A Study Of The Correlation Between English Learning Motivation,Beliefs And Self-identity Changes Of Junior High School Students

Learners’ learning motivation and beliefs have been viewed as the vital affective factors of foreign language learning,a great many of researches have been conducted to investigate their effects on linguistic outcomes of language learning.However,the exploration about the relation between learning motivation,beliefs and non-linguistic outcome,like self-identity changes is seldom done.Besides,many studies related to learning motivation,beliefs and self-identity changes tend to choose undergraduates or graduates as subjects.Thus,the investigation on the junior high school students’ correlation between learning motivation,beliefs and self-identity changes can not only support more evidence to the previous studies but also shed light to the teaching and learning of junior high school.In this study,90 students from Yan’an New Area No.1 Junior high school are chosen to be the subjects.Three questionnaires are used in this study,the first questionnaire is designed by Gao Yihong(Motivation Types and Self-confidence Changes Among Chinese College Undergraduates,2004),the second questionnaire is also designed by Gao Yihong to explore self-identity changes.The third questionnaire is designed by Wen Qiufang to evaluate beliefs.And then,SPSS 22.0(statistical Package for Social Sciences)has been employed to analyze the data obtained from these questionnaires.And this study intends to firstly find out what are the levels of junior high school students’ English learning motivation,self-identity changes and beliefs and next one what are the correlations between English learning motivation,self-identity changes and beliefs of junior high school students.The major findings are presented as follows:Firstly,the English learning motivations of junior high school students are all in general level,among them,the mean score of individual development and social responsibility are the highest and the mean score of intrinsic interest is lower than them,which indicates that students in junior high school are more likely motivated by individual development and social responsibility than by intrinsic interest.The self-identity changes of junior high school students are in general level.The mean score of self-confidence is the highest,which indicates that junior high school students have a relatively high level of self-confidence.That is to say,they often experience self-confidence change after learning English.The results also reveal that students in junior high school own a relatively high level of beliefs and management belief is in the highest level.That is to say,students in junior high school often have realized to learn English through a series of management drills,including setting goal in advance,choosing good and effective learning strategies,monitoring his or her own process of English learning.And the level of formal drill belief is the lowest.Secondly,as for the correlation between junior high school students’ self-identity changes and motivation,as a whole,there is a positive and significant correlation between self-identity changes and motivation.Among the sub-scales of motivation,intrinsic interest,social responsibility,individual development and information medium are found to be positively and significantly correlated with self-identity changes.Thirdly,as for the correlation between junior high school students’ beliefs and motivation,as a whole,junior high school students’ beliefs are found to be positively and significantly correlated with their motivation.Among the sub-scales of motivation,intrinsic interest,individual development and going abroad are found to have positive and significant correlation with beliefs.Fourthly,as for the correlation between junior high school students’ self-identity changes and learning beliefs,as a whole,the self-identity changes of high school students are positively but not significantly correlated with beliefs.Among the sub-scales of beliefs,mother-tongue-reliance belief is positively and significantly correlated with self-identity changes,but other sub-scales of beliefs have no significant correlation with self-identity changes.All in all,junior high school students’ learning motivation,self-identity changes and beliefs are correlated with each other.Based on the above findings,this study has proposed several suggestions for the English teaching and learners’ learning in junior high school.(1)Junior high school teachers should pay more emphasis on the development of intrinsic interest.(2)It is necessary for junior high school teachers to combine the students’ individual development to the English learning to make them understand that English learning can bring about their promotion in their future career.(3)The cultivation of beliefs should be taken into consideration in the process of leaning teaching and learning.Students are expected to be in control of his or her learning progress.