An Investigation On The Influence Of Corrective Feedback From Junior High School English Teachers On Students’ Learning Motivation

Teachers’ corrective feedback is the main way for students to know their own language acquisition or other language behaviors,and it is also an effective resource for students to reflect on themselves,correct language output and improve the quality of the target language（Chaudron,1988:133）.Chinese English learners mainly learn English through classroom teaching,so teacher’s classroom feedback is an important way to help students learn English.Learning motivation has the functions of stimulating,guiding and encouraging individual learning behaviors and activities,and it is also an internal motivation to directly promote learning.Junior middle school is a critical period for language acquisition,and it is also an important stage for the formation and development of students’ ideals,motives and interests,which is greatly influenced by society,environment and partnership.Therefore,this study investigated the students in four classes of Grade 8 of No.90 Middle School in Tianjin,and distributed questionnaires to 212 students,among whom 9 students were interviewed to explore the influence of corrective feedback from junior high school English teachers on students’ learning motivation.This study mainly answers the following three research questions:（1）What are the impacts of different types of teachers’ corrective feedback on students’ learning motivation?（2）What are the differences in the influence of teachers’ corrective feedback on learning motivation of students at different levels?（3）What types of teachers’ corrective feedback are conducive to stimulating students’ learning motivation?Based on the data analysis results of questionnaires and interviews,we can draw the following conclusions:（1）Different types of teachers’ corrective feedback have different influences on students’ learning motivation.Compared with other types of corrective feedback,metalanguage feedback,inspiration and recasting are more conducive to stimulating students’ learning motivation;（2）There are differences in the influence of six types of corrective feedback on students’ learning motivation at different levels: for high-level students,the ways of inspiration,repetition and metalanguage feedback are beneficial to stimulate English learning motivation;For middle-level students,inspiration and metalanguage feedback are beneficial to stimulate English learning motivation;For low-level students,recasting and inspiring is beneficial to stimulate the motivation of English learning;（3）Students generally believe that indirect euphemism can make them more acceptable,help students to have positive cognitive and emotional experience in the process of English learning,and thus provide good conditions for stimulating their motivation in English learning.Therefore,junior high school English teachers should consider students’ individual differences in classroom error correction,use indirect and tactful error correction methods to inspire students step by step,and use various corrective feedback methods to help them improve themselves better,thus promoting students’ development.