Research On The English Reading Motivation Of Junior-level Ethnic Students

English reading as an essential part in English learning influences English achievement directly.In junior middle school,English is a required subject and English reading plays an important role in English learning.In order to improve students' reading ability,many studies focus on reading strategies,English reading teaching methodologies and reading models(Anderson,2004,Furr,2007,Shelton-Strong,2012;Li Meilang,2008).Few researchers focus on reading motivation in a second/foreign language: Lau(1997)designed The Chinese Reading Motivation Questionnaire,Tao Zhanyong(2008)investigated students' reading motivational factors in Senior Middle School,Cai Shaohui(2013)explored postgraduates' network reading motivational dimension.However,little research has been done on ethnic students' reading motivation.The present study attempts to investigate ethnic students' English reading motivation in junior high school.Two research questions are focused in this study: 1)What are the major factors influencing ethnic students' reading motivation? 2)What is the relationship between reading achievement and reading motivation among ethnic students? 300 ethnic students and three English teachers participated in the study.Three main research instruments were used to collect data: 1)reading motivation questionnaire adapted on Wigfield and Guthrie's(1997)MRQ(Motivation for Reading Questionnaire);2)English reading test;3)semi-structured interviews.With the help of SPSS 18.0 statistical software,factor analysis,correlation analysis and descriptive analysis were operated.The results revealed that there are 6major factors influencing ethnic students' reading motivation: Intrinsic Motivation,Reading Avoidance,Extrinsic Motivation,Reading Efficacy,Reading for Culture and Reading Challenge.Among these factors,5 out of 6 factors including Intrinsic Motivation,Reading Avoidance,Extrinsic Motivation,Reading Efficacy and Reading for Culture were significantly correlated with ethnic students' reading motivation.Based on the data analysis,three pedagogical implications for English teachersare provided:1)Pay more attention on ethnic students' reading interests through face to face communication and know more about ethnic students' reading tendency;2)Assess ethnic students' reading ability objectively by China's Standards of English Language Ability(2018)or step by step English reading tests created by English teachers;3)Cultivate ethnic students' cultural awareness by extensive English reading.English teachers can offer some cultural English reading materials to students and make students know more about ethnic culture.