A Survey of Junior Middle School Students English Learning Motivation — A Case Study of Ruian Yuhai Junior Middle School文献综述

 2022-09-09 15:50:08

  1. Literature review

As to identify the most powerful influences on second language learning ,almost all the teachers will list motivation high on their list(Williamsamp; Burden, 2000), considering it as a crucial and decisive factor for learning.

Only when students themselves want to learn and have the willingness to learn that the learning can occur. Hence, in second language learning, motivation is often used as one of the most important variables to explain individual differences in language achievement.

    1. Definition of motivation

What is motivation? There has been no general agreement on definitions of motivation. Psychologists define motivation as an internal process that activates, guides, and maintains behavior over time (Baron, 1998; Murphyamp; Alexander,2000; Pintrich,2000; Schunk,2000). Gage and Berliner (1984) set that motivation just like engine (intensity) and steering wheel (direction) of a car.Keller (1983) suggests that: “Motivation refers to the choices people make as to what experiences or goals they will approach or avoid, and the degree of effort they will exert in that respect” (cited in Crookes and Schmidt, 1991:481). This definition gives an initial idea about what motivation is. By this definition, readers may know that motivation includes making choices and exerting efforts. Kanfer and Ackerman (1989) refers to “the direction of attention effort, the proportion of total attention effort directed to the task (intensity), and the extent to which attention effort toward the task is maintained over time(persistence)”.

With respect to persistence, Maehr and Braskamp(1986) suggest that when a person attends to a task for an extended period of time, observers are likely to infer that the individual is motivated. Effort generally refers to the amount of energy. Expended (Maehramp; Brasamp, 1986) and is somewhat distinct from persistence. Furthermore, Kanfer amp; Ackerman had deeper conception of definition of motivation which includes persistence as one of the main factors of motivation and emphasizes that persistence should not be neglected or equated with effort. Wang Chuming (1997:95) holds the opinion that: “ motivation is generally regarded as a kind of internal drive, a kind of emotional effect and a kind of desire forcing personrsquo;s action.”. According to Zhang Aiqingrsquo;s study, there are three kinds of definitions. The first is internal opinion. It defines motivation from the intrinsic factors of personrsquo;s action and considers motivation as an inner strength driving peoplesrsquo; behavior. The second is external opinion. It emphasizes the actionrsquo;s external incentives, goals and stimulating factors. The third is intermediary process view. The key words of this view are “initiate action, terminate action, maintain and adjust.” We can find so many similarities in these definitions and understandings, such as drive, goals and efforts. With these characteristics, we can define motivation as: “With the function of self-adjusting, individuals coordinate their own intrinsic requirements (like instincts, needs and drive) and external incentives (goals and rewards), in order to form the internal dynamic for stimulating and sustaining their behavior” (Zhang Aiqing,2001).

Although the phrase lsquo;learning motivationrsquo; is widely used by many people in different books and dissertations, scholars at home and abroad have different understandings about the concept of learning motivation, and there is still not a concept about learning motivation completely accepted by all.

In China, Feng Zhongliang and Wu Xinchun (2000) defined learning motivation in their book as “learning motivation is sort of internal trigger device that inspire individual to do leaning activities , sustain learning activities and let individualrsquo;s learning activities toward a certain learning goal.” Guo Dejun (2005), another scholar has defined leaning motivation as “learning motivation refers to a kind of individual lsquo;s internal psychological process or internal impetus that was leaded, inspired by a leaning goal and sustain individualrsquo;s learning activities.” As far as Mao Jinping concerned, “learning motivation is kind of internal impetus that directly drives learners to learn.” And he also emphasizes that learnerrsquo;s learning desire, learning extent, learning attitude (positive or negative) are all related to learning motivation. There is another definition of learning motivation that is “learning motivation is an intermediate variable that drive and sustain a certain learning behavior and move it to a particular goal.”

Many scholars abroad have given their definition of learning motivation. Brown(1994) has defined learning motivation as “ an inner drive, impulse, emotion, or desire that moves one to a particular goal.” As for Williams and Burden(1997), they defined it as “ a state of cognitive and emotional arousal, which leads to a conscious decision to act, and which gives rise to a period of sustained intellectual and physical effort so to attain a previously set goal.” A.E.Woolfolk (2012) has defined learning motivation as “to seek the meaning of learning activities and the tendency of trying to gain benefits from these activities.” He also explained that learning motivation is not just involved in what student have to learn or want to learn, it also has more meaning including planning, goal-orienting, being aware of reflection about what to learn and how to learn, actively seeking for new information, clearly perceiving of feedback, feeling satisfied and pride with achievement and welcoming failure.

From what has been mentioned above, it can be showed that different definitions have been provided by different scholars and there is no agreement on the definition of learning motivation. Nevertheless, we can catch some common features that most of the scholars are agree with each other of these definitions. Such like it includes a particular goal, internal impetus, emotion, sustain an activity and so on so forth. It is difficult to make a perfect definition for learning motivation but we are able to know come features that can help us get a better understanding of learning motivation. For example, learning motivation can inspire studentsrsquo; leaning behavior and lead them to focus on leaning activities as soon as possible. Learning motivation can also make individualrsquo;s behavior move toward a particular learning goal. At last learning motivation could regulate the intensity, the duration of time and the direction of learnerrsquo;s learning behavior.

    1. Relevant studies abroad and at home
      1. Relevant studies abroad

There have been widely studies of learning motivation in psychology and learning motivation has been taken as one of the major factors influencing studentsrsquo; study. As for the research of learning language, Gardnerrsquo;s motivation theory occupied an important position. Gardner (1972) considered learning motivation includes two aspects: instrumental motivation and integrative motivation. Instrumental motivation refers to taking language learning as a tool to achieve a specific goal such as getting good grades or get a job with good salary. Integrative motivation refers to learners taking language learning as a method to get along with the culture. Lowell (1953) classified motivation into two dimension, intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Learners with strong intrinsic motivation considered learning process itself as an inspiration, they are easily pleased and satisfied with learning process. Learners with strong extrinsic motivation took language as a tool for achieving a goal. It can be told that the division of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is according with the Integrative motivation and instrumental motivation.

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