A Study On Stimulating Motivational Belief Of English Low-achievers

Although almost all the Grade 9 students have been expected to have the similar English level after the similar English education in the same area,in fact there are still many students that cannot get satisfying scores.So,it is very necessary to carry out a careful study to find out the reasons that cause low scores in English study.Some researches show that motivational belief is an important related factor that influences students' learning process and learning effect.However,domestic empirical research and quantitative analysis are not sufficient for how to adopt effective methods to stimulate motivational belief of low-achievers.For this reason,this thesis will try to make some contributions in related field.This thesis carries out questionnaires,test papers and interviews to explore the methods for stimulating the motivational belief of low-achievers.240 Grade 9 students,especially 88 low-achievers,participate in the questionnaires and tests.And 6low-achievers and 6 high-achievers are randomly selected for personal interview.The study mainly deals with the following three questions:(1)What is the correlation between motivational belief and English scores of low-achievers?(2)What characteristics do low-achievers have in motivational belief compared to high-achievers?(3)What should English teachers do to improve motivational belief and English scores of low-achievers?The study uses questionnaire,English tests,and interview to collect data.Through a combination of quantitative analysis,qualitative analysis and teaching experiment,the results are shown as follows.Firstly,there is a significantly positive correlation between motivational belief andEnglish scores.Expectancy and value components are the most important factors associated with low-achievers' English scores,while affective components is not as significantly associated with low-achievers' English scores as the author's hypothesis.Furthermore,intrinsic goal orientation(IG),self-efficacy for learning and performance(SE),and task value beliefs(TV)show the highest association with low-achievers' English scores,while extrinsic goal orientation(EG)and control of learning beliefs(CLB)show relatively low association with low-achievers' English scores.Secondly,high-achievers show significant higher motivational belief than low-achievers in IG,EG,TV,CLB,and SE five domains,and show stronger consistency.It means high-achievers show explicit positive motivation in English learning;while the low-achievers show vague and negative motivation.Furthermore,compared with high-achievers,low-achievers' peer relationships,teacher-student relationships,parents-child relationships,and learners' imaginations are also important factors affecting motivation.Lastly,through the comparison between pre-test and post-test,it shows that the teacher adopts appropriate teaching methods to establish a good teacher-student relationship,increase IG,SE,and TV of low-achievers,and cultivate their learning autonomy to improve low-achievers' English scores,serving as a reference for English teachers to improve low-achievers' motivational belief and English scores in junior high schools.