A Correlation Research On English Learning Motivation And External Factors In Junior Middle School

Learning motivation plays a key role in promoting students? learning activities, and a foundation for promoting interest in learning and learning achievement. Most students in junior middle school have not strong English learning motivation in local schools, especially those students from ethnic minority families in the schools located in the rural and suburban areas, which leads to discrepancy between student?s real learning situation and the requirements of the NECS. This kind of problem is influenced by various factors, including internal and external factors. As many previous researches mainly focus on internal factors, it is worthy to do research on improvement of English learning motivation from aspects of external factors.Based on the theories of Williams and Burden?s Social Constructivist Model, this research aims to explore the external factors that have caused problems with the attitudes and learning motivation among the students in the target school so as to improve English learning situation and promote students? learning in rural middle schools for minority students, through an investigation into the characteristics of their English learning motivation and correlation between motivation and external factors. With the instruments of questionnaires, interview, classroom observation, the following research questions are expected to be discussed and answered:(1) What is the state of students? English learning motivation from four dimensions(interest and beliefs, achievement motivation, self-efficacy, and test anxiety) in different grades respectively? a) What are the differences among four dimensions of students? English learning motivation in this school? b) Are there any differences of English learning motivation in genders? If yes, what are they? c) Are there any differences of English learning motivation in each grade? If yes, what are they?(2) What are the correlations between students? English learning motivation and external factors in three grades respectively? Are there any significant differences in correlation on each external factor? Are there any differences in correlation in three grades?(3) Is there any difference in influence of external factors on learning motivation between the borders and externs?(4) What is the correlation between students? English learning motivation and learning achievements?In this research both quantitative data and the qualitative data are collected from the questionnaires, interview records and notes of classroom observation. Then SPSS20.0 is adopted to analyze these data. With Cronbach?s Alpha Coefficients, descriptive statistical analysis, independent samples T test, One-Way ANOVA, Kendall?s tau-b correlation analysis, Spearman correlation analysis, and discussion on the statistical results, the major findings are as follows:(1) The general situation of students? English learning motivation is not very high, according to results of questionnaires. Namely, students at this rural school cannot learn English actively.l There are big differences in students? interest and beliefs, achievement motivation, and test anxiety dimensions, while students? self-efficacy is relatively similar.l There is not much difference in genders of student?s English learning motivation in this school.l In comparing students? English learning motivation in each grade, students in junior Grade One have the greatest motivation; students in junior Grade Two have the lowest, and students in junior Grade Three are at medium level.(2) There are significantly positive correlations between English learning motivation and three external factors. It indicates that students? English learning motivation are influenced by external factors in particular.l In comparing each external factor, the same phenomenon from Junior Grade One to Junior Grade Three is that the influence of factors about school is greater than family and peers, of which influence of family is greater than peers.l In comparing correlations of each grade, the influences of three external factors in each grade are different.(3) The external factors have exerted a greater influence on learning motivation of the boarders than that of the externs, which is verified by the correlations between English learning motivation and external factors found in the two different groups.(4) English learning motivation is significantly and positively correlated with students? learning achievements, which can supply an explanation for the fact that students who have higher motivation get higher scores in the exams.Finally, the author points out some implications for English teaching and learning in schools in rural areas and offers some suggestions for future relative studies.