A Study On English Learning Motivation Of Senior Art Students

"Given motivation, anyone can learn a language."(Skehan, 1989:49) Motivation is an important element that affects students'learning experiences and it is considered by many researchers to be one of the main determining factors of success in developing a foreign language. It has been widely accepted that motivation determines the extent of the effort to learn a new language and personal involvement in learning the foreign language.It is definitely pointed out in the New English Curriculum Standards that linguistic knowledge, language skills, learning strategies, affected attitude all have a great effect on students learning result. Affected attitude includes interest, motivation, self-confidence, perseverance and cooperative spirit. If asked to list the most effective factor effecting language learning, almost all the teachers will choose motivation to be the first important factor.Since 1960s, numerous researchers have done researches on students'learning motivation in English as a foreign language, among whom Gardner and Lambert are the most famous ones. Since the 1970s, the interest in foreign language teaching has changed from teachers'teaching into students'learning. The research on foreign language learning motivation is just one of the important signs of this turn. In order to train qualified arts personnel for our country, it is very important and significant for art students to improve the motivation and activeness in their foreign language learning.Recent years in China, there have appeared researches on students'learning motivation, but English learning motivation of senior art students is seldom discussed. In the process of teaching English, teachers are always hunted by the following problems: No matter how hard they try, there is not much response from art students. They are very passive in learning English, and of course they have no interest in learning, so for them learning English has become a big burden. Their learning motivation in English is low. Therefore it has become an urgent task for senior middle-school teachers to initiate students'English learning motivation. On the basis of theories and researches in the field, with a combination of questionnaire and interview, the author carried out an investigation to make some deep study of art students and some proper measures have been put forward for further development.The research makes an investigation of the learning motivation among 200 students majored in painting in No6.Middle School in Shi Jiazhuang city by questionnaires and semi-open interviews in order to get the true picture of the arts students'learning motivation. According to the investigation, the author finds that:1. In the face-to-face interview with the students, the author finds that:1) Most students obviously own instrumental motivation, with the only purpose of passing exams and getting good jobs by learning foreign language, so they care less about learning process, they only care about learning result.2) Some students are afraid of exam failures, so they are hopeless towards English and some of them even choose to give it up.3) Some students are tired of English because they are bored with their English teacher, especially their improper teaching methods and teaching attitude.4) There are also some students who spend much of their time on their major in painting, so they have not enough time in learning English even they like it.5) The difficult teaching material is one of the main reasons why art students have lower motivation.From the interview the author knows the reason why art students have lower motivation: lack of self-confidence, lack of clear objective, improper distribution of time and energy between arts study and language learning, improper learning strategies and so on.2. The results of the questionnaires show that the quality of teaching is the strongest motivator; the second strongest is the love of learning for its own sake (intrinsic motivation), value of good grades towards job ranks third. The lowest motivators were competition with peers in the same course, peer respect, and uncaring instructor attitude.Finally the author makes some suggestions by combining the survey result. The teaching strategies are as follows: 1.using humor in the classroom; 2.showing high expectations to the students; 3. building up a good relationship between teachers and students; 4.giving possible feedback to students timely; 5.motivating their interests; 6.Helping students build up self-confidence and self-esteem; 7. helping students set up proper goals; 8. reforming teaching methods; 9. choosing suitable teaching materials, etc.