| In second language acquisition, motivation has significant influence on the whole process and outcome of the foreign language learning. Much research has been done on the subject of motivation in second language acquisition in the west. English language learning motivation research started rather late in China. What's more, the main subject of the study is university students and we lack the systematic investigation of the primary and middle school students. As we all know, students begin to learn English from primary school or middle school, the motivation of which process is very important. In senior middle school, quite a few students have lost their motivation. Therefore, the research of this master's degree dissertation is aimed at studying the motivation of the senior middle school students and we are trying to answer the following questions:Firstly, what is the main trend of the English study motivation of all students?Secondly, what is the difference in motivation among top, middle and bottom students? And what is the potential result?Thirdly, what is the trend of motivation among the students of grade one, grade two and grade three?Fourthly, what is the difference in motivation between boy and girl students? And what is the potential result?Finally, what is the difference in motivation between the students from the city and those from the countryside? And what is the potential result?In order to fulfill the research purposes, the author has conducted a survey among 149 subjects chosen from about 5000 students in Zengdou No.1 Middle School to investigate their motivation on English learning. A questionnaire with 41 items is the instrument of the study. The questionnaire is modified time and again on the basis of Jiang Yanfu's questionnaire and part of Williams and Burden's questionnaire. The result of the study is summed up as follows:Firstly, the main trends of the English motivation are practical value, attribution, interest, the influence of important people, the sense of achievement, task motivation and praise or punishment, at the top of which is practical value.Secondly, in the item of the influence of important people, students in the middle are affected most; in the item of practical value, top students are affected most, followed by the bottom students; in the items of task motivation and sense of achievement, their sequence is top, middle and bottom students; in the item of praise or punishment, students at the bottom tend to avoid punishment and gain praise. Thirdly, it is in agreement with most researchers that the development tendency of students' motivation shows a decline from grade one to grade three except the one of praise or punishment.Fourthly, female students have greater motivation than male students, but the motivation of male students has higher stability than that of females .Finally, students from rural areas have higher motivation than those from the city, and students from rural areas are faced with lots of pressure from their teachers and parents which affects their English learning. Students from the city have more stable motivation than those from the countryside.According to the survey, the author puts forward that we can make use of the harmonious relationship between teachers and students and the relationship among students to promote their motivation. Teachers can also teach students how to think in a positive way to make them become more optimistic about their English study. In the teaching process, teachers should build effective ways to evaluate every student and let every student gain the sense of achievement. Finally we must arouse students' interest to inspire them to learn English. In the process of application, we must pay special attention to cultivating the motivation of lower achievers, the students from the city, male students and students from grade three.
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