An Analysis Of The Effects Of English Learning Motivation On Language Competence From The Socio-psychological Perspective

Learning motivation, whose orientation and intensity exert a tremendous impact on an individual’s learning behaviors and achievements, is an important affective factor causing individual differences in study. Therefore, it has long been the top concern among teachers as well as a research hotspot in the pedagogical field in recent decades.So far, a number of scholars from both home and abroad have done a substantial amount of research on the learning motivation, among whom the overseas scholars have contributed to abundant theoretical achievements on this regard. Some, from the angle of language learners’ mental state, explored the influences of psychological factors, such as the individual’s expectation for certain learning task, valence, goal orientation, self-efficacy, sense of self-determination, attribution of success and failure, on the shaping of motivation, and finally put forward a series of motivation theories based on cognitive psychology. Some, from the social perspective, analyzed the impact of the macro-environment (such as the historical background in which the learner is grown, educational system, social norms, moral restraints and cultural edification) and the micro-environment (such as schools, parents, teachers, and peers) on language learners’ motivation. On this basis, they finally established some L2motivation models which gave insights into the subsequent research. Comparatively speaking, the research on foreign language learning motivation done by the domestic scholars started rather late. In the light of research contents, on one hand, a majority of scholars still focus on the introduction or review of the achievements of L2motivation overseas. On the other hand, some scholars carried out empirical study on students in different learning stages, most of which focused on the verification of correlation between motivation and academic achievements or other individual variables such as gender, major, self-identification and learning strategies by means of quantitative research. However, few researches have been done to explore how the motivation affects an individual’language competence in the acquisition of English.In English teaching practices, the author has observed that compared with undergraduates, the passive attitude in English learning and unsatisfactory language competence of junior college students are closely associated with their low motivation intensity. Therefore, an investigation is conducted among this group of students. On one hand, the research finds that their low motivation is caused by a series of negative influences of the social climate, schools, teachers, parents, peers, and their own psychological state. Most junior college students are motivated by the external regulation, such as graduation, examination and employment, whereas only a few students are motivated intrinsically by the pleasure of learning, desire for knowledge and pursuit of sense of achievements. Tests have shown that students with intrinsic motivation have relatively higher level of English competence, while the competence of most extrinsically motivated students is not up to the standard or still needs improvement. Therefore, stimulating and maintaining students’intrinsic learning motivation is of great significance in improving the current learning situation of the junior college students today. On the other hand, it can be concluded from the comparative analysis that students with different motivation orientations display different learning behaviors in such aspects as goal setting, application of learning strategies, effort expenditure, persistence, casual attributions and self-concept beliefs which thus gives rise to different learning outcomes.To sum up, the author reaches the conclusion that teachers should adopt correct and effective strategies, in view of the causes of the lack of motivation, to stimulate students’ intrinsic motivation, for the purpose of improving their poor English competence and achieving the ideal learning outcomes. Moreover, in English teaching, teachers should patiently cultivate students to set up positive learning goals, adopt scientific learning methods and encourage them to make correct self-reflection. Only in this way, can students improve their language competence on their own constantly in the future language study.