Stimulate Research And Practice Of High School Students English Learning Motivation

Motivation is considered by many to be one of the main determining factors in success in developing a second or foreign language. The new English curriculum puts great emphasis on language motivation and takes it as one of the goals of English teaching. In my class, I find some unmotivated students who are insufficiently involved and therefore unable to develop their language skills. How to motivate these students is the common issue met by all English teachers and it is also the main cause that I do research into the students' language learning motivation.There are five parts in this paper. The first part introduces the purpose of the research, points out the importance of learning motivation and the misunderstanding of learning motivation by teachers and students. The second part introduces some currently prevalent learning motivation theories and foreign language learning motivation theories such as expectancy-value theories, goal theories, self-determination theory, Gardner's expanding theories etc. The third part is the investigation. In this part, through investigating and observing some students in a senior school in TongLing, Anhui Province, I get some features of the students' English learning motivation. In the fourth part I analyze some factors which influence the students' English learning motivation. Then in the fifth part, according to the currently prevalent learning motivation theories, I provide some concrete methods in four aspects of teaching: the class environment, tasks, teaching process and evaluation. Though these methods still need to be discussed and modified in teaching, I hope it can benefit the teachers and students eventually.