5。 Conclusions 15

5。1 Major Findings of the study 15

5。2 Implications 15

5。3 Limitations and suggestions for the future research 16

References 17

Appendix 18

Appendix A 18

Appendix B 20

1。 Introduction

1。1 The Research Background of the Study

In the field of second language acquisition research, researchers attach great importance to cognitive factors。 But they pay little attention to emotional factors until 1950s。 Recently, there has been growing interest in middle school learner’s motivation。 Motivation is considered as a key feature in the success of language learning and has great effect on the efficiency and productivity of English language teaching。 Five general objectives have been set up by The National English curriculum (2011) which are language skill, language knowledge, affect, learning strategies and cultural awareness。 Hence one can see that the current English course in compulsory education stage should not only pay attention to the development of the students' language knowledge and skills, but also should cultivate students' positive attitude and proper values, helping students to understand the persity of the world and experience the similarities and differences between Chinese and foreign culture。 Meanwhile, students are expected to have cross-cultural awareness and form good English learning habits and strategies。 Those can create favorable conditions for their continual learning and also have benefits on their future development in learning English。 In terms of emotional attitude goal, first is to inspire students' interest in English and cultivate students' good English learning motivation。 Thus, as we can see, the new English curriculum emphasizes greatly on language motivation。

1。2 The Current Situation of the Study

Comparatively speaking, English language learning motivation research started rather late in China。 Generally speaking, there are two main reasons for this phenomenon。 In one hand, it was related with people's misunderstanding。 They believed that it is for granted that motivation affected grades。 For this reason, motivation in learning English seems to be not worth studying in their mind。 On the other hand, one of the main reason is the single perspective also hinder its development。 Influenced by the social psychological model of Gardner, the study English learning motivation in our country was restricted to the learning interest, self-confidence, learning purposes and a small number of incentive structures。 In the recent few decades, we had already begun to emphasize studying motivation in English learning。 In the meantime, we have seen an increase in research literature about English learning motivation。 Among them, Gao Yihong (2003:19) and Qin Xiaoqian (2002:11-12) have accomplished great achievements。 Whereas, their research objects are almost college students。 By contrast, the researches of middle school students English learning motivation are extremely scarce。 Dr。 Wen-peng zhang (1998:31) designed questionnaire according to cognitive psychology and education psychology motivation theory。 He investigated students from seven high schools in Sichuan Province by using the questionnaire and then analyzed the relationship between high school students’ English learning motivation and strategy use。 Qi Yan and Chen Lin (2003:13) made an investigation on 303 high school students from Nanjing and Yangzhou, Jiangsu province about their English learning motivation, concept and strategies by using extrinsic motivation classification。 Xu qian (2003:18) used Gardner’s motivation theory and investigated English learning motivation’s of 103 high school students in Shanghai foreign language middle school, confirmed the Gardner's point of view: blending of motivation is superior to the instrumental motivation。