A Study Of The Teaching Strategies To Stimulate The Learning Motivation Of English Low Achievers In Senior High Schools Based On The Attribution Theory

English teaching in senior high schools assumes important responsibilities for the cultivation of international talents for a country and the promotion of all-round development of individuals. But the long-term existence of English low achievers in Chinese senior high schools not only makes many students and parents feel miserable and helpless, but has a bad influence on English teaching. Researches about low achievers in recent years have shown that the fundamental cause of the phenomenon lies in the lack of learning motivation. While attribution has a great influence upon learning motivations. Therefore, it is of much significance to have a study on the attribution tendencies of English low achievers in senior high schools and then stimulate their leaning motivations with the related theory.The study intends to explore the following four questions:the overall attribution tendencies of English low achievers in senior high schools; different attributions between English high achievers and low achievers; gender difference in the attribution of English low achievers; the influences of the incentive plan designed on the basis of the attribution theory on English low achievers and enlightenment upon the teacher.To find out the answers to the above questions, a questionnaire survey was launched among some students from The Senior High School Affiliated to Minzu University of China, followed by an English proficiency test before the experiment and an interview with the students. Then the teaching strategies to stimulate the learning motivation of English low achievers were designed and implemented for the case study of four English low achievers chosen. At last, another English proficiency test with almost the same difficult level was held at the end of the experiment. The influences on English low achievers in senior high schools and enlightenment upon the teacher were checked through the classroom observations, interview and the comparison between two test scores.The results revealed that English low achievers in senior high schools generally tend to attribute their English failures to internal attributions such as the lack of interest, confidence and effort, incorrect learning methods and fatigue in class. Both English high achievers and low achievers regard interest as a key factor affecting their English learning results, whereas health, classmate relationship, teachers’help and teaching quality are not considered so important. But the high achievers are more likely to be affected by the four aspects than low achievers are. The most obvious gender difference is that the boys are more inclined to attribute their poor English to insufficient efforts than girls are. When compared with boys, girls prefer to attribute their low English scores to the lack of confidence, inability, fatigue, negative evaluations of the teacher, difficulty of teaching materials and teaching quality. Additionally, after the experiment, students in the case study performed better in the English proficiency post-test than in the Pretest which took place before the experiment, and had an obvious advantage over the low achievers who were not intervened. Their classroom performance was better than before as well. The teacher also got some enlightenment from it:find out the problem and provide the solutions; guide low achievers for correct attributions; discover and make use of the strengths of low achievers; employ diverse teaching methods.This thesis is divided into five parts. The first part is the introduction, which expounds the necessity and importance of this study, indicates the significance and purpose of the research, and has a literature review on the studies of low achievers at home and abroad. The second part is the theoretical framework of this study, including the concept of attribution, the relationship between attribution and learning motivation, the development of the attribution theory and Heider’s and Weiner’s attribution theories. The third part is the research design. The subject, questions and procedures of this study will be introduced in detail. The fourth part is about the data and result analysis of the questionnaire, interviews, classroom observations and two tests and the teacher’s feedback. The fifth part is the conclusion part that involves the main findings, limitations of the study and suggestions to the future related researches.In short, this study attempts to help English low achievers in senior high schools form correct attributions by understanding their attribution tendencies and reasons, so that it will stimulate their English learning motivation and improve the English teaching efficiency. This will have a positive impact on the cultivation of a large number of high-quality foreign language talents for our country.