On Motivating Junior Middle School Students’ Interest of English Learning1.doc

关于激发中学生英语学习兴趣的认识On Motivating Junior Middle School Students Interest of English LearningContentsAbstract.1Keywords.1I.Introduction.1II.The Reasons for the Lack of Junior Students Interest of English Learning2 2.1 The Traditional Chinese Approach.32.2 The Lack of Understanding of Language42.3 The Attitude towards the Language Teacher.52.4 The Learning Environment.5III. The ways to Motivate Junior Middle School Students Interest ofEnglish Learning.63.1 Motivation Education.6 3.2 Motivate Students Interest Based on the Characteristics of Junior Middle School Students.73.2.1 Make the Language Learning Full of Challenge.83.2.2 Protest the Students Self-esteem and Strengthen Their Confidence.83.3 Create Good Learning Environments in Class.93.3.1 Favorable Relationship Between the Teacher and the Students103.3.2 Deliberative Intercourse Environment in Class.103.4 The Communicative Approach.113.5 Out of Class Language Environment123.5.1 Hard Environment Constitution133.5.2 Soft Environment Constitution13.Conclusion 13References.14摘要： 目前，英语作为世界上大多数国家的第二语言已逐渐成为一种国际语言，它广泛的应用于商业贸易，科学技术和国际关系外交方面。在中国，越来越多的人开始意识到英语的重要性，并开始学习英语。中学生作为英语学习者的中间力量，他们英语学习的好坏将直接影响到中国未来的发展。然而中国现行的英语教学却导致了中学生缺乏英语学习的兴趣。因此为了提高中学生运用英语的能力和激发他们英语学习的兴趣，本篇文章将对当前的中学生英语学习情况进行分析，找出问题产生的根源，并根据中学生的认知和心理特征提供一些激发中学生英语学习兴趣的建议。关键词：英语学习；兴趣；动机；初中生；激发Abstract: Nowadays, English, a second language for most countries in the world, has increasingly become the international language for business and commerce, science and technology, and international relations and diplomacy. In china, more and more people are aware of the importance of English and begin to learn English. Junior middle school student, as the mainstay of English learners, whether they are good learners or not will be related to the development of china in the future. However, the current English language teaching (ELT) leads to the lack of junior students interest of English learning. So to improve junior middle school students ability of applying English and motivate their interest of English learning, this paper will analyze the current event of junior middle school students English learning, and find reasons for the problems, and provide some suggestions for motivating their interest of English learning based on their cognitive and psychological characteristics.Key words:English learning; interest; motivation; junior middle school students; motivateI.IntroductionAccording to the New English Education Syllabus for Fulltime Junior Middle Schools in china, the aim of English teaching is to “develop the students emotional attitude, to cultivate the ability of study independently, and to develop the four basic skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing)”(SunYing, 2004:69). The reasons for the requirement of New English Education Syllabus standard are related to the English learning actuality of junior middle school students.Nowadays, it is common to find teachers who still conduct their text teaching in the traditional way. First the teacher leads the students in reading through the new words. Then the teacher gives a detailed explanation of the text sentence by sentence, both syntactically and semantically. Lastly as to those important words and phrases, he either provides the students with examples or lets them make sentences themselves. In the whole process of teaching, it is the teacher who dominates the class, while the students, for the most part, listen, take notes, and do the exercises. One of the negative effects of this kind of pedagogy is the lack of motivation and interest on English learning, in such classes, teachers have arranged everything for the students, so it is hard for the students to be active participants. Most students appear to listen in class so passively that they may be absent minded at times. In the long run, this kind of monotonous teaching makes not only students but also teachers lose interest in the course. As all teachers know, a lack of motivation or interest is sure to hinder more effective study, and Einstein, the greatest scientist in the world once said, “Interest is the best teacher”(Qiu Lihua, 2005:70). However, the current English language teaching (ELT) leads to the lack of junior students interest of English learning. Recently, an investigation made in Chinese middle school through a questionnaire revealed that 80 percent of the students were unsatisfied with the current ELT,and they believed that the current ELT couldnt motivate their enthusiasm and interest of English learning. We also find that many teachers still adopt the dominant grammar-translation method, which leads to lack of junior students interest of English learning. Then, how to improve the serious situation is left up to the educators and English teachers. So the reasons for the lack of English learning interest will be discussed in the following.II. The Reasons for the Lack of Junior Students Interest of English LearningAs discussed above, nowadays, most of junior middle school students are lack of motivation and interest on English learning, and the main causes for this situation are as follows.2.1 The Traditional Chinese ApproachThe oldest tradition in second language approach research is one based strongly on foreign language teaching, which focuses on the issues of pedagogical efficiency and effectiveness in foreign language training. The best methods for foreign language teaching have been discussed at least since the time of the Roman Empire, when Greek slaves were kept in upper-class homes to ensure that Roman children would acquire knowledge of Greek (Gleason & Ratner, 1993:459). And people who teach foreign language tend to view a second language as what they teach rather than what students learnthe product of the curriculum, as we can see, the traditional Chinese approach is “teachercentered approach, language teaching is often discussed from the point of view of the teacher”(SunYing, 2004:69). In class, the teacher always dominates the whole process of teaching, while the students for the most part, listen, take notes, and do the exercises. Most students appear to listen in class so passively that they may be absent minded at times. In the long run, the students will lose the interest of English learning. The negative effects of this kind of pedagogy are noticeable in three areas: motivation, communication ability, and learning schema.First, students are not motivated. For example, in the light of teaching listening, the traditional approach is to play the tape, let the students listen and do the comprehension exercises, play the tape again and check up. There is no doubt that this kind of pedagogy will make the students feel frustrated for their listening and spoken ability. Because “the common methods that most teachers think of as tools for teaching listening comprehension in fact amounts to little more than testing”(Anderson and Lynch 1988:67). The practice of asking questions or letting students do exercises is only a means of assessing how much they have understand rather than encouraging them to understand the spoken discourse. Testing without teaching is usually resulting in heavy pressure, frustration, loss of confidence, and loss of learning interest.Second, students are deficient in communicative ability. So quite a number of students are unable to clearly express their meaning orally in English, even on simple daily topic. The main cause of the above is obvious: the traditional Chinese approach. So students hardly have any chance to speak in class. Additionally, teachers focusing on the structures of the language is also an important cause. “Learners are sometimes misled by apparent structural or dictionary equivalent in their own language, which causes them to produce socially offensive forms in foreign language” ( Littlewood, 1981:5).Third, students lack learning skills. In class, the teachers always dominate the whole process of learning, and students just follow the teachers instructions and passively receive the information. After class, the students rest time will be filled fully of the homework. In this respect, learning is not thoroughly meaningful, in the long run, students will lose the interest of learning.In 1975, an English teacher did an investigation. He studied the reasons for the junior middle school students tiredness in class. The result showed that about 58.7% students were tired in class because they were not interested in teaching method and teaching arrangement. The following table is the result of the survey:ArticleOrder The reasons for tirednessNumber statisticNumber% 1The pressure of homework 5310.08 2Cant try your best to study11622.05 3 Lack of interest on the teaching30958.75 4Cant understand the learning materials285.32 5Environments influence203.8 The students total number526100%( Wu Wenkai 2001：122)In the questionnaire, the students wrote “ It is boring to seat there with nothing to do，and it is also tired to do a lot of class work, but this kind of tiredness is more enjoyable than just seating there.” So the lack of learning interest is the key point to lead to middle school students failure of English learning, and the Chinese traditional teaching methods are also the main causes for their lack of interest of English learning.2.2 The Lack of Understanding of Language“Acknowledging the language is the basis of learning it well”(Chen Wencun, 2004:27).According to Chomsky, “Language is not a form of behavior, it is an intricate rule based system and a large part of language acquisition is the learning of this system. There are a finite number of grammatical rules in the system and with a knowledge of these rules an infinite number of sentences can be produced ”(Wang Qiang, 2003:5). But we can see, quite a number of English teachers have little knowledge of English language, and they always dominate the class with authority and view English as the test tool, while students have no chance and courage to violate the teachers rules in the teaching procedure, and they also lack understanding of language, which lead to their lack of English learning interest in the long time. According to the motivation theory, “The students attitude toward the language that they learn is also an important factor influencing their success or failure”(Zhang Ju & Danny, 2004:119). If the students like the language, and think it is necessary for them to study it, they will study it more enthusiastically, and such an attitude results in learning the language well. On the contrary, if the students dont like the language, and think it is unnecessary for them to study it, they will fail in studying it well. So the lack of understanding of the language is also an important factor for the junior middle school students lack of interest of English learning.For example: In the daily process of teaching, it is easy to find some students seated with nothing to do, and when you ask them the reasons, they will response with an innocent face and say, “It is unnecessary for me to learn English, because I have no plan to communicate with foreigners”. Then it is obvious that the student is lack of the right understanding of English, which results in the lack of interest of English learning.2.3 The Attitude towards the Language TeacherLanguage teachers are the main language input sources for the students in china. So, the students attitude towards the language teacher will be one of the most important factors influencing their success or failure in learning a language. If the students like the teacher, to absorb the language teachers attention, they will learn English as hard as possible, while dislikeness of a teacher could seriously affect language learning, unless it is balanced by a high degree of motivation that enables the students to persist. Thats why the kindergarten always finds some lovely girls to be their teachers. So the students bad attitude toward the language teacher takes an important role in the junior middle school students lack of interest of English learning.A famous educator once wrote a paper, in which he cited a story that is related to the important role of students attitude towards teacher. He wrote “For some reasons, students never volunteered to answer questions in the English class, when asked the reasons, the answer is the dislikeness of the English teacher”(Xiang Maying, 2004:115). So the students attitude towards the teacher is very important for their English learning, and the language teacher should try their best to make students like them.2.4 The Learning EnvironmentThe learning environment means “circumstance and condition in the procedure of learning activities”( It includes physical environment and psychological environment.Physical environment mainly includes the substantial factors, such as school building, playground, classroom, library and other areas. Psychological environment mainly means study atmosphere, such as the relationship between teacher and students, condition of students motivation.“In the aspect of influencing on learning and teaching, the psychological environment plays a fatal role in the students learning”(Li Mang, 2003). In normal teaching procedure, it is easy to find a phenomenon: when the bell rang, the teacher went into the classroom angrily, and threw the homework on the platform and began to objurgate, “The students who havent hand in your homework stand up right now” A little student answered voicelessly “The amount of homework is large and I cant do some of them.” “I have never seen such a lazy and dull student like you” We can imagine the bad situation in which the students have to bear in the rest time of class. According to the above example, we can conclude that, the teacher made use of his authority, and ignored the students humanity and threw about his right, which led to a bad result. That is to say, it made the relationship between the teacher and the students intense.English, as a communicative language, calls for a good learning environment in class. If the learning environment, especially psychological environment is destroyed by any reason, it will results in the barriers of the students English learning, and finally they will lose the interest of English learning.III. The ways