A Study On The Influence Of Thematic Teaching On Senior High School Students' Learning Motivation

Traditional English teaching in China features teacher-centered teaching and disciplinary method of instruction which results in fragmented knowledge and passive learning among students.Besides,most English textbooks in Chinese middle schools are topic-based rather than theme-based,reducing the connections of knowledge within the curriculum.Another typical characteristic of traditional teaching is teacher's spoon feeding which reduces students' initiatives and creativities.According to Senior High School English Curriculum Standards(2011),more attention should be paid to the development of students' individualities.Nowadays,students are required to have higher-order thinking ability enabling them to deal with problems without being limited by disciplinary boundaries.It is obvious that traditional teaching cannot meet students'development and the new curriculum standards.Thematic teaching,dating from 20th century emphasizes the importance of learner-centeredness and connections of knowledge.And the activities and knowledge involved in thematic teaching center on students' real life and hands-on experiences which can activate students' initiatives and motivations.According to Jakobovits(Jakobovits,1970),motivation accounts for 33%in factors that influence foreign language learning.Many studies have testified the effectiveness of thematic teaching in improving students' academic performance,engagement rate and cooperation abilities.However,few researches have been conducted to study whether thematic teaching can play an effective role in raising students' learning motivation.So,this study attempts to discover the relationship between thematic teaching and students' learning motivations in order to better serve students' learning and teachers' teaching.This research aims to answer the following three questions.(1).Can thematic teaching improve students' external and internal motivations in English learning?(2).Are students satisfied with thematic teaching including the teaching content,teaching method,classroom activities and evaluation method?(3).How does thematic teaching affect students' learning motivation?Students involved in this research were senior one students from the affiliated high school of Wuhan University.This research lasted for three months starting from Sept.20th,2016 to Dec.20th,2016.Two parallelized classes were chosen.Students in experimental class received thematic teaching while students in controlled class received traditional language teaching.Two instruments were used in this research:the questionnaire and interview.After the experiment,SPSS 21.0 was used to study the changes of students'learning motivation after the experiment.The research results can be concluded as follows:(1)The impacts of thematic teaching on students' internal motivation are obvious and students' internal motivation in English learning has been increased.However,the impacts of thematic teaching on students' external motivations are not significant.But in some aspects,students are less motivated by external factors in English learning.For example,students feel less stressed with the test scores in English learning.(2)According to the interview result,most students are satisfied with thematic teaching.Students show more satisfaction to classroom activities and the evaluation method in thematic teaching.(3)Factors like authentic learning context,cross-curriculum knowledge,students' central role and multiple assessment methods are the main reasons for students' changes in English learning motivation.Though this research has many limitations,it aims to enrich present research outcomes about thematic teaching and to provide teachers especially English teachers in senior high school with some useful suggestions in practice.