Motivation-and-English-learning

1、Gu 12 本科毕业论文Motivation and English Learning学院外国语学院专业英语（教育）年级2005级学号谷月姓名222005384051134指导教师徐红 彭奕奕成绩二九年五月OutlineThesis：Motivation is critical in language learning according to psychology and ways to motivate students are more important to English learning.I.IntroductionAmong the factors that influence

2、 English learning, motivation makes up 33 per cent.II.MotivationA.Maslows Theory in motivationB.Classification of motivationC.Personal factors in motivation III.Importance of motivation in English learningA.motivation determines study direction B.motivation determines study processC.motivation influ

3、ences the study effectIV.suggestions to motivate students in English learningA.Using various and interesting activitiesBInvolving new and effective techniquesC.High expectation and using rewards appropriatelyD.Create a relaxed and positive learning climate E.Cooperative activitiesF.Providing opportu

4、nities for students to experience successV.ConclusionAbstractMotivation, one of the most fully researched areas of individual differences in second language acquisition, is a very important factor affecting English learning. It is also closely related to the success of language learning. A learners

5、motivation will even determine the amount of time one spends in learning a language. Learning a foreign language is not a simple and easy job but sometimes it is boring and dull. Motivation is critical in English learning, thus, how to effectively motivate students in English learning is an importan

6、t problem. This paper expounds this importance and ways to motivate students. First, it shows the motivation and then explains intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and their relations, following with some personal factors that influence motivation and importance of motivation in English learning. At l

7、ast, according to the rationale, there are some suggestions to motivate students in english learning.Motivation and English Learning    Human race is now entering a brand new era. The 21st century is a time of advanced scientific and technological knowledge, and it is true that Englis

8、h plays an important role in the modernization of a country, providing a key to human education and development. According to English culture committee's report, the population of studying English in the world probably approaches 1 billion, and 1.5 to 2 billion people use English to contact with

9、 each oher every day. The report also estimates that, to 2050, most of people in the world can use English. Furthermore, English enjoys a wider application. Above 75% mails are written in English; 60% of radio programs are broadcast in English; 80% of major international prints are published in Engl

10、ish; what's more, English is regarded as the first general used language in the important international conferences. It is obvious that it has extended its antennae into every corner of the globe. In brief, English is so important that it exerts a farreaching influence in the domain of politics,

11、 military, economy, science, technology, culture, trade, transportation, etc. China, as well, has entered a completely new stage in its history. With the development of the socialist market economy of China, the improvement of technology, the raising of international status, especially along with th

12、e entry of WTO, China is in an urgent need of large quantities of special talents who are skilled in English, so as to enable our country to play a greater role in the international affairs. Therefore, learning English has become essential for the social and economic development in China.  Lang

13、uage learning is a very complicated process that is influenced by many factors. motivation, attitude, interests, age, methods, will and character are direct and important factors to English learning. Among them, motivation is the most important factor, in the authors piont of view. Because the behav

14、ior of English learners is dominated by cognition, in other words, the learners have a desire in which drive them to persist in English learning. For example, two students sit next to each other in a class. They look alike and are similar in ability, but they act very differently. One jumps into ass

15、ignments, participates eagerly in class, and gets good grades; the other hesitates on assignments, seldom joins in discussion, and barely gets by. Why? This situation is typical. How many times have people heard teachers say, “ She could.” In Jakobovitss research, he shows that the mainly influentia

16、l factors to English learning are: motivation which takes up 33%, aptitude which takes up 33%, intelligent which takes up 20%, and others which take up 14%(qtd. in贾冠杰58). Therefore, teachers and parents are interested in motivation, which can drive students in English learning actively. People are a

17、lways motivated. They may not be motivated to do what we would prefer they do, but it can never be truly said they are unmotivated. In psychology, motivation is a force that energizes and directs behavior toward a goal (Paul Eggen & Don Kauchak 427). Just as a force moves an object, motivation m

18、oves a person. More visualized, if individuals are machines, motivation is as the very engine that powers and directs individuals behavior. Motivation serve three important functions: energizing people (turning the key and starting the motivational engine) directing people (pointing people in a part

19、icular direction), and helping people to select the behavior most appropriate for achieving our goals (Don Hamachek 262). In a word, motivation is an inner state that arouses individuals desire for a goal and maintains their efforts in a certain direction and time.In language learning, motivation is

20、 not only an intensive desire for learning and acquiring knowledge of English, but also an inner cause that pushes students forward in English learning with enthusiasm and willingness. Generally, motivation is classified into intrisic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is the

21、type of inner drive that propels students forward and onward with continuous energy fueled by its own curiosity and interest. It exists when someone works because of an inner desire to accomplish a task successfully, whether it has some external value or not (Cheryl L. Spaulding 4). In other word, s

22、tudents are willing to learn the knowledge that is new and interesting in the purpose of fulfilling of their curiosity, the need to know and feeling of competence and growth that cause intrinsic motivation. Their purpose of learning is also the enjoyment of the learning process not for praise or rew

23、ards. Students with intrinsic motivation orientation study English on their own initiative and tend to prefer moderately challenging tasks. This has a great value and importance in learning, for the inward interest makes them self-starting and self-perpetuating and can keep the motivational machiner

24、y going for a long time. In contrast, extrinsic motivation is as an outward force in the form of expectation, praise and rewards powers students in English learning. It exists when individuals are motivated by an outcome that is external or functionally unrelated to the activity in which they are en

25、gaged (Cheryl L. Spaulding 4). When students work hard to win their parents favor, gain teachers praise, or earn rewards such as pocket money, we can rightly conclude that their motivation is primarily extrinsic, their reason for work and study lie primarily outside themselves and the aim of learnin

26、g is not for the knowledge itself but the outward rewards in order to gain self-esteem. And the outward praise and rewards encourage students to study more actively. Both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations are important, inseparable and complementary to each other in English learning. Intrinsic mot

27、ivation is evident when people engage in an activity for its own sake, without some obvious external incentive present. However , in the real world not all of the students are automatically energized to perform this or that task, or to learn about this or that topic. Sometimes, a good grade, the thr

28、eat of failing and praise move students from an inactive to an active state. The use of rewards as extrinsic motivators have sometimes been found to increase intrinsic motivation, especially when the rewards are contingent on the quality of the performance rather than simply on participation. I

29、t is clear that extrinsic motivators are sometimes necessary either to get students started in the first place, or to start them down a track that they might not know exists (Don Hamachek 267). However, overstressing the use of extrinsic motivation can stifle intrinsic motivation. Motivation through

30、 rewards such as points, candies, compliments, money, test scores, or grades. These rewards are externally administered and may inhibit learning in the long run, although seeming to be effective in the short run. Researchers generally agree that intrinsic motivation is better for longterm learning.M

31、otivation can be explained as interactions among behavior, the environment, cognitions, and personal factors. And personal factors take a very important position in individual English learning. Therefore four personal factors: arousal, needs, beliefs, and goals will be discussed as follows.The first

32、 personal factor that affects peoples motivation is arousal. Paul Eggen and Don Kauchak (438-439) explain that arousal is a physical and psychological reaction to the environment, including anxiety and curiosity motivation. Anxiety is arousal to the point of general uneasiness and tension and curios

33、ity motivation is based on the idea that students derive pleasure from activities with an optimal (intermediate) level of surprise, discrepancy, or incongruityeach of which induces arousal. When a teacher hands out a test, the students are sitting nervously and curious about the content of the test,

34、 with elevated blood pressure, fast breath and sweaty hands. This time, the students are alert and wide-awake. They are aroused and their motivation is at a high level. An optimum level of arousal is needed for peak performance. So an appropriate arousal assists in enhancing motivation.The second pe

35、rsonal factor that affects peoples motivation is need. A need is the lacking of something necessary or desirable. Maslow's hierarchy of needs is often depicted as a pyramid consisting of five levels: Self-Actualization, Esteem Needs, Social Needs, Safety Needs and Physiological Needs, the first

36、lower level is being associated with Physiological needs, while the top levels are termed growth needs associated with psychological needs. Deficiency needs must be met first. These deficiency needs are: physiological, safety and security, love and belonging, and esteem. Once these are met, seeking

37、to satisfy growth needs drives personal growth. With the exception of the lowest needs, physiological ones, if the deficiency needs are not met, the body gives no indication of it physically, but the individual feels anxious and tense. The higher needs in this hierarchy only come into focus when the

38、 lower needs in the pyramid are met. Once an individual has moved upwards to the next level, needs in the lower level will no longer be prioritized. If a lower set of needs is no longer being met, the individual will temporarily re-prioritize those needs by focusing attention on the unfulfilled need

39、s, but will not permanently regress to the lower level. For example, a hungry person is not likely to be motivated by esteem needs and a person with very low self esteem is not likely to be motivated by the need to know and understand. Basic needs are essential to physical and psychological well-bei

40、ng. Once these needs are satisfied, the motivation to satisfy them diminishes, or even vanishes for a while. Growth needs, on the other hand, can never be satisfied completely. When these needs are partly fulfilled, the need to fulfill them may become even greater. His work has important implication

41、s for education. The need for achievement drives students to fulfill their goals. Students with a high need for achievement tend to be motivated by challenging assignments, high grading standards, explicit feedback, and the opportunity to try again. In contrast, students with a need to avoid failure

42、 avoid challenging tasks and experience anxiety in testing situation. Being aware of these differences can help teachers respond different students with different needs and as a result, teach all students more effectively. A third personal factor that affects peoples motivation is their beliefs

43、. An optimistic belief about ones ability in English learning can help students increase their motivation. In incremental view of the beliefs about ability, human can hold the beliefs that ability can be improved with effort. Although students incline to be influenced by teachers evaluation of their

44、 ability in participating activities, they have an optimistic view of their ability to a certain extend which cause their self-confident originally. They also react strongly to failure and self-doubt. So teachers can help students attribute their successes ability and effort while failure bad luck a

45、nd task difficulty and provide them more opportunities to experience success for the sake of setting an optimal belief of the learning ability as well as enhancing learning motivation.The fourth personal factor that affects peoples motivation is their goals. Goal setting is the true secret to succes

46、s in any area of life. Setting ones goals may seem simple, achieving them usually is another question altogether. Why is that? Because one will never achieve his goals unless he knows exactly what he want and he is passionate about his goal, and he has a solid, realistic plan of action. Students goa

47、ls also influence their motivation and effort in English learning. With a learning goal, students study purposefully and throw great effort into English learning. They are concerned about mastering of language and accomplishing tasks and not worried about failure or comparison to others. It is effec

48、tive to help students setting realistic and appropriate goals in motivating them in learning.  As motivation is so important in peoples daily life, it is also impotant in English learning. Generally speaking, without studying motivation there will be no learning activities. It is well-known tha

49、t studying motivation is one of the keys to the success in the study. A student with strong learning motivation will be active in the study, as is proved in many experiments. Learning motivation is an internal strength that impels the students to carry on the learning activities. And the importance

50、of motivation in the student learning activities mainly is represented in the following three aspects: Firstly, motivation determines study direction. It takes the study goals as the starting point, and aims to impel the student to work hard for achieving the certain goals. Therefore, the study moti

51、vation requests the student to understand why they study and what direction they head for. Only when a student has been clear about the study goal and the direction could he carry on the learning activity and get good results. In the second place, motivation determines study process. Whether the stu

52、dent's study motivation is strong or weak directly affects the stability and the durability of learning process. The student with strong motivation will show the strong will and the earnest study attitude in the study process. Last but not least, motivation influences the study effect. The stron

53、ger study motivation a student has, the better academic record will he or she get. Most students begin learning English as eager learners. They enjoy learning about animal words, greeting phrases, and almost anything else. But beginning at about the second or third year, however, learning becomes di

54、fficult for some students. So they gradually decrease their interest and even give up learning it. Motivating students is a little like that. It involves not only leading them to English, but also making them thirsty for knowledge and understanding of English. As a language learning, English learnin

55、g has its own characteristics that need the learners remember more, practice more and communicate more than other subjects. Students motivation is critical for English learning. English teachers are organizers or leaders in teaching. They have responsibility to increase their students inclination to

56、 perform willingly and actively on English learning.Firstly, students are more likely to learn when they appreciate the value of the classroom activities, and when they believe that they will succeed if they apply reasonable effort. The effective way to make the students be active participants is by

57、 designing and organizing a rich variety of student-centered activities. Such as pair work, group work, role-play, story telling, song singing, English party etc. Dialectical materialism illustrates that there are internal causes and external causes on everything. Internal cause is the basis of chan

58、ge, and external cause is the condition of change, so stimulation of internal motivation is of more importance.Interest is the best teacher. To stimulate students initiation, teacher should present the lesson novel, interesting and divers by making good use of picture, lecture, role-rehearsing, dail

59、y report, DVD-watching to improve students ability of autonomous learning and sustainable development. Interest is the best teacher. Once a person has an interest in something, he will actively devote himself to doing it no matter how difficult it may be. Interest has magic power and it will make people pursue their goals relentlessly. So its very important and urgent to stimulate students motivation through cultivating their interests. In order to let students keep a keen in