Motivation and Ways to Motivate Students(2)

 Language learning is a very complicated process that is influenced by many factors. Besides the intelligent factor, the non-intelligent factors---- motivation, attitude, interests, age, methods, will and character----are the direct and the most important factors to English learning. Because the behavior of English learners is dominated by cognition, in other words, the learners have a desire in which is a drive to persist in English learning. It is true that two students sit next to each other in a class. They look alike and are similar in ability, but they act very differently. One jumps into assignments, participates eagerly in class, and gets good grades; the other hesitates on assignments, seldom joins in discussion, and barely gets by. Why? This situation is typical. How many times have we heard teachers say,” She could. ” Theories of motivation help us explain these differences. In Jakobovits’s research, he shows that the mainly influential factors to English learning are: motivation which takes up 33%, aptitude which takes up 33%, intelligent which takes up 20%, and others which take up 14%(cited in Jia Guanjie, 1996). Therefore, teachers and parents are interested in motivation, which can drive students in English learning actively.

Body
Ⅰ. Theoretical Rationale
1. Definition of motivation
People are always motivated; in fact, they are never unmotivated. They may not be motivated to do what we would prefer they do, but it can never be truly said they are unmotivated (Combs, 1962, p. 85). In psychology, motivation is a force that energizes and directs behavior toward a goal (Paul Eggen & Don Kauchak, 1994, p.427). Just as a force moves an object, motivation moves a person. More visualized, if individuals are machines, motivation is as the very engine that powers and directs individuals’ behavior. Motives serve three important functions: 1) energizing us (i.e., turning the key and starting the motivational engine), 2) directing us (i.e., pointing us in a particular direction), and 3) helping us to select the behavior most appropriate for achieving our goals (Don Hamachek, 1989,p262). In a word, motivation is an inner state that arouses individual’s desire for a goal and maintains their efforts in a certain direction and time.
In language learning, motivation is not only an intensive desire for learning and acquiring knowledge of English, but also an inner cause that push students forward in English learning with enthusiasm and willingness. It is something like the engine and steering wheel of an automobile that can moves students from boredom to interest. It is an inner power to drive and persevere students in English learning. Gardner indicates that the motivation of foreign language learning contains four aspects: a goal, effortful behavior, a desire to attain the goal and attitude (cited in Jia Guanjie, 1996). Students who have strong learning motivation take a correct and positive attitude towards study and make great efforts to master English with clear goal and desire and consequently gain better grade than those who haven’t acquired motivation and those students usually regard English learning as a heavy and boring burden. It is true that motivation is such a basic factor in language learning that no teacher could avoid being concerned with students’ motivation. So it is necessary to understand motivation more deeply, an idea the author turns to next.

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