Abstract

Motivation is considered as one of the critical factors influencing students’ English learning. The new English curriculum standards also emphasizes that teachers should inspire and strengthen students’ interest in learning, guide students to transform interest into stable leaning motivation and regards learning motivation as one of the emotional goals of English teaching. 

Nevertheless, at present, a majority of students in junior middle school take entering senior high school as their main learning aim without strong internal motivation. It is a common problem faced by most of the teachers that how to use effective teaching strategies to stimulate students’ English learning motivation. Therefore, researcher considers it as the purpose of this study. 

This research tries to find the types of motivations of students in the second year of junior middle schools, find the relationship between motivation types, learning condition and learning effectiveness, tend to give tentative suggestions to students in junior middle school especially the ones in the second years. Through theoretical support and experiment, the researcher draws following conclusions: (1) Learning motivation has a positive correlation with the time length students spend on learning English. (2) Students who are in different English level show significant differences in grades, interest motivation and learning styles. (3) Students have strong motivation of information medium and interests, they have weak motivation of study abroad and achievement motivation. 

According to the results, researcher gives some tentative suggestions to junior school teaching and studying. 

Key words: English-learning motivation; Junior Middle School Students; English teaching

Contents

Abstract

摘  要

1.-Introduction-1

1.1-Research background-1

1.2-Significance and aim of the study-2

1.3-Research questions-3

1.4-Structure of the research-3

2.-Literature review-4

2.1-Definition of motivation-4

2.2-Relevant studies abroad and at home-6

2.2.1-Relevant studies abroad-6

2.2.2-Relevant studies at home-7

3.-Methodology-8

3.1-Participants-8

3.2-Instruments-8

3.2.1-Questionnaire-8

3.2.2 Interview-9

4. Data analysis and discussion-10

4.1 Data analysis of the research-10

4.1.1 English learning condition-10

4.1.2 English study motivation-11

4.2 Discussion-12

4.2.1. Major types of motivations-12

4.2.2 Major findings-12

5. Conclusion-14

5.1. Summary of the study-14

5. 2 Pedagogical implication and tentative suggestions-14

5.3 Limitation and further research-16

References-17

Appendix A   Questionnaire for Students-19