An Analysis Of Developing Trend On Junior High School Students’ English Learning Motivation

Learning motivation is one of the most important factors for individual foreign language learners, and it’s also one of the restraints on students’ performance. Strong motivation could not only stimulate students’ enthusiasm for learning English, but also help them to achieve satisfying scores. The significance of good learning motivation is demanded in five-level objectives of the curriculum standard of compulsory English education, which indicates how important the motivation is for language learners.In recent years, researches on language learning motivation spring up constantly. However, most of them focus on college students in terms of subject and are static in terms of perspective. Studies on dynamic learning motivation are much less. This study takes two classes from the 4th Middle School in Baota District, Yan’an City as participants, one 7th grade class with 52 students monitored for two semesters and another 8th grade class with 50 students monitored for four semesters. No significant disparity of enrollment scores is found between these two classes. A questionnaire survey is conducted regarding their English learning motivation and SPSS 17.0 is employed to statistically describe and analyze the collected data, through a repeated measures analysis in a general linear model.The main survey results of this study are as follow:(1). The learning motivation of junior school students is at a medium level. The mean of overall motivation is 2.96, with standard deviation(SD) 0.55. Motivational intensity is moderate as well, with mean 2.90 and SD 0.67. The mean of informative media motivation is the highest among these 7 types of motivation, and oversea motivation the lowest. The overall motivation, motivational intensity and the other seven motivations are not strong enough, which cannot meet the requirements of course standards.(2). Significant differences exist among internal motivation, achievement motivation, and motivation intensity from the first semester to the second semester of 7th grade. There are significant differences in individual development and overall motivation from the first semester to the second semester of 8th grade. From the second semester of 8th grade to the first semester of 9th grade, there are significant differences among internal, oversea, social responsibility, individual development, informative media, overall motivation and motivation intensity. From the first semester to the second semester of 9th grade, significant differences occur among internal, oversea, social responsibility motivation and motivation intensity.(3). The learning motivation of junior school students is not stable. The developing trend of overall motivation in the first three semesters increases steadily and continuously. It drops down in the fourth semester but climbs up again in the fifth semester. Finally in the last semester, students’ motivation declines evidently. The developing trend of motivational intensity in the first four semesters declines gradually and continuously. It increases in the fifth semester sharply. Finally in the last semester, students’ motivation declines evidently. Junior high school English learning achievement motivation have an impact on other motivations.(4) Compared to the motivation level in the first semester, the motivation in the last semester is slightly weaker. In general, the students’ motivation level is reduced in junior English learning.Therefore, improvement of students’ learning motivation should be put highly on the teaching agenda. Teachers shall play an active role in building up a pleasant atmosphere to improve the environment motivation and cultivating students’ interest of learning English. In a broader view, teaching institutes must encourage students and take the training of learning motivation as an essential task.