A Study On The Effect Of Senior High School Students’ Second Language Motivational Self System On Their English Achievement

With the acceleration of China’s internationalization process,English has been given a very high status in China,and English achievement has become an important criteria for high school students’evaluation.Motivation plays an important role in second language learning;therefore,it has always been a great concern of many scholars and teachers.In 2005,D?rnyei proposed the theoretical framework of second language motivational self system（L2MSS）,based on the possible self theory and Self-discrepancy theory.The system mainly includes three dimensions:ideal second language self（IL2S）,ought-to second language self（OL2S）and Second language learning experience（SLLE）.Nowadays,this theory has become a new hotspot in the research field of second language motivation,but the research on high school students is not perfect,so it is necessary to carry out this research.In this study,227 students from four classes of Grade Two in a senior high school in Ningde were taken as the research subjects.The author used Professor Liu Zhen’s adaptation of the D?rnyei’s questionnaire about L2MSS and a statistical tool software（SPSS 21.0）to carry out the empirical research.The research questions are as follows:1)What is the situation of high school students’L2MSS?2)What is the correlation between high school students’L2MSS and English achievement?3)What is the effect of high school students’L2MSS on English achievement?In addition,the author also randomly selected 12 students and 3 teachers to conduct interviews about L2MSS,which added a more sufficient basis to confirm the relevant data of this research.The results show that:1)The L2MSS is widespread among high school students.The level of L2MSS is upper-middle,and the levels of the three dimensions from high to low are:IL2S,SLLE and OL2S;2)There is a positive correlation between the level of the L2MSS and English achievement（r=0.349,P=0.000）.Among the three dimensions,IL2S（r₁=0.456,P=0.000）and SLLE（r₂=0.428,P=0.000）have an obvious positive correlation with English achievement,while the correlation between OL2S and English achievement is negligible（r₃=0.022,P=0.737）;3)The level of students’L2MSS has a positive effect on English achievement（y=44.644+0.268x）,which can explain 12.1%of the variance of English achievement.Among the three dimensions of L2MSS,IL2S and SLLE can significantly predict English achievement,while OL2S not.The multiple regression equation is:y=39.644+0.154x₁+0.130x₂（y represents English achievement,x₁IL2S,and x₂SLLE）,and it can explain 25%of the variance of the English achievement.Based on the findings of the study,the author puts forward some suggestions for English teaching from the perspective of constructing a positive L2MSS,which aims to improve students’IL2S,enrich students’SLLE and exert the correct role of external pressure.Thereby teachers can enhance high school students’learning motivation,and finally achieve the effect of improving English achievement.