A Study On The Application Of Cognitive Motivation Theory In The Transformation Of Junior High School Students With English Learning Difficulties

Nowadays,some junior high school students have difficulties in learning English due to various reasons in China.However,the existence of junior high school students with English learning difficulties(ELD)is against the core of the curriculum reform “Teachers should work for the development of each student”,which has presented a tough challenge for English teaching in junior high school.Therefore,at present,how to transform junior high school students with ELD is the most urgent problem to be solved by every English teacher in China.Based on the cognitive motivation theory,this thesis applies some incentives to junior high school students with ELD,which aims to test the effectiveness of these incentives to transform their attitudes towards English learning and improve their English language ability,and investigate their perspectives on these incentives.The author conducted a four-month teaching experiment in Class One,Grade Seven and Class Two,Grade Seven of Fuzhou Overseas Chinese High School.According to the observation of every student’s performance in one month and the English scores of the examination at the beginning of the second semester,fifty students whose performance was poor and who failed this English examination were selected as the research subjects.In the next two months,the incentives based on the cognitive motivation theory were applied to motivating them to work hard at English.All the data collected from the questionnaires and tests was analyzed with SPSS 13.0.Through the analysis of the experimental data and some information from the interview,the author finds that the incentives based on the cognitive motivation theory can transform the attitude of junior high school students with ELD towards English learning and improve their English language ability.In addition,nearly all of them are supportive of the incentives based on the cognitive motivation theory.In general,the incentives based on the cognitive motivation theory can contribute to transform junior high school students with ELD.