如何激发大学生在他们的外语学习英语毕业论文.doc

如何激发大学生在他们的外语学习【关键词】大学生；英语学习；动机；激发 .IntroductionWith Chinas entry into the WTO, China catches up with the world gradually. At the same time, English, as an international language and a communicative tool, becomes more and more important. In the 21st century and the next centuries, English will be used in peoples work, in their study and almost everywhere in their daily life, so learning English well has realistic and far-reaching historic significance to people in modern times.And how can we learn English well? Motivation is the key to the success of English learning. Motivation is the psychological motivation which encourages people to take action. Human activities are derived from fairly motivation. The relevant researches of study theory show that learners themselves play a decisive role in the effect of study. The study activities are learners things in the final analysis. As the college students, how do we learn the foreign language? What is our leaning motivation? How to motivate university students in our FL learning？In my thesis, I will expound the definition of motivation and category of motivation. Then I will give some examples of my classmates learning motivation. After knowing the definition of motivation and university students learning motivation, it will talk about how to promote students motivation in FL learning. According to the discussion of motivation, students know more about their actuality and requirements and teachers know more about their teaching. Motivating students in their FL learning is not only giving a great help to our study, but will also guide us in our future teaching. Overview of MotivationA. Definition of MotivationEnglish learning motivation is closely related to learns achievementstudents who have strong motivation on English learning always have good achievement, and vice versa. Motivation is non-intellective factor, it has instability. English teachers should excavate students motivation of learning English completely, and make their passion of learning English run through the process of the whole study. This is benefit to the students. English teachers want to take measures to motivate students learning passion. First, they should understand the essence of motivation. Williams.M and R.L.Burden1 put forward their motivate model containing the quality of cognitive and social constructivist on the base of discussing various motivate theories. Motivation is a state of cognitive and emotional arousal. It leads to a conscious decision to act and a period of sustained intellectual and/or physical effort.2Therefore, how to definite the motivation in foreign language learning? Canada psychologist professor Gardner has ever pointed that:“Motivation is the integration of the wish that to learn some kind of language and to take a great effort on it and maintain the good attitude of learning some kind of language. Learning motivation is the inner power of driving to promote students learning. As a nonintellectual factor, it makes indirect effect on learning”. 3B. Category of Motivation1. Integrative Motivation and Instrumental MotivationThe experts Gardner and Lambert divided motivation into integrative motivation and instrumental motivation based on lots of researches. 4 Integrative motivation refers to the purpose of learning language is to understand and contact with people who use this language, they are really interested in those peoples culture and ways of life. Macroscopic properties of this kind of motivation is obviously subject to the family, social, cultural, economic, political and other environmental factors. Instrumental motivation refers to the purpose of learning language is to have economic and other benefits, because it is conducive to some of the“instrumental type” goals, such as reading a foreign publications to obtain information, going to work in a foreign enterprise, enhancing the promotion or passing examinations.2. Extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivationAccording to Self-Determination theory of Noels and other researchers, motivation is divided into extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation.5 Extrinsic motivation refers to learners behaviors are based on some purposes of instrumental type, such as winning the reward or avoid punishment. It is divided into three categories: external regulation, interjected regulation and identified regulation. Intrinsic motivation refers to the individual heart is interested in learning activities and satisfied in activities. It is divided into intrinsic motivation of knowledge, accomplishment and stimulation. Illustration of Students Learning MotivationA. Examples of Instrumental Motivation1. Learning English to Increase Career PossibilityTo find a lucrative and well-paid job is the chief concern of college students upon graduation. Career opportunity, nevertheless, is not easy to obtain in the more competitive talent market. An ever-increasing number of jobs require a good command of English as Chinas access to WTO. In the face of the golden opportunities and unprecedented challenges, college students wont fail to see the critical role language competence plays in job-hunting.2Learning English to Pass CET-4In a lot of colleges and universities, the bachelor degree is geared with a college English Test Band-4, namely, all applicants for a degree at bachelor Level are required to pass CET-4.3. Learning English to Further Ones Education Either at Home or AbroadNowadays, the number of college students who wants to participate in postgraduate entrance examination is on the rise. To fulfill their dream of access to higher education, they have to take and pass English test. English is also a requirement for their further pursuing of Doctors degree. Moreover, for those who are eager to seek for education abroad, passing TOEFL, GRE or GMAT is the first step to their education achievement abroad.4. Learning English for Personal ChallengeAs youngsters, college students like to take challenges. Its no easy job to master a foreign language, so learning English well, to some extent, satisfy their personal vanity. Knowing another language helps to expand their outlook, deepen their insight, and make them the winner of life. Furthermore, the logical and reasoning powers of the mind were enhanced through a second language. This is supported by evidence that people who know two languages think more flexibly than monolinguals. It is worthwhile for the youth to learn a second language.B. Examples of Integrative Motivation1. Learning English as a FashionThe nations of the world will become more tightly related because of the rapidly improving telecommunication. It is no doubt that todays college students have more chance than ever before to expose to foreign cultures, they may encounter foreign pop music which has become a part of their daily life and those who learn to sing English songs are admired by their peers. Being open-minded and fashion-conscious, they are happy to follow the basketball stars of NBA and film stars of Hollywood as well. Culture infiltration, implicit or explicit, can be found everywhere. So they are willing to integrate into the cultures of American or other English-speaking countries, and their interest in English learning is the necessary media and useful tool.2. Learning English to Understand Foreign CulturesSome college students intend to study abroad, which requires not only adequate language competence but also sufficient knowledge of cultures of the country, otherwise cultural difference of cultural shock will make their life abroad difficult. Besides, some students may travel abroad in summer vocation. To familiar themselves with the countrys cultures is the indispensable preparation before their journey and a guarantee for the give rise to inconvenience, misunderstanding even misfortune.C. Features of University Students Learning Motivation1. Synthetic TypeStudents drive of learning of this kind is mainly from their interest towards English language or its culture. In this way, they can, for one thing, improve their general competence so as to meet their inner needs and for another, fit the development of society and the future occupation in order to be eligible and excellent. Hence, students of this kind possess mighty learning perseverance and have the potential to be comprehensive.2. Personal Prospective TypeStudents in this type learn English solely for the purpose of personal future, in order to increase the visibility of their own, study section, and find a good job after graduate. Owing to their stronger utility towards learning, they are easily to be affected by external factors.3. Obligation-Performing TypePerforming study obligation is the priority of learning English of students in this kind. For example, on the one hand, they learn for passing CET-4 or getting diploma so that their tuition fee are paid on the other hand, they learn for repaying their relatives, friends and teachers. They hold a reluctant attitude towards learning English. Therefore, they lack enthusiasm and persistence in learning.4. Indistinct TypeStudents of this kind have no specific learning intention and do not know why they study English or even they have never considered this issue. Hence, they are negative and passive in learning that they follow their fellow classmates to decide what they do everyday. From this perspective, their learning is full of blindness. On the whole, the four above learning motivation are ubiquitous among students whose major is not English in the colleges and universities of our country. Meanwhile, the two kinds in the middle are being in the majority.D. Actualities of University Students Learning MotivationOn the one hand, as a result of entering into university for a not long time and the intense high school life is underway of the pressure of entering university, the freshmen motivation for learning English is directly for entering university. Afterwards, they are satisfied their needs for entering university by going into university successfully and at the same time, the new learning needs have not been coming into being. Thus, the freshmen mainly fall into the indistinct type. On the other hand, since most of freshmen are winner of the university entrance examination, they are more devoted and have stronger desire for knowledge through entrance education. Accordingly, freshmen who belong to the group of synthesizing type and personal-prospect type are much more than sophomores and juniors. The proportion of obligation-performing type among sophomores are increasing while the proportion of synthetic type are decreasing.On account of growing older with the gradual maturation of their body and the influence of university and family, though there is no English class in junior and senior classes. Their learning motivation is largely different from the freshmen and sophomores. At this time, most students begin to take their prospect and ideality into account. Therefore, the proportion of obscuring type decreases greatly, but the proportion of personal prospective type increases dramatically. Yet, some students learning motivation is also obscure. It is mainly due to the policy of college expansion in recent years.The learning motivation of non-English majors are mainly external ones. Correct long- sighted learning motivation plays a dominant role while the incorrect even false ones always widely exist as well as the narrow-sighted motivation. Methods of Promoting Students Motivation in FL LearningA. Innovating Teaching Method1. Trusting Students AbilityTeachers belief, their belief about learners, about learning, about themselves, has been proved to have a greater influence than the teachers knowledge, on the way they planned their lessons, on the kinds of decisions they make and on their general classroom practice. 6 If teacher sees his or her students as“receptacles” to be filled with knowledge, the teaching method of duck-stuffing is most probably practiced, resulting in teacher-dominated classroom, which is very likely to be organized in such a way to enable students to explore for themselves, thus boosting students belief leads to different teaching results. In China, teachers tend to take too much responsibility for their students, which otherwise reflect their less-confidence of students capacity. Students then form the habit of depending on teachers and lose their own initiative in learning. So the first step to improve teaching method is for teacher to change their belief. Once my underestimating of students ability forced me to give up communicative approach half wayin middle school teaching experience. I feel bewildered and confused in face of students seemly reluctance to cooperate. They need time and I should trust them. When students feel they are valued, their learning motivation balloons.2Creating a Harmonious Student-Teacher RelationshipStudents are deserved being trusted to take on responsibility for their own study, while as I mentioned above they habitually have great expectation from their teachers, teachers timely help and proper guide is essential to students on their L2 learning. Students need academic help as well as psychological help. For example, some students are afraid of exposing themselves in public. They fell awkward in such embarrassing situation as word failures, expression inconsistency, so on and so forth. In this situation, teachers encouragement and praise are desperately needed. So in todays FL classroom, teacher, rather than a knowledge-transmitter, more like a good organizer, a loving guide, a creative director, a patient listener, an active participant, and most important of all, an intimate friend of students, and their helpful equal. A good teaching is a good communicationcommunication between teachers and students. A harmonious student-teacher relationship thus exerts a great influence on L2 learning. As Cook put it: the students attitudes towards the learning situation as measured by feelings about the classroom teacher and level of anxiety about the classroom contribute towards the students motivation.73. Activating Students with a Rich Variety of Student-centered Activities.“To improve interest in another language, we must maintain a lively attention and active participation among students.” 8 The effective way to make students active participants is by designing and organizing a rich variety of student-centered activities. Such as pair work, group work, role play, story telling, cross-word, information gap activities, even games. The communicative methods have emphasized the learners dual roles and listeners as speakers. Students are receiving input not only from the teacher but also from their peers in class. Experiments using this approach show a dramatic increase in participation, and motivation; learners improve both their oral skills and socio-cultural skills. 9 One more thing that should be given equally important consideration is that the topic for discussion should be interesting, authentic, instructive and challenging enough. Otherwise students who are less na?ve and more sophisticate than those a decade ago may gradually lose their initiative, for“men are intelligent creatures who will feel bored when their intelligent needs can not be met.” 104. Permeating English Study into Students LifeThe foreign language learning is characterized by its variety, for it does not need to be limited by time and place.11 The learning time in classroom is limited, so teachers should be aware of the different sources of input outside the classroom. How to make English learning a part of students life, rest, recreation, and all kind of extracurricular activities is worth exploring. The activities out of class involve: English corner, English saloon, English party, various competitions, lectures about English culture, English songs and films, reading original English novels,“21st century” and magazines, listening to the BBC and VOA, etc. Anyhow, Students get to hear the language, and without sufficient and appropriate examples of the target language, the students will get nowhere. 12 English then is better to be one part of their daily life. Of course, instructions dont only take place in classroom. Sometime teachers should get involved in these activities personally, joining in English corner or English party, encouraging them to be contributor to“21st century”, etc.B. Improving Teaching Material1. Flexible Teaching MaterialsContent is the soul of language. The form of classroom activity alone cannot produce satisfactory result in L2 teaching and learning. So it is suggested that more knowledge conveying teaching material be introduced. And the choice of teaching materials and the information content of the lesson should correspond to motivations to the students. 13 Teaching material should not be only textbook-based. It should be more flexible. Richards has suggested that over-reliance on a single textbook may militate against independence by both learner and teacher. Even for the best textbook, it is likely that the material will be out-of-date or the information conveyed is not sufficient as time goes by. To make adjustable supplementing material is quiet necessary. In our class, students always show great interest in supplementing teacher chooses from newspapers, magazines, and the internet. The fresh, authentic and up-to-date materials do much motivate students. Sometimes it is also a good idea for teacher to encourage students themselves to find supplementing material they are fond of and bring it to the whole class. With computer available, access to internet is quite a piece of cake for most students. Students once found more information than their teacher about Michael Jordan, Stephen Hawking and P