A Study On English Learning Motivation Of Senior High School Students In Yan’an

With globalization of culture and economy, international exchanges have become increasingly frequent and in-depth. The school plays a key role in improving the students’ English level. High school education stage is an important stage of personal development. Therefore, it is of great significance to English Teaching in high school. English learning motivation is the prerequisite for the success of students learning English. When the learner has a positive attitude and method of learning, he can obtain a satisfactory result. At present, most researches on motivation are aimed at college students, and very few studies are targeted at middle school students. This study attempts to explore in this area.This study is based on previous studies and guided by a large number of English learning motivation theory concerning definition, classification, function and current research situation. The research methods involve questionnaire, interview, classroom observation and data analysis. The subjects of this study are randomly selected from students and teachers to a certain number in No.4 middle school and Shiyan Middle school in Yan’an, the results of the survey are analyzed according to the related theory. The conclusions are as follows: 1) the general English learning motivation of high school students in Yanan is not very high, extrinsic motivation is slightly higher than the intrinsic motivation. In terms of intrinsic motivation, the two factors---interest and sense of achievement, get the highest mean, next is self-perfection, the lowest is looking for learning opportunities; 2) in terms of extrinsic motivation, the mean of group attitude group is the highest, next is reward and punishment, then is pressure, the value function is the lowest; 3) Different types of students show different learning motivation characteristics: in terms of internal motivation, boys are generally lower than girls, the difference is significant, in terms of extrinsic motivation, boys are generally higher than girls except outside pressure and the difference is significant; students’ English learning motivation of different schools also has significant differences, intrinsic motivation of Shi Yan senior high school students’ is higher than the No.4 senior high school students’ intrinsic motivation, there is no obvious difference in terms of extrinsic motivation; motivation intensity of different language proficiency level students is significantly different: in terms of internal motivation, top students of senior high school students is the highest, followed by secondary students, finally the poor students, with a significant difference among the three, in terms of extrinsic motivation, there is no significant difference among the different grades of students.This study is helpful to present the real picture of motivation of senior high school students in Yanan, to cultivate and inspire their motivation. It also helps to raise their English learning scores. It might provide some reference for the reform of English teaching in senior middle schools in Yanan.