An Exploration Of Current Situation Of Students’ Motivation In Oral English Learning In Senior High School

As an important international language, English plays a more and more significant role in this modern society. And oral English, being a so practical communication tool, has a great impact on international trade, tourism, and further study. Although general senior high school students know the importance of learning oral English, they don’t have a strong motivation in learning oral English, so their abilities in oral English are poor. Motivation, as one of the most important study affections, has a great influence on oral English learning. Because it can directly influence students’ study goals, learning initiatives, attitudes, efforts and long-lasting energy devoted to oral English learning. Besides, New English Curriculum Standards also attaches great importance to the development and motivation of students’ interest in oral English and it also tries to guide students to transfer their interest in oral English into stable learning motivation. What’s more, it is common to find that not a few students who can have a good job in English test make a poor performance in oral English. One of the most important reasons is that students don’t have a strong motivation in learning and practicing oral English.Under this situation and based on motivation theories, the author does a research for the purpose of finding whether students have strong motivation in oral English and what factors that can affect students’ motivation in oral English learning by means of questionnaires and interviews. And then, according to statistics and results reflected from the questionnaires and interviews, the author makes some analysis and puts forward some suggestions for English teachers to motivate high school students to improve their oral English.This thesis is mainly based on the author’s teaching practice in Bazhong Middle School and on Dornyei’s Three-level theory which includes language level, learner level and learning situation level. Although the main reasons for the poor oral English in senior high school are poor English foundation, lack of learning opportunities, and differences between Chinese and English thinking pattern, and so on, according to the teaching practice and the guidance of motivation theories, the author finds that the most important reason is lack of learning motivation.Therefore, the author makes a survey among 121 students from two classes of senior one in Bazhong Middle School from the aspects of language level which includes integrative motivation and instrumental motivation, learner level which contains self-achievements, confidence, anxiety in language use, causal attribution, learning situation level which is focused on design of oral English classes, teaching methods and learning atmosphere as well as students’ learning attitudes and efforts made in oral English. According to the statistics shown in this survey, the author finds that although students in high school have a strong integrative motivation, they are more likely to be driven by instrumental motivation because of the pressure of college entrance examination. Compared with practicing oral English, they prefer to get high grades in English test than to devote time and energy to practicing oral English. Meanwhile, another finds that many students tend to attribute their poor oral English to the lack of environment for oral English learning and practice instead of the facts whether they have correct learning goals and motivation and whether they have made great efforts in oral English. Besides, the author also finds that there is a close relationship between students’ enthusiasm and teachers’ professional skills, teaching style and teacher-student relationship. Therefore, in order to make some contributions to oral English teaching, the author proposes some ways to improve students’ motivation in oral English learning so as to transfer high school students’ external motivation into stable internal motivation and puts forward some suggestions on how to be a qualified oral English teacher who can lead students to love oral English learning.