A Questionnaire Research On Senior High Students’ English Learning Motivation In Wuchang Wenhua High School, A Non-key School

Since 1980s, a large number of researchers started to do a series of researches about language learning motivation. They defined it, found out its structure and functions. Among them are the most famous researchers Gardner and Dornyei. They set up the most authoritative theoretical framework about language learning motivation, like Gardner’s social-psychological approach and Dornyei’s three-level motivation model. Chinese researchers, like Qing Xiaoqing, Yuan Qiufang and Gao Yihong, performed lots of researches with the help of the previous studies. But they mostly focused on university students from non-English majors. Some subjects were high school students, too, but they were mostly from key schools. My research was carried out in Wuchang Wenhua High School, a non-key school.All 339 students in this school were tested. A questionnaire adapted from the one made by Gao Yihong was used as the research tool. On Nov.11th, two weeks after the mid-term examination, I carried out the research.The results are showed as following:(1)The means of the internal motivation is significantly higher than external motivation.(2)Girls’ means of the internal motivation is significantly higher than boys’.(3)The means of internal and external motivation are decreasing from senior 1 to senior 3. But the means of pressure is increasing. Significant differences of the means of motivation exist between different grades.(4) Significant differences of the means of motivation exist between different levels of English learners:high achievers, middle achievers and low achievers.(5)Learners’ achievements are positively related to internal motivation, but negatively related to pressure.At the end of the research, I sum up some strategies to arouse and maintain students’ internal and external learning motivation. I hope it will be useful for our high school English teachers.