In the past three decades, a large amount of research on second languagemotivation has been conducted withinGardner's social-psychologicalframework. Admittedly, this model of L2 motivation has received manypositive reviews for having presented a more thorough understanding ofhow and why students learn an L2.However,Gardner's L2 motivation theory has been challengedcriticism since the 1990s because empirical evidence available shows thatthis theory cannot account for second language learning fully. It is farfrom adequacy for just one dichotomy ofGardnerto explain problemsarising in second language context, in which many factorsareinteractively intertwined.
Motivation provides the primary impetus to initiate learning the L2 and later the driving force to sustain the long and often tedious learning process; indeed, all other factors involved in L2 acquisition presuppose motivation to some extent. (Dornyei 1998: 117)As a result,English teachers caremuchaboutwhether students are well motivated and willing to learn what theyare taughtespecially at the early stage of English learning. The new English Curriculum Standard (ECS) alsoputs forward that the goal of fundamental English courses are not only to improve students' language skills, but also develop their positive attitudes towards language learning.Motivation is one of the most important factors in students' emotional attitudes.In recent researches, more and more researchers are interested in the motivation of various middle school students.Most researchers focused on several key factors of motivation, such as self-confidence, attitude, sense of achievement, and the relationship between motivation and achievements on learning. However,there areonly a few focuseson how to promote thestudents’motivation through daily teaching in an ordinary middle school, whichis the focus of this research.
2.Literature ቤተ መጻሕፍቲ ባይዱeview.
a.Motivation.
Recent decades witnessed many researches on motivation of L2 learningat home and aboard. First,Gardener andLambert andGardner's work onthe social psychology of language learning in the bilingual context ofCanadastarted the serious study of motivation from the sociallanguage-learning perspective. They conducted second languagelearning motivation research. (Gardner1985) Their early work suggestedthat integrative motivation correlated most strongly with measures of L2achievement while subsequent research has shown equal importance andinteractionof boththe integrativeandinstrumental motivations.Based ona social psychological framework, their research linked L2motivation with attitudes toward the community of the target languagespeaker. In addition, it also involved willingness to communicate withtarget language speakers and the degree to which non-native speakers canidentify themselves with the target language community.Gardnerhas played a most important role in the field about languagelearning motivation mainly because his dichotomy of motivation, as astarting point, has paved the way for much subsequent work in the area.Gardner(1985:203) defines motivation to learn an L2 as "the extent to whichthe individual works or strives to learn the language because of a desire to doso and the satisfaction experienced in this activity". This definition includes i)effort expended to achieve a goal; ii) a desire to learn the language; and iii)satisfaction with the task of learning the language.
InGuiyang, the capital city ofGuizhouProvince, Englishcoursehas beenofferedin most primary schools.Butmostsuburban primary schoolsdo not have enough qualifiedEnglish teachers toofferEnglish classes for the students.When these students entered middle school, it istherealbeginning for the students to learn Englishwhen they enter middle school. Due to poorfamily education environment or atmosphere,moststudentshave not developed agood habit of learning.It is foundby the authorthat most students(about 70%)demotivated to learn English after a few monthssince theybecame junior school students owing to several reasons.In class, most of them seldom actively participated in teaching activities or answered questions. After class, they seldom listened to English.Becausethey have invested so little effort to learn English, they could not understand, read or speak English. For them, learning English is only afrustrating experience which made them encounterfailures again and again.In English class, theyalwaysgot nervousand feltembarrassedbecause their owndisappointingperformance.As a result, they lost interest, confidence in learning English.Theyeventhought that English is awfulbecause this subject only brought themembarrassment, sadness, a feeling of nervous orscared, butno sense of achievement at all,andsomeof themeven hate the subject.They lacked learning motivation.Motivation can be divided in two broad categories, Extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation. ( Paul. E& Don K, 2005) Extrinsic motivation is the motivation to engage in an activity as a means to an end, whereas intrinsic motivation is the motivation to be involved in an activity for itsown sake. (Pintrich & Schunk, 2002).Obviously,facing such group oftotallydemotivated students,toimprove theirintrinsicmotivation, with which the students will feel interested and happy in learning English and would like to invest effort to learn English,becomes the core of the author’s teachingfocus.