| Motivation is considered as one of the most important factors in success in learning a second language.Rural junior middle students’ L2 motivation development needs to be explored to help teachers motivate their students.Hence this study intends to address the following research questions:1.How does Chinese rural junior middle school students’ L2 learning motivation develop from Grade 7 to Grade 9?2.Do male and female Chinese rural junior middle school students from Grade 7 to Grade 9 differ in their types of motivation?If so,what are the differences?3.To what extent does Chinese rural junior middle school students’ L2 learning motivation types correlate with their learner factors from Grade 7 to Grade 9?4.To what extent does Chinese rural junior middle school students’ L2 learning motivation correlate with their social factors from Grade 7 to Grade 9?In order to get the results of the questions,in April 2019,626 students from Grade 7 to Grade 9 were selected as subjects in Xinfen Middle school,which is an ordinary junior middle school in a rural area in Jiangsu.The subjects ages range from 10 to 16,closely balanced between boys and girls.In addition,students come from different backgrounds,so they have very different L2 motivations,and L2-self systems.They can represent students of all levels of rural junior middle school students.Students were investigated by a set of questionnaires on L2 motivation,L2 self,basic information concerning learner factors and social factors designed by Professor Zhou et al(2016).What’s more,students’ final-term examination results were also selected as students’ English proficiency.All the data was analyzed by SPSS(16.0)via descriptive analysis,One-way AN OVA,and independent samples T test.The results of the data analyses are as follows:1.The overall pattern of rural school students’ L2 motivation from continuously declines from Grade 7 to Grade 9.There is a significant difference between different grades.Students in Grade 7 have the strongest L2 learning motivation,and students in Grade 9 have the weakest L2 learning motivation.2.In rural junior middle schools from Grade 7 to Grade 9,male students are found to have significant differences with female students in self-development motivation and academic motivation and boys have lower levels of L2 motivation than girls.3.In rural junior middle school from Grade 7 to Grade 9,some learner factors like L2 self,final English examination,self-evaluation,satisfaction of grades,joy of learning English,English learning experience,intended efforts,English anxiety show significant positive correlations with the subjects’ L2 learning motivation.While age,English learning duration show significant negative correlations with the subjects’ L2 learning motivation.4.In rural junior middle school from Grade 7 to Grade 9,some social factors like satisfaction of English teachers,satisfaction of English books,satisfaction of English teaching way show significant positive correlations with the subjects’L2 learning motivation.Parents’emphasis on students’L2 learning has a negative correlation with rural junior middle students’ L2 motivation.Based upon the results of this study,some implications to improve students’English learning motivation were put forward.Firstly,teachers should try to help the rural junior middle school students form positive English learning attitudes.Secondly,English teachers should focus more on boys’English learning.When they meet difficulty,the teacher’s timely guidance and care are necessary.Thirdly,to help students improve their English,they must be trained to form good study habits.Fourthly,from the special family situation of rural areas,English teachers should have a regular communication with rural students’ fathers in order to encourage their children to put more effort to English learning and be more confident.Last but not the least,English teachers should adopt various efficient teaching methods to arouse rural students’ learning interest so that students’ English learning motivation can be stimulated. |
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