The Stimulation of the Vocational School Students’ English Learning Motivation

趙楊艷

摘 要：本文旨在找出影響中職學(xué)生英語學(xué)習(xí)動機的可能因素，并試圖建立和提高中職學(xué)生的英語學(xué)習(xí)動機。根據(jù)本研究，學(xué)生的學(xué)習(xí)動機不僅受其內(nèi)在因素的影響，還受其成長、家庭、同伴、社會環(huán)境等因素的影響。事實上，外部因素在學(xué)生的學(xué)習(xí)中起著重要的作用。作為一名英語教師，我們應(yīng)該多關(guān)注這些因素，以便為搭建一座橋梁，讓學(xué)生更快樂、更容易、更積極地學(xué)習(xí)英語。

關(guān)鍵詞：動機;中職學(xué)生;內(nèi)在因素;外在因素

Abstract：This study aims to figure out the potential factors that could influence vocational school students motivation in learning English， and try to build and improve their English learning motivation. According to this study， students motivation is not only affected by their internal factors， but also influenced by their upbringings， family， partners， and social situation. In fact， the external factors play an important role in their study. As an English teacher， one is expected to pay more attention to these factors in order to build a bridge which makes students learn English happier， easier， and more positive.

Key Words： motivation， vocational school students， internal factors， external factors.

Ⅰ. Introduction

English is widely learned by young generation for that it is a compulsory course according to the education sector. Although English is regarded so important in China， many students find it difficult to learn English well， and some even fail or hate to learn it. Therefore， this study aims to figure out the factors that influenced students motivation to learn English. Besides， many students resist to learning English because they think it is meaningless and useless， some students are fed up with English， and some students try hard to learn it but the result is in vain. However， some students are very successful to learn such a foreign language， and easily to get satisfying results. Actually， what really matters for teachers is to arouse students interests in learning English， and their motivation is a significant factor to reach such a great achievement. Problems have been realized， and then the most important thing is to find out reasons and solutions.

Ⅱ.Literature Review

2.1 Domestic Studies

Motivation has been thought by many researchers especially in acquiring a second or foreign language. Some researchers think motivation is one variable factor of the emotion which could impact foreign language learning， and motivation for learning a foreign language have the positive correlation with learning outcomes （Wen Weiping， Zhu Yuming， 1998 ）. As English teachers， we should try our best to arouse students interests to learn English by stimulating their motivation of learning English， which will greatly improve students learning abilities. However， some teachers take it for granted that the contribution of motivation to foreign language learning is decided by students own， which will mislead teachers to do nothing to help students. In China， it is rather late to research foreign language learning motivation. Actually，? motivation could be seen as one of the emotional factors for learning a foreign language， and foreign language learning motivation is a strong motive force in learners mind which gives an impetus to learn the target language. Students learning motivation could change or be different in different societies and education systems.Therefore， students may have different needs in terms of social differences . It is right to believe that motivation can be different and play different functions in different learning contexts.

2.2 Overseas Studies

It was Gardner and Lambert that first studied students motivation of learning a foreign language in Canada. They link foreign language motivation with attitudes， interests and self-identification. It is said that a learner will be completely motivated when the learner desires to be identified with other groups. The learner wishes to show his or her own brilliant culture， which is quite different from other nations. As a matter of fact， a sincere and personal interests in the people and culture represented by the other language group also attract a learner. Furthermore， a learner will make efforts to learn a foreign language when the learner find it useful for career or life， which will motivate the learners desire to master a foreign language. In fact， it is the function of a language that help peoples life. A learners extrinsic? motivation is deeply stimulated when giving award or punishment. Learning activities are also focused on when the learner is interested in the contents. In educational psychology， there has been a distinction made between them. Students natural curiosity and interest energize their learning （Brown 1996）. Students ‘ intrinsic motivation is also important when learning a foreign language for it is students natural curiosity and interests without any external affects. Actually， intrinsic motivation is the students direct inner feelings.? However， since the 1990s criticism has been raised that the Gardners foreign language learning motivation theory is limited that can not cover all possible kinds of factors. Learning a foreign language is so complicated that can not be explained by only one theory of Gardner. In order to do further studies， western scholars attempted to enlarge the research field and knew more about the foreign language learning motivation. More and more studies have been done by scholars with multiple perspectives including neurobiology， behaviorism， psychology， cognition， and social constructivism， which affects teachers pay more attention to the learners motivation during teaching a foreign language. In Krashens Affective Filter Hypothesis， Krashen thinks that learning motivation is the psychological response out of necessity to the external and internal factors. The external factors refer to family， class， teachers， partners， social situation and atmosphere， while the internal factors are related to students age， health condition， knowledge mastery and intelligence. Not only inner factors but also external factors affect students learning motivation and influence the result of foreign language learning. As English teachers， we are expected to find out the potential factors that affect students motivation and try to figure out the methods of building and improving students motivation when teaching a foreign language. Although scholars have done a lot of work to research foreign language learning motivation， it has not as popular as China that received much attention in acquiring a foreign language， such as learners individual differences， races， cultural backgrounds， various language learning strategies.

Ⅲ. Potential factors affect students motivation

For those vocational school students， most of them belong to bai people and come from rural family. They have few opportunities to know English： on the one hand， they are curious about English and they regard it quite mysterious; on the other hand， they refuse to accept new things and fail to face new challenges. During their spare time， they prefer to use their bai language rather than Chinese. In other words， English， as their foreign language， is their third language to learn. Sometimes， they are influenced by their mother tongue a lot， which disturbs those students pronounce English correctly. A language is created to express ones feeling or use it to communicate with others. Those students are used to speaking bai language for that they are quite familiar with it. The less frequent students speak English， the more difficult they find in learning English.? As a matter of fact， what students are taught in class is very boring for them for those contents are from the textbooks. In addition， teachers rarely create interesting situation during English class in order to finish teaching the textbooks within the given time. Students are also given little time to use what they learned to talk with partners in class. After class， students in vocational school spend a little time on their study and they usually hang out with friends or focus on their phones. Therefore， English becomes a big challenge on their way to dream. It takes much time to learn English well especially for our vocational school students， for those students English is poor， most of them lose interests in learning English， and they used to get low grades of their examinations. They even lose confidence to learn English well， which makes English become a big challenge of their compulsory courses. As a result， English teachers in vocational school find it difficult to teach such students， and how to change students attitude towards English learning is also a challenging problem. There are a lot of studies have been done by scholars about internal factors that affect students learning motivation， and English teachers emphasize these factors a lot. However， the research on foreign language learning motivation is mainly focused on the students motivation itself， how students behave to reflect the situation of English learning motivation also matters. Teachers behavior also influence students learning motivation. A teacher is required to do sufficient preparation about teaching contents. Furthermore， teachers feedback also changes students motivation towards English learning. Some students lose confidence in English just because a teacher says something passively， especially when they answer questions in class.They are also afraid of making mistakes when answering questions or reading passages. The current study about foreign language learning motivation does not intends to examine the characteristics of different level areas， such as the northern and southern cities of China， the cities and counties， as a result of some different social environmental development. This study intends to address the following two questions：

1） How teachers motivate students English learning，

2） How teachers do to improve their behavior in order to help students English learning motivation.

This study is as to the students feelings about the teachers stimulation behavior in English class， in order to know whether it could be promoted， and whether students motivation category could be changed. For this research carried out in a vocational school， it will be the basis of future study with the social factors which are related to form or influence students learning motivation. And this study just considers this perspective， trying to find out the real situation in English class.

Ⅳ. Methods of building & improving students motivation

For teachers focus on examinations could be said to relate to teachers cognition， or belief. For one thing， teachers are influenced by their teaching experience during a long period. And they may summarize some characteristic about exams， the ones could help students to get more scores at exams. For another， the current exam system in our country causes teachers feedback tended from English usage capability to exams. Correspondingly， teachers used to regard exams as teaching centre， neglecting the significance of English learning in students life or the meaning of learning English.

This could influence students to pay attention to things about exams， if a teacher gives feedback on exams for a long time. Students may think teachers evaluation about their answers to questions in class very important， which leads their learning gravity transferred to exams. They would also pay attention to the emphasis what teachers feedback focuses on， according to the massages from teachers. Then the tendency of students motivation for English learning is tend to the instrumental one because the information in students mind about English learning from teachers is always for exams， which proves that students motivation of English learning could be transferred with teachers feedback and the teachers feedback focuses on exams is admitted and accepted by most students. There is little conflict on the problem that whether teachers feedback should make exams as centre between teachers and students. The students agree that it is useful for their English learning by the teachers evaluation focused on exams because they also think knowledge about exams is more significant than others. From this， we can claim that students attention in a vocational school is still on examinations， which tends to learn English as an instrument. Students opinions about the English learning could change， if teachers inspire students simply on one aspect of English knowledge. As the result， students spend much time on teachers evaluation in English class， of which the information about English learning makes expression in students mind. Once teacher emphasized things about exams， such as English grammar， exam skills， some rules， student would tread them as the whole of English learning. So the teachers stimulation for students English learning focus is just for the exams.

As an English teacher， one should focus on the students scores. It does not mean that scores are the most important part in learning English. When teaching English， a teacher is expected to arouse students interests in order to gain a great result. The same content can be showed by different means. Leading in a new class， music， pictures， videos can be showed to students， which will greatly arouse students interests or motivate students to learn new language points. Actually， presenting the language points with a meaningful situation that students are quite familiar with is also a great idea to get students attention.

For example， during my English class， when teaching Attributive Clause， I find some examples that students are interested in， and the result is satisfying， all the students concentrate on what I said. Although the lead - in part costs much time， it really counts.

Praise is also significant in class， which gives students enough confidence to believe themselves. When to praise and how to praise are essentials for teachers to consider.

As for students spend a little time on English， the English corner will be helpful. Students are expected to use English only to talk with each other within the given time in classroom， who breaks the rule will be punished to tell a short story in English. If they can not express themselves they can use body language. There is no need to pay much attention to the grammar rules， and meaning comes first. The more frequent that students speak English， the more confident they are. Gradually， the motivation of learning English is greatly improved， at least they are no longer afraid of making mistakes. It is really a great big change.

Ⅴ. Conclusion

As the review has demonstrated， there is a lot of interesting work to do in English learning motivation research. This study intends to investigate the circumstance of teachers behaviors to motivate students English learning motivation in a vocational school. The results indicate that students English learning is also embodied with a tendency of instrumental motivation. However， the teacher in a vocational school begins to pay attention to develop students integrated motivation. The situation has started to transfer to meet the requirements of English curriculum reformation， although the aim of English learning for both students and teachers is to pass the English exam for future education. On this occasion， it is necessary for teachers to master some effective and efficient motivating strategies to accelerate the process of integrated motivation of students English learning realizing. There is also something important that teachers need to change， such as the teaching content， teaching method application， and so on to strengthen and promote students self-confidence and strong learning motivation. In this study， some suggestions are provided for teachers to consider， for example， it is important to transform teachers theory and belief to carry out the teaching activities. From the students perspective， it is significant for their improvements of classroom learning. Students in a vocational school need to set out higher expectations for English learning and teachers should do all what they can to help students make progress in English learning. It also needs considerable research to make clear what and how teachers should do fundamentally. While recognizing the limitations of this study， it seems imperative that teachers make some necessary improvement to enhance students English learning motivation effectively and efficiently. Obviously， if the students are interested in learning English， they will be positive and active to participate in activities in class. It is absolutely true that if the vocational school students are well motivated， they are eager to learn English and they will be active to participate in class activities， showing their great desire to speak English and finish homework as quickly as possible to reach the teachers standard， otherwise， if those students have no interest in English， they are forced to take part in the class activities. From this， English teachers can clearly know that it is essential for them to try every means to stimulate vocational school students motivation and arouse vocational school students learning motivation and attitudes towards the language and its speakers. Just as Gardner said， desire， effort and effect are three essential elements in inspiring vocational school students motivation. If English teachers pay much attention to these perspectives and try their best to stimulate students English learning motivation， I believe vocational school students will receive a good results and be interested in learning English without forcing them to do anything.

It is greatly expected that this study can serve to inspire more researchers home and abroad for a better study of how to stimulate vocational school students motivation. This study is insufficient for that the writers knowledge and ability is limited. Therefore， the writer is expecting the later generations to revise it， amend it， and complete it.

References

[1] Brown， H.D. 1996. Teaching by Principles： An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy.

[2] 文衛(wèi)平，朱玉明.外語學(xué)習(xí)情感障礙研究[M].西安：西北大學(xué)出版社.1998. 23-55.