The Empirical Study Of Directed Motivational Currents In The University Students’ English Learning

Motivation,as one of the most important factors of individual differences,is often mentioned in our daily life and in the field of foreign language teaching.In the field of foreign language teaching,scholars have started motivation research in second language acquisition since the 1950 s.Scholars are trying to have a better guidance for students to form a second language learning motivation.Generally speaking,the researches of foreign language motivation has roughly gone through four stages,namely social psychology period,cognitive-suited period,process-oriented period and social dynamic period.However,traditional researches believe that motivation is static rather than dynamic,and that motivation and behavior are in a linear relationship.So high motivation must produce intensive behavior,and then high achievement will be achieved,and low motivation will result in low achievement.Researches ignore the fluidity of motivation over time and the differences caused by different situations.Therefore,intensive motivation doesn’t necessarily lead to durable behavior.D?rnyei combined dynamic system theory with previous theories,and proposed a new theoretical framework,namely Directed Motivational Currents(DMCs).Directed Motivational Currents is a unique motivation phenomenon which is an intensive and continuous stage for learners to pursue a specific goal or vision.It includes five dimensions: goal or vision orientedness,triggering factors,facilitative structure,positive emotional loading and the end of DMCs.And it is a motivational conglomerate at a high level that covers motivation,cognition,emotion,and behavior.DMCs focuses on the entire process of the execution of target task,and provides a continuous and stable motivational energy for the behavior.Therefore,helping students build DMCs can make them produce intensive and durable behavior.The emergence of Directed Motivational Currents can provide a theoretical basis for helping students to form sustained and stable motivational behavior,so it has high application value.Quantitative and qualitative research methods are to be used to collect data.And the author conducted an experimental study of Directed Motivational Currents on freshman at a financial university.At the quantitative research stage,this study was conducted using online questionnaires.A total of 100 questionnaires were collected.And the authorremoved 20 invalid questionnaires.Finally,80 questionnaires(male 30,female 50)were selected as experimental data.In terms of qualitative research,this study uses motivation trajectory,blank schedule,student interviews,and teacher interviews to collect data.Six students were selected as participants.Among them,according to the situation of award in NECCS,students were divided into Group I of 3 students with excellent academic performance and Group II of another 3 students with poor academic performance.Two research problems are to be solved in this study: I.Are there any significant differences of motivation between achievers and underachievers in terms of time lengths and intensity and intense motivation experiences? II.What are the individual motivation differences according to five dimensions of DMCs? According to the experimental data,this study draws the following conclusions: 1.There are significant differences in the length of time,motivation intensity,and motivation experiences between the achievers and underachievers.2.The differences in individual motivation are mainly reflected in four aspects.And those include: goal or vision orientedness,triggering factors,facilitative structure and positive emotional loading.According to the experimental data,DMCs can facilitate students’ English learning.Then the author put forward some suggestions to help students form Directed Motivational Currents.Directed Motivational Currents is a new theory,which requires a lot of empirical research to demonstrate.College students have a higher learning autonomy,however,the level of self-discipline is not high.Therefore,it is necessary to improve college students’ English learning motivation.Especially in recent years,because of the implementation of the “the Belt and Road” initiative,the need for inter-disciplinary talents is more important.Therefore,the research is meaningful both in theory and practical application.However,the research only covered a limited number of students of participants.And it requires a bigger pool of data in later research to perfect the study of Directed Motivational Currents of college students.