impacts of those strategies on English learners.The present study used a quantitative and qualitative method. In order to explore whether the use of teacher’s motivational strategies has impact on English learning motivation of students, data is collected through questionnaire, teaching experiment and semi-structured interview with102second-year non-English majors in Zhixing College of Hubei University. Normal teaching practice is conducted in both two classes and the motivational strategies are added to the experimental group. After the experiment, data from questionnaire are analyzed to figure out the changes in motivation and discuss the feedback of students’attitudes toward the strategies by interviewing.The results show that1) At present, the English learning motivation is at a medium level and the instrumental motivation drives the student most. Meanwhile, students feel anxious in English class but make less effort to learn English. But their evaluation of English teacher, class and group member is relatively high.2) After the experiment, there are increases in English learning motivation along four components, among which, students’effort level is improved, learning interests are increased and the students make more positive attributions. Besides, they also speak more highly of the teacher after the experiment.3) Teacher’s motivational strategies can affect the motivation of the males and females differently. First, there are significant differences along evaluation, and then motivation level increases for males along evaluation of teachers, class and themselves while for females more increases are found along effort level and attributions.There are also some limitations in the study:1) the participants of the study are not much enough and the experiment lasts a short time over an eight weeks period.2) The teacher in both two classes is the same one and is female so that the influence of teacher’s gender on the results cannot be considered.3) The time for student to finish the questionnaire is limited and there is not enough time for them to think carefully.4) Because there are amount of teaching tasks to be finished, motivational strategies cannot be fully used. At the same time, the teacher may use those strategies in control group unconsciously and mindlessly. Therefore, the further studies can perfect the present study.