A Study on English Learning Motivation of Students in Xining Sports Sports Middle School

青海省西寧市體育實(shí)驗(yàn)中學(xué) 范月丹

1.Analysis on the features of learning motivation

1.1 Differences From the Grade

We can find that students in different grades have different learning motivation. Take the intrinsic motivation first,there are great differences in the aspects of interest and the desire to achievement. The students in junior 2 got higher marks in these two aspects than the students in senior2. And as for the extrinsic motivation,the students in junior 2 got higher marks in all items except the pressure. So they think more highly about the external influence, and they do believe parents’ proud, teachers’encouragement and friends’ honor and so on. They have stronger consciousness to be succeeded.But for the pressure, they take less than the senior 2 students,who are facing the biggest national exam.

In conclusion, both the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation decreases gradually as the students get older, and the students in senior 2 is not so interested in learning English as the ones in junior 2. And they are not so affective as the one at a younger age. So English learning motivation is stronger in junior than in senior, and it has a big declination from junior to senior.

There are two reasons causing this declination, first, the English itself, it is the subject which needs much stronger inner stimulation. However, as the new curriculum develops, the difficulty of learning English and the command of the English exams are increasing greatly.From the above description, that the differences between junior students and senior ones are mainly caused by the variable value called “l(fā)evel of hardworking”, for this value,obviously, the senior students spend less time and effort than the junior ones. That’s because it will take more time for the junior students to listen to the tape, imitate,memorize, etc, when they first learn English. But there are few senior students who will pay plenty of time for those things mentioned above. On the other hand, the senior students have little time and effort to learn English, for when they are in senior , they will face the great challenges both from the more and more difficult subjects and the higher and higher training requirements. Therefore, they consider English as a big problem when they can’t easily pass the exams like in the junior. That is their obstacle which upset them in a way. Gradually, they will lose confidence in learning English and they became negative even refused. So the learning motivation is dying away.

Secondly, the limitation of our educational system. We are retrained in the test-oriented model , as a result, we pay more attention on the scores , which is really a single evaluation system. English, as a language,lost its essence of communicating but became a tool for getting high scores. Under such great pressure of getting higher scores and admitting to the higher schools, the students are absorbed in larger number of exercises,and get spellbound in all kinds of grammar rules. So language learning becomes boring and insipid. And the students gains less and less positive experience when they learn English, while the nervous affections rise.The older they grow, the more setbacks they will go through. So the learning motivation lows down as the upset things occur more.For the evaluation value, as mentioned before, it is a single standard which focuses more on the summative assessment rather than the formative assessment.In details, the assessment for English leaning in middle school focuses on the mechanical and memorable knowledge of vocabulary, sentences grammar rules, and so on, it lacks the creative experience such as language using and communicating.During the whole process of English learning, the students can’t get enough happy and comfortable learning experience,but replaced with the pressure of scores. In this way, the pressure of learning increases,the extrinsic learning motivation rises, meanwhile, the intrinsic learning motivations is getting weaker and weaker, and finally disappears.

In a conclusion, there are differences in learning motivation between junior and senior students, as they get older, they enrich their social experience. And their learning motivation will change from a “simple curiosity” to a“concrete goal” which is purposive and socially oriented.They will consider more about admission, employment, comparison with peers, expects from parents,and so on. All these can develop the extrinsic motivation. In addition, we should notice that the learning motivation is a dynamic factor conducting their learning behaviors.

1.2 Differences From Gender

The writer compared the learning motivation between the boys and the girls.

Table1.1Comparison between different genders

From the above study, we can find girls are talented in learning languages, so the whole society or the environment give higher expect on girls’English level as well as the higher appreciation on their success in learning language.As a result, with all kinds of positive and acceptable impetus,the girls’ learning motivation can be stimulated. And they will be interested in learning and want to improve their competence.Moreover, when they grow up, it is more possible for most of the girls will tend to agree with the authority and principles .So the girls will mostly agree on the value of learning English.

During the teaching in the classroom, we can find that the girls are more likely to spend time on the repeatable and simple tasks, while the boys prefer to take part in the tasks which are challenging and interesting.So If we can’t provide enough challenging and interesting tasks for the boys for English learning, their intrinsic learning motivation of them will get hurt, and the extrinsic motivation is their only dependence. Furthermore, because the boys in sports middle school are more naughty and noisy, the teachers control and require them more than the girls, it can also reduce their initiative to learn and create. Consequently, their intrinsic learning motivation will be decline.

2.Conclusion

Through the main aspects of learning motivation, the writer put forward some strategies to stimulate the English learning motivation in sports middle school, and also the writer carried out the strategies into the English teaching in the second semester.

And it is a good way to attract students’ interests in learning English pertinently by increasing their self-identity.Then, the teacher should do every effort to return the class to the students, and let them explore the knowledge themselves.Finally, diverse the classes to keep fresh.