On the Cultivation and Stimulation of Junior Students’English Learning Motivation

I. Introduction

It is well known to us all that mastery of English is playing an increasingly significant role around the world. However, English learning is influenced by many external and internal factors such as aptitude, personal interest, motivation, initiative and so on. Among all these factors, motivation plays a dominant role in second language acquisition.“Interest is the best teacher, and students learn with a certain interest and motivation as soon as they come into English class” (Shu, 2006: 21-20) Therefore, students’English learning motivation is not only associated with students’academic performance but also directly related to the long-term development and competitiveness.

II. Literature review

2.1 Definition of motivation

Although numerous researchers have made painstaking efforts to the study of learning motivation. It is hard to come to an agreement on the definition of motivation. As we all know that several definitions of learning motivation widely accepted by public are as follows:“Motivation involves the process that energize, direct, and sustain behavior. That is, motivated behavior is behavior that is energized, directed and sustained ”(John, 2005: 414).“Motivation refers to a kind of intrinsic motive which promotes students to study directly”( Mao, 2006: 72-73). It signifies that students’learning motivation is a sort of internal emotion which conduce to promote students to learn. ”motivation is generally regarded as kind of inherent power, a kind of emotion and a kind of desire to get people to take action”(Wang, 1997: 95).

2.2 Classification of motivation

2.2.1 Integrative motivation and instrumental motivation

Gardner and Lambert started to study L2 learning motivation research in Canada in 1950s, and motivation is classified into instrumental and integrative motivation by social psychologist Gardner, he asserted that L2 learning motivation consists of four components:a goal, we need to set an attainable goal. Effortful behavior,we need to make painstaking efforts to achieve our goal after setting an objective. A strong desire to achieve the goal and attitude. Just as an old saying goes: attitude is everything, we can see that having a positive language learning attitude is the key to mastering a foreign language.

2.2.2 Intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation

Intrinsic motivation refers to the motivation aroused by people’s intrinsic demand for learning, such as the learners’interest, curiosity or the desire of self -fulfillment and achievement. While extrinsic motivation is defined as the motivation brought about by external inducement. When students work hard to get good grades, win their parents’favour, avoid punishment, get teachers’praise or get rewards such as pocket money, we can draw a conclusion that their motivation is definitely extrinsic. The aim of learning or hard work is not for the knowledge itself but for the external gains in order to attain a certain goal. And the outward praise and rewards are able to hearten students to work and study more actively and proactively.

III. Methodology

This survey attempts to explore the main traits of different types of students English learning motivation in junior middle school. The author selects 180 students from four classes in Zhongbao middle school as the research objects. In order to apprehend the students’English learning motivation better, 6 students and 5 English teachers are regarded as interview objects.

3.1 Research objectives

The survey aims at dissecting the status quo of students’English learning motivation in junior middle school. The author hopes that through this study the following questions can be worked out: Firstly, what are the major characteristics of junior middle school students’English learning motivation? Secondly, how is the intensity of English learning motivation of junior middle school students? Thirdly,what are the major factors that influence students’English learning motivation? Fourthly, what should teachers do to stimulate junior middle school students’learning motivation and keep their learning enthusiasm. It is hoped that this study will be beneficial to teachers in junior middle schools to have a good master of the present situation of students English learning motivation and take effective measures and joint efforts to promote students’English learning.

3.2 Research subjects

The research was carried out on October 2020 and was made among the students of four selected classes from class 5, class 6, class 7 and class 8,in Grade 8 in Zhongbao middle school. This is a rural school. There are 180 students who participate in the survey. The majority of students are stay-at home children who come from village and most of their families have the similar conditions. So the students are representative.

IV Conclusion

Motivation is defined as a sort of interior driving force, which enables the person to take actions, just like the motor. The motivation is combined by effort and desire of achieving learning goal (Jia, 2004: 19-20 ) in this study, we discover the types of junior middle school students’learning motivation and the major reasons which influence English learning motivation, and then we come up with some approaches to cultivate students’English learning motivation. On the basis of the data analysis mentioned above, the conclusions can be drawn as follows: Firstly, intrinsic motivation influences junior middle school students’English learning. Interior factors are crucial and external factors work only through interior factors. So teachers need to try to boost students’internal English learning motivation. Secondly, instrumental motivation is conducive to junior middle school students’English learning. For English teachers, we must realize that the extrinsic motivation can’t last too long for learning English. Only the intrinsic motivation of students from their own needs can maintain students’interest for English learning. We are supposed to pay attention to stimulate students’internal motivation, and fully develop creativity and learning initiative of students, and then students’instrumental motivation can be converted to intrinsic motivation. Thirdly, It is essential for teachers to make students know the real situation of their own English learning and lead them to the right attribution and arouse students’interest in English learning to the utmost. When the students’intrinsic motivation is aroused, they can face and surmount all kinds of difficulties with no fear. The author analyzes the factors that influence junior middle school students learning motivation in English and put forward some feasible strategies. The author makes the conclusions through studying some famous education theory and combining her own experience and research. But, there are still a lot of problems to be perfected. For example, in the interview, we can’t make sure that whether interviewers’answers are authentic or not. Whether they express their real thought or not. Besides students’learning motivation is quite complicated, it is not that easy to find. In this research, only 180 students of two classes from Grade 8 are selected as the research subjects, it signifies that the span of the study is limited. This research is only based on junior middle school students who are from Grade 8, the further study ought to be done to study whether it is suitable for other students who are from different grades. In view of the demerits of survey above. I would like to come up with the following suggestions for further research: Firstly, considering that only 180 students are included in the survey, so the study in the future are supposed to choose a large number of students so as to increase the reliability of the results. Secondly, the students we choose are just from four classes in junior middle school, the further study need to encompass a wider range of subjects.