A Study Of Junior Middle School Students' English Learning Motivation

As one of the most widely used languages, English is playing an increasingly important role in people's daily life. As a result, it is becoming more and more important to learn English well. Although great progress has been made since the reform and open policy, it is still not satisfying on the whole.Motivation is not a recent subject of extensive investigation in applied linguistics. Overseas and domestic researchers have studied this issue from different points of view. But overseas researchers are mainly focused on the constructing of theories. There are great differences in the learning environment between overseas and domestic students, so overseas research results are difficult to be directly used in foreign language learning and teaching of China.The subjects of this research are the 602 students in Grade 9 from Huiyang Junior Middle School in Huizhou city. The research instruments used in this research are questionnaires and interviews,and the tool for analyzing data is SPSS19.The paper presents two questions: 1.What are the differences in English learning motivation between high-achievers and low-achievers in junior middle schools? 2. What types of English learning motivation can greatly improve junior middle school students' English achievement?The research finds out that: 1.Students' intrinsic motivation is stronger than extrinsic motivation; 2.High-achievers' English learning motivation is stronger than that of low-achievers; 3.There are differences in attribution between high-achievers and low-achievers; 4.Different individuals have different English learning motivations; 5.Intrinsic learning motivation can be enhanced to improve students' English achievement more.In the conclusion part, the author attempts to give some implications in junior middle school English teaching: 1.Help students form the goal to cultivate autonomous learning ability; 2.Help students experience a sense of accomplishment; 3.Create a harmonious relationship between teachers and students; 4.Use reward properly. 5.Be a patient teacher;6.Make good use of computer and internet. In the end, the author summarizes the limitations of this study and presents some suggestions for future research.