A Study On Directed Motivational Currents In Junior High School Students’ English Learning

Learning motivation arises from the complex interaction of many factors,and these factors are in constant change.This shows that simple linear causality can no longer be used to explain some motivation phenomena.Therefore,scholars have begun to study second language motivation from a dynamic perspective.D(?)rnyei et al.proposed a more dynamic concept named “Directed Motivational Current” to explain motivation phenomena.It refers to "a strong motivational drive or motivational eruption that motivates or sustains an individual’s long-term motivational behaviors(eg,second language learning)".It involves four key dimensions: goal or vision orientedness,participant ownership,positive emotionality and the salient and facilitative structure.It is of great educational significance for teachers and students to study directed motivational currents in English learning.Therefore,the author decided to take junior high school students as the reearch subjects to conduct a study on directed motivational currents in English learning,in order to explore the current situation of directed motivational currents in junior high school students’ English learning process,and provide more ideas for future English teaching.Through questionnaires and interviews,the author conducted a study on directed motivational currents among 180 junior high school students in five classes in the third grade of Liangxiang No.5 Middle School in Fangshan District,Beijing.The author distributed a total of 180 questionnaires,and 173 questionnaires were recovered.The author divided the students into two categories: males and females,English achievers and English underachievers.They were classified to conduct a comparative analysis of the directed motivational currents in the process of English learning.Subsequently,the author randomly selected 10 students from the highly motivated students and conducted interviews with them in order to find out the factors that affect the directed motivational currents in the process of English learning.The research questions of this thesis are as follows:(1)What is the current situation of directed motivational currents in the English learning process of junior high school students?(2)Are there differences in the directed motivational currents of students of different categories(gender,grade)in the process of English learning? If so,in what ways are these differences reflected?(3)What are the main factors that affect the directed motivational currents of junior high school students’ English learning?Through a series of analyses,the results show that:(1)DMC phenomenon can be widely recognized in highly motivated people.It is a universal phenomenon,not just a special case of a small number of people reported in previous qualitative studies.(2)There are differences in the directed motivational currents of different categories of students in the English learning process.These differences are embodied in effort level and the four dimensions of directed motivational currents.In terms of gender,females study harder than males,and females are more likely to generate directed motivational currents than males.In terms of grade,English achievers study harder than English underachievers,and English achievers are more likely to generate directed motivational currents than English underachievers.In addition,there is a correlation between students’ effort level,directed motivational current experiences and their English scores.(3)The main factors that affect directed motivational currents in the English learning process of junior high school students including eight categories: learning situation,academic performance,positive feedback,personal development,intrinsic interests,self-factors,social responsibility and social factors.Based on such findings,pedagogical implications have been made in the hope of inspiring the future teaching and learning of English.This study still has limitations such as research subject and time,and its conclusions need to be confirmed by more empirical studies.Moreover,the author puts forward some suggestions for future studies on directed motivational currents in English learning.