On Minority Students’ Motivation In The Learning Of English In High School

Motivation plays such an important role in English learning that it undeniably becomes the biggest concern of the present English education. Much research in English learning motivation centres on doctoral students especially graduate students. However, there is a comparatively lack of research investigating students in minority middle schools. And few studies have supported the proposed influences of internal and external factors of English motivation (such as goals, interest, attitude, expectancy value, self-efficacy, anxiety, attribution, important others, feedback, group dynamics, task value, resources, classroom structure and teachers’role) on learning behavior. Based on motivational theories in education, and psychology, the research was conducted mainly through quantitative and qualitative study and tried to explore minority high school students’ internal and external factors in English learning motivation.Altogether203minority high school freshmen were involved in the questionnaire, which contained personal information, internal and external factors in English learning motivation and learning behavior. Then all data were fed in IBM SPSS21. Through data processing, factor analysis and correlational analysis were presented.The findings led to the conclusion as follows:(a) Minority high school students present internal and external factors in English learning motivation, which contains fifteen subtypes of motivation (goals, interest, attitude, expectancy value, self-efficacy, anxiety, attribution, important others, feedback, group dynamics, task value, resources, classroom structure and teachers’role).(b) Four (including interest, attitude, expectancy value and anxiety) out of the fifteen researched motivational influences correlate significantly with learning behavior, while anxiety correlates negatively with behavior.(c) The correlations between expectancy value and learning behavior are unanimously higher than other motivational subtypes. Therefore, expectancy value is a better predictor to learning behavior than other motivational subtypes.The research makes a significant contribution to helping minority school teachers have a better and more comprehensive understanding of students’ English learning motivation. Meanwhile, some suggestions are provided for initiating and sustaining minority high school students’ English learning motivation. The suggestions may contribute to English teaching in minority areas. Yet it is worth pointing out that the involved internal and external factors are not enough for researchers to understand the multi-faceted nature of English learning motivation. More efforts are still needed to advance the knowledge of English learning motivation, especially in the teaching and learning of English in Chinese middle schools.