An Investigation Of Students’ English Learning Motivation In Rural Senior High School

Motivation is one of the most influential learners’ individual differences. It also acts as one of the main factors of determining the learners’ degrees of success in foreign language learning. This thesis is an investigation on senior high school students’ English learning motivation in rural areas via a questionnaire, which mainly focuses on integrative motivation, instrumental motivation, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation and achievement motivation.The results of this research are demonstrated as follows:(1) Achievement motivation and instrumental motivation take the leading role for students in rural high school, while intrinsic motivation, integrative motivation and extrinsic motivation are relatively weaker;(2) There are obvious gender differences:English learning motivation of male students who are facing greater pressure on study is not so strong as female students who are more interested in learning English;(3) Students with different English achievement have different motivation intensity (especially the intrinsic motivation), and the achievement is positively related to the intensity of English learning motivation;(4) There are differences in students’ English learning motivation intensity from different types of schools. Intrinsic motivation, integrative motivation and achievement motivation of English learning for county school students are stronger than the students from rural area; while their extrinsic motivation and instrumental motivation are lower than that of rural students;(5) With grade increasing, the English learning motivation intensity indicates a decline trend for high school students. On the results of the survey, the author puts forward some suggestions on cultivating and stimulating the English learning motivation of rural high school students from aspects of teacher and school.