中生英语学习动机差异调查研究-以淮安市为例

论文总字数：45835字

摘 要

本文的理论根据是教育心理学，概括当前研究出来的各种动机理论和研究成果，从内部学习动机、外部学习动机、动机强度以及成败归因四个维度分析了淮安市重点中学和普通中学学生英语学习动机的差异。本研究采用问卷调查的方式，收集所需数据。通过分析得出两所学校的学生在内部动机方面差异最明显，而且学生的内部动机对其学习影响最大。本研究还得出教师应当营造良好的学习氛围以激发学生的内部学习动机，从而促进学生学业的发展。

关键词：英语学习动机；动机差异；内部动机

Contents

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Background of study 1

1.2 Purpose of study 1

1.3 Definition of terms 2

2. Literature Review 2

2.1 Theory about learning motivation 3

2.2 Classification of learning motivation 3

3. Methodology 4

3.1 Research personality 5

3.2 Research questions 5

3.3 Method 5

3.4 Participants 6

3.5 Instrument 6

3.6 Data collection procedures 7

3.7 Data analysis 7

4. Results 7

4.1 Internal motivation 8

4.2 External motivation 10

4.3 Intensity of students" learning motivation 12

4.4 Attribution to success or failure 14

4.5 Differences between the two schools 15

5. Discussion 16

5.1 Cultivating students" internal motivation 16

5.2 Exerting students" external motivation 16

5.3 Improving students’ motivation 17

5.4 Grasping key period of learning motivation 18

5.5 Guiding correct attribution 18

6. Conclusion 19

Works Cited 20

1. Introduction

1.1 Background of study

At present, in many areas of China, English teaching still follows the old tradition, with teachers as the center, and neglects the decisive role of students" subjective initiative. As a result, students begin to have no interest in English, English learning motivation declines, and English scores are not satisfactory. Due to the spread of English learning around the world, the need for an effective teaching model is determined. Effective teaching strategies, including strategies to motivate students to learn, have become part of the ELT education model. The new curriculum reform attaches importance to students" learning motivation. Learning motivation is the psychological factor in influencing and motivating students to carry out learning activities. Under the effect of self-regulation, individuals align their own internal requirements with the external incentives of learning behaviors, thus forming the factors of encouraging, motivating and sustaining students, which is the driving force behind learning behavior. There is no doubt that learning motivation plays a very important role in the learner"s foreign language learning process, and learners who are not motivated to learn can"t fully participate in learning.

1.2 Purpose of study

As a student of English teacher major, I often encounter a few students who are not interested in English learning, short of English motivation, and can"t learn English. What are the motivations? What are the factors that influence motivation? How to cultivate and motivate students" English learning motivation? It is a question worthy of consideration and exploration, and it is also a common problem faced by teachers. English is a very important subject. Some students have told me that they have good grades in junior school and love English heartily. But in the junior high school, they gradually become a bit bored or somewhat afraid of learning English. This is not a single special but a common phenomenon at the moment. If students" motivations cannot be effectively stimulated, it is difficult to organize effective teaching and promote effective learning. Therefore, through the analysis of the differences in motivation of the two school students, it is the main purpose of my research to explore ways to enhance the achievements of junior high school students.

1.3 Definition of terms

Motivation is the psychological tendency or internal drive that motivates and sustains the action of the organism and directs the action to a certain goal. The American psychologist Woodworth first applied it to psychology in 1918 and was considered to be the intrinsic motivation for deciding behavior. Learning motivation refers to an internal motivation that directly promotes students" learning, and is a requirement to advance and lead students to learn. The definition of the concept of "learning motivation", modern educational psychology does not simply define it as the reason for stimulating and maintaining students" learning activities, but gives them more meaning. In psychology, students" learning motivation is generally split into two classes. The first category is intrinsic motivation, which refers to the motivation caused by internal reasons such as the individual"s internal interests, curiosity or achievement needs, and not rewards or score outside the learning activities, in other words, enjoy it. The second type of motivation to support learning is extrinsic motivation, which refers to motivations motivated by external rewards and punishments or fear of failures such as exams.

2. Literature Review

2.1 Theory about learning motivation

At present, foreign and domestic have already put forward some theories about learning motivation. Among them are some motivational theories that have enlightenment and help in foreign language teaching, such as self-efficacy theory, expectation theory, goal theory, attribution theory and so on. The earliest motivational theory stems from behaviorism, and psychologists who study human behavior have proposed various motivational theories. Behaviorism theory follow the external behavior of humans that can be observed. This theory pays overfull attention to the exterior elements that influence motivation, ignoring the learner"s mental process. Cognitive theory study the mental of people in learning. Cognitive theory holds that motivation is based on three factors: self-efficacy, goals, and expectations for success. The cognitive theory of motivation emphasizes the psychological factors of human beings, but does not take into account the social and environmental influences. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce the social construction theory of motivation. Social constructionist is the most active research field in current cognitive psychology. Its concept is that the learning is the process. Learners construct new knowledge build on the original knowledge. Constructionist believes that learning is an intrinsic motivation because learners are eager to master new knowledge. And this craving is from the curiosity of learners, which is the prototype of the internal motivation of the students.

2.2 Classification of learning motivation

Human motives are complex and diverse, and can be arranged from different angles. Nowadays, educational psychology scholars mainly classify learning motivation according to the following four aspects: the source of incentives, the social significance of learning motivation, the length of time for learning motivation, and the motivation of school performance in school context.

The sources of incentives generated by learning motivation can be divided into internal learning motivation and external learning motivation. Internal motivation is the internal thing that attract the learner from the learner, that is, the motivation generated by the student"s interest in the activity itself. External learning motivation refers to the motivation that comes from outside the learner, that is, the motivation that is stimulated by external incentives outside the learning activity.

According to the social significance of learning motivation, it can be divided into noble learning motivation and low-level learning motivation. The criterion for judging the motivation and low level of learning motivation is to see if it is beneficial to society and the collective. If learning is regarded as contributing to society and fulfilling its obligations, it is a noble learning motivation; learning as a means of hunting personal thing is a low-level learning motivation.

According to the length of the learning motivation, it can be divided into the direct learning motivation of the close-up and the indirect learning motivation of the perspective. The former refers to the motivation for an activity caused by the direct result of the activity. This motivation is very specific, but not stable enough to change easily with changes in the environment. The latter refers to the motivation for an activity caused by understanding the social significance of the activity and the social value of the activity result. It has strong stability and persistence and can work for a long time.

According to the different academic motivations in the school situation, Ausubel divides the motivation into three aspects: cognitive drive, self-improvement drive and subsidiary drive. Cognitive drive is the need to know, understand and master knowledge and solve problems. Self-improvement drive is the need for an individual to win a corresponding position because of his or her ability to work. Affiliated internal driving force refers to the need for individuals to do their work and study well in order to obtain the approval or recognition of the elders (such as parents and teachers).

3. Methodology

3.1 Research personality

This article is a study of the differences in English learning motivation among junior high school students. In the last semester, I participated in the internship work organized by the college. During the work, I found that the students in that school did not have a high motivation. They were not very willing to answer questions actively in class. In addition, some students even give up learning English. It worked when I used some external incentives to motivate them to learn. Therefore, I really want to study why the performance between students has such large differences? As a young teacher who is about to leave school and become a junior high school English teacher, I also want to know how to stimulate students" motivation to learn and promote their academic development. Therefore, I conducted a survey on the motivational differences between the two schools in Huai"an to find the answer I wanted.

3.2 Research questions

In this study, a sample survey of junior high school students from two schools was conducted through questionnaire survey, and relevant data were collected to analyze the differences of the two school. Through it, the following questions are answered:

1. How do the motivations of students in the two schools change with the growth of grades?
2. What is the difference between the two schools in the same grade?
3. What is the difference between two schools of the same gender?
4. What is the most obvious difference?
5. What kind of motivation is it for students to improve their academic performance?

3.3 Method

This study is a quantitative study. Based on the above five questions, this paper uses the method of questionnaire survey. Since the direct evaluation of learning motivation is not easy, in order to make the analysis simple and convenient, I choose to assign the problem and collect the required data, so as to analyze and discuss the data to obtain valuable conclusions.

3.4 Participants

This study mainly investigates the differences in English learning motivation among junior high school students. Taking Huai"an City as an example, an empirical study was conducted by means of questionnaire survey. In order to ensure the rigor of the investigation and study, two different grades of junior high schools, namely a key middle school and an ordinary middle school, are randomly selected in urban middle schools. Due to limited time and conditions, sample surveys were conducted for the three grades of the two schools, and excellent grades were selected for each grade to conduct a questionnaire survey. 300 questionnaires were given and 260 were taken back, of which 250 were effective. Participants were the two junior high school students. Among these questionnaires, the number of people is as follows: the key middle school, 43 students in the first grade, 24 boys and 19 girls; 44 students in the second grade, 29 boys, 15 girls; 49 in the third grade, 30 boys, girls 19. Ordinary school, 37 in the first grade, 16 boys, 21 girls; 30 students in the second grade, 17 boys, 22 girls; 38 in the third grade, 12 boys, 26 girls. Because the quantity in the school varies, the students varies from class to class, and the number of boys and girls varies, so I use the method of looking at the average to study the difference between them.

3.5 Instrument

The questionnaire contains the school type, grade level and gender which are the independent variables, and the learning motivation which is the dependent variable. To measure these variables, my questionnaire was made by modifying some of the questions used by the Attitude/Motivation Test Battery(AMTB) developed by Gardner(1985). In this part, the learning motivation is divided into four dimensions: internal learning motivation(5 questions), external learning motivation(12 questions), learning motivation intensity(8 questions) and achievement attribution(10 questions). The questionnaire was in the form of five levels of Likert, from strong agreement to strong opposition. A represents strong agreement. B stands for agreement. C means no opinion. D stands for disagreement. E stands for very disagreement. The person who chooses A gets 5 points. The person who chooses B gets 4 points. The person who chooses C has 3 points. The person who chooses D gives 2 points. The person who chooses E takes 1 point. I translated the questions into Chinese in order to reduce the difficulties that students may meet in the way of measurement procedure. Some other information includes school number, gender, grade and school.

3.6 Data collection procedures

This study is an empirical study that requires questionnaires to be sent to the school. Due to my limited ability, my tutor helped me to contact the two middle schools in Huai"an as my school for research according to my needs. She helped me to contact the two teachers of the two schools and gave me their contact details. I contacted the two teachers to determine the appropriate time, gave the questionnaire to them, and distributed the questionnaire to the students with their help. After the students completed the questionnaire, I went to the school to take back the questionnaire and uploaded and organized the data for analysis.

3.7 Data analysis

This paper investigates the differences in English learning motivation among junior high school students and collects 250 questionnaires from the three grades of the two schools. Due to the large amount of data, SPSS is used to analyze the data. In order to visually find the difference, I chose to average the collected data. Therefore, the data obtained from the first three dimensions are analyzed from the school type, grade and gender.

4. Results

Based on the needs of the research questions, I calculated the average of the collected data. Because of the complexity, I present the data in the form of tables. In this way, the relationship between the data is obvious. In order to simplify the contents of the form, the key middle school is represented by KS, and the general middle school is represented by OS.

4.1 Internal motivation

The one to five questions in the questionnaire are developed for students to learn internal motivations.

Table1: Internal Motivation by School Type

KS = key school OS = ordinary school

From the above table, it can be vividly concluded that the intrinsic motivation of students in key middle schools is 4.20, while that of ordinary middle school students is 3.78. From this, it can be seen that from the internal motivation of learning, Key secondary school students are more motivated to learn than ordinary middle school’s. Through careful analysis, it can be found that the students in the two schools have the largest score difference in the third question and the smallest in the fifth question. The title of the third question is that I study English because I like British and American culture. The fifth question is that I want to speak English fluently. It can be seen that ordinary school students do not touch some on the culture of the United States and the United States, or that they are less influenced by the school, which makes the students" motivation in this area not very strong; However, The difference of the fifth question’s score is the smallest, and its score is also the highest of the five questions.

Table2: Internal Motivation by Grade Level

KS = key school OS = ordinary school

Let"s take a look at the changes in this dimension. The scores of the three grades of the key middle schools are 4.22, 4.50, 3.79, respectively; the scores of the three grades of the ordinary middle schools are 3.98, 3.74, and 3.61, respectively. From the data, it is not difficult to find that students in key middle schools have the strongest motivation in the second grade, while the intrinsic motivation of ordinary middle school students plays a more important role in the first grade. There is one thing in common between the two schools, that is, when students are in the third grade, the intrinsic motivation is weakened. In addition, by comparing the intrinsic motivations of the students of the same grade in the two schools, we can find that the students in the two schools have the largest score difference in the second year. It can be seen that the second year is the period of fluctuations. It is also a crucial period to stimulate them.

Table3: Internal Motivation by Gender

KS = key school OS = ordinary school

We can use the data in the table3 to catch sight of the differences in terms of gender. The table clearly tells us that the students in the same school did not have a big difference in their motivation for learning because of their gender. But what"s interesting is that we can find that girls" internal learning motivation is stronger than that of boys, whether in key middle schools or ordinary middle schools. In addition, the key scores of students in key middle schools, whether male or female, are higher. What is interesting? Boys, whether they are key middle schools or ordinary middle schools, have the lowest score in the second question, "I like English very much," which is inconsistent with the situation in their school, while girls are consistent.

4.2 External motivation

From 6 to 17 of the questionnaire were about external motivation.

Table4: External Motivation by School Type

KS = key school OS = ordinary school

From the table, the external learning motivation score of students in key middle school is 3.78, while that of students in ordinary school is 3.52. It can be seen that the students’ motivation in key schools is stronger. Through observation, it can be found that the students of key middle schools get the lowest score in the ninth question, "I learn English mainly because I have to finish the test in the senior high school entrance examination", which explains that for them, taking an English test in the senior high school entrance examination is not an important factor affecting their learning motivation. In question 15, "I learn English because English classes are easy", the score is the highest, indicating that the relaxed and pleasant classroom atmosphere is an important factor affecting their learning motivation. The students in the ordinary middle school got the lowest score in the thirteenth question, "I learn English because I like English teachers", which indicated that the teachers would not affect their learning motivation. In question 17, "parents care about my English study", the score is the highest, indicating that parents have a great influence on their learning motivation. By comparing, the difference in question 9 is the smallest, which indicates that the students have a relatively consistent view on the importance of the extrinsic motivation of English test in the middle school. On problem 13, however, they had the biggest difference. Students in key schools agree with question 13, while students in ordinary middle schools do not agree with it. Another interesting phenomenon is that the scores of ordinary middle school students are higher than those of key middle schools for several questions. They are question 6, "I study English in the hope that I can study and live abroad in the future", question 10, "I study English to pass the graduation examination", and question 16, "I want to meet my parents" wishes".

Table5: External Motivation by Grade Level

KS = key school OS = ordinary school

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