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1、如何激发学生学习英语的积极性How to Stimulate the Students Enthusiasm to Learn English as a FLContentsAbstract.1Key words.2I. Introduction.21.1 Why I choose this topic.21.2 The importance of students learning enthusiasm.2II. The classifications of motivation.42.1 Extrinsic motivation.42.2 Intrinsic motivation and
2、interest.7III. Roles of and requirements for a qualified English teacher.83.1 The English teachers roles in the process of teaching. .83.2 The requirements for a qualified English teacher.10IV. Theories and methods on causing or stimulating the students learning desire.124.1 Theories on causing and
3、stimulating the students learning desire.124.2 Methods on causing and stimulating the students learning desire.13V. Conclusion.15References.15摘 要: 改革开放,加入世贸组织,英语在我国教育中所占的位置越来越重要了。现在你到处都可以看见学习英语的人。特别是在中学,英语更是一门拉分很厉害的科目。关于英语方面的教科书,考试资料真是五花八门,琳琅满目,让人眼花缭乱。但是这些并不能从最根本上让英语学习者主动地、积极地去学习。学生只是被动地去接受,不知道自己学习英
4、语的目的,学习时没有一个明确的目标,感受不到英语学习中的乐趣,更无所谓兴趣了。英语教师在教学当中仅仅充当了一个知识灌输者的角色。要提高英语学习者的学习积极性,我们要从推动事物发展的三个方面着手内因、外因和内外因的结合物。在这里,内因就是学生本身,外因是教师和其他外部因素,内外因的结合物是指连接学生和老师之间的教学方法。关键词:英语教学;积极性;学习兴趣;学习动机;教学方法;互动Abstract: Since the policy of reform and opening-up and Chinas entry into WTO, English becomes more and more i
5、mportant in Chinese educational system. And you can find people are learning English everywhere. Especially in middle school, English, Chinese and mathematics are considered as the three main courses, which can be decisive for your entry into a better senior middle school or a better university. The
6、refore, textbooks and materials about English and English learning are incalculable and hard to choose. But this cannot make the students active and enthusiastic English learners. What they can do is merely to receive passively without knowing his purpose and goal for their learning, without feeling
7、 the enjoyment in the process of learning, not even to say of his interest. The only role the teacher plays in this kind of teaching pattern is an injector of English linguistic or non-linguistic knowledge. If we want to stimulate and enhance the students enthusiasm to learn English, we should set a
8、bout the work from three decisive aspects for the development of an objectthe interiorcause and the exterior cause as well as the combination of these two. In the matter of English learning enthusiasm, it refers to the students themselves(“the interiorcause”), the teacher and other exterior factors(
9、“the exterior cause”) and the teachers teaching methods or teaching approaches(“the combination of these two”).Key words: English teaching; enthusiasm; learning interest; learning motivation; teaching methods; interaction I. Introduction1.1 Why I choose this topicDuring my teaching practice, I exper
10、ienced English classes with dull English teacher and passive students. After my investigation on the students of the class, I found the root of all of these, i.e. the students enthusiasms are not stimulated. As soon as I returned to the university, I determined to write a paper about this phenomenon
11、. So I go to library and Internet to find information and materials of this problem. I collected a lot of information and materials for my paper and I wish my paper could combine this information and materials together and make those English teachers who produce dull classes and passive students can
12、 make some progress on their teaching quality and do something good to their students. In this paper, I resort to some works of professors such as Andrew Goldbeck, Jack C. Richard, Theodore S. Rodgers, Xi Yuhu and Li Tingxiang, which include Motivating Students in Todays Classroom, Approaches and Me
13、thods in Language Teaching, English Teaching Methodology, Practical Models and Skills in todays English teaching, Practical Models and Skills in todays English teaching. Now I will respectively introduce these articles or books.1.2 The importance of students learning enthusiasmMentioning the importa
14、nce of students learning enthusiasm, we should firstly get to know what does learning enthusiasm mean here. To stimulate the students enthusiasm to learn English means to make the students willing and eager to learn English. The key point to achieve this is to get the students motivated, i.e. to get
15、 their learning motivation stimulated.Characteristics of motivated learnersThe author of a classic study of successful language learning( Naiman et al., 1978) came to the conclusion that the most successful learners are not necessarily those to whom a language comes very easily; they are those who d
16、isplay certain typical characteristics, most of them clearly associated with motivation. Some of these are:1) Positive task orientation. The learner is willing to tackle tasks and challenges, and has confidence in his or her success.2) Ego-involvement. The learner finds it important to succeed in le
17、arning in order to maintain and promote his or her own (positive) self-image.3) Need for achievement. The learner has a need to achieve, to overcome difficulties and succeed in what he or she sets out to do.4) High aspirations. The learner is ambitious, going for demanding challenges, high proficien
18、cy, top grades.5) Goal orientation. The learner is very aware of the goal of learning, or of specific learning activities, and directs his or her efforts towards achieving them.6) Perseverance. The learner consciously invests a high level of effort in learning, and is not discouraged by setbacks or
19、apparent lack of progress.7) Tolerance of ambiguity. The learner is not disturbed or frustrated by situations involving a temporary lack of understanding or confusion; he or she can live with these patiently, in the confidence that understanding will come later.Various other personality traits have
20、been studied, such as field-dependence or independence, empathy, introversion, but results have been less conclusive.Various studies have revealed that motivation is very strongly related to achievement in language learning. The question then needs to be asked: which is the cause and which the resul
21、t? In other words, does success in language learning breed its own motivation or does previous motivation lead to success? Or both? Another question for which is that there is no conclusive research-based evidence on whether motivation is more important than the natural aptitude for learning or not,
22、 though at least one well-known study (Naiman et al., 1978) tends towards the claim that motivation is ultimately more important.The significant message of research in this area for teachers is the sheer importance of the factor of learner motivation in successful language learning. The uncertainty
23、as to which comes first, motivation or success, does not entail any particular problem for teaching: it simply means that among other things we do to increase our students motivation, strategies to increase the likelihood of success in learning activities should have high priority. And as to the que
24、stion whether motivation is more or less important than language aptitude is apparently much more difficult to assess than once thought, so that the question is probably unanswerable. In any case, perhaps it was not a very helpful one on the first place: our job is to do all we can to encourage the
25、development of ability and enhance motivation, on the understanding that each will contribute to the other.II. The classifications of motivationsA distinction has been made in the literature between “integrative” and “instrumental” motivations: the desire to identify with and integrate into the targ
26、et-language culture, contrasted with the wish to learn the language for purposes of study or career promotion. Gardner and Lambert(1972) introduced these concepts and claimed that integrative motivation was mote influential among learners of French in Canada; but research since has cast doubt on the
27、 application of this claim to foreign language learners in general. In any case, at least another study (Burstall et al., 1974) has indicated that it may be impossible in practice to distinguish between the two.Another distinction, perhaps more useful for teachers, is that between “intrinsic” motiva
28、tion (the urge to engage in the learning activity for its own sake) and “extrinsic” (motivation that is derived from external incentives). Both of these have an important part to play in classroom motivation, and both are at least partially accessible to teacher influence. Intrinsic motivation is in
29、 its turn associated with what has been termed “cognitive drive”the urge to learn for its own sake, which is very typical of young children and tends to deteriorate with age.A third distinction that has been made (Brown, 1987) is that between “global”, “situational” and “task” motivation: the first
30、is the overall orientation of the learner towards the learning of the foreign language; the second has to do with the context of the learning (classroom, total environment); and with the way the learner approaches the specific task in hand. Global motivation may seem mainly determined by previous ed
31、ucation and a multitude of the social factors, but it is also affected by the teachers own attitudes conveyed either unconsciously or through explicit information and persuasion. And the third is probably where most of our effort is invested in practice: in making the task in hand as attractive as p
32、ossible, and in encouraging our students to engage in it, invest effort and succeed.2.1 Extrinsic motivationExtrinsic motivation derives from the influence of some kind of external incentives, distinct from the wish to learn for its own sake or interest in tasks. Many sources of extrinsic motivation
33、s are inaccessible to the influence of the teacher: for example, the desire of the students to please some other authority figures such as parents, their wish to succeed in an external exam, or peer-group influences. However, other sources are certainly affected by teacher action. Here are some of t
34、hem.1) Success and its rewardsThis is perhaps the single most important feature in raising extrinsic motivation. Learners who have succeeded in past tasks will be more willing to engage in the next one, more confident in their chances of succeeding, and more likely to persevere in their efforts.It i
35、s important to note that “success” in this context is not necessarily the same as “getting the answers right”through sometimes it may be. Further criteria may be the sheer amount of language produced or understood, the investment of effort and care, the degree of progress since a previous performanc
36、e. All these need to be recognized by the teacher as “success” for which the learner can and should take credit.The teachers most important function here is simply to make sure that learners are aware of their own success: the message can be conveyed by a nod, a tick, even significant lack of respon
37、se. But a sense of pride and satisfaction may of course be enhanced by explicit praise or approval, or by its expression in quantitative gradespartially for young, inexperienced or unconfident learners. The only potential problem with these explicit markers of success is the danger that if over-used
38、 learners may become dependent on them: they may lose confidence in their ability to recognize success on their own, and see lack of teacher approval as casting doubt on it, or even as disapproval.The key, then, is the learners own awareness of successful performance, however this is attained: the m
39、ore confident they become and the more able to recognize such success on their own, the less they will need explicit support from someone else.2) Failure and its penaltiesFailure, too, is not just a matter of wrong answers; learners should be aware that they are failing if they have done significant
40、ly less than they could have, if they are making unsatisfactory progress, or not taking care. Failure in any sense is generally regarded as something to be avoided, just as success is something to be sought. But this should not be taken too far. For one thing, success loses its sweetness if it is to
41、o easily attained and if there is no real occasional failure in any normal learning experience, and they are nothing to be ashamed of; good learners recognize this, take setbacks in their stride, and look for ways to exploit them in order to succeed next time.As with success, it is in principle part
42、 of the teachers job to make learners aware of when they are failing. However, there is certainly a danger that constant awareness of shortcomings may lower learners motivation and demoralize them, particularly those whose self-image and confidence are shaky to start with. There may be cases where y
43、ou may prefer to ignore or play down a failure; and success can be made more likely by judicious selection of tasks, and by setting the (minimum) standard of success at a clearly achievable level.3) Authoritative demandsLearners are often motivated by teacher pressure: they may be willing to invest
44、effort in tasks simply because you have told them to, recognizing your authority and right to make this demand, and trusting your judgment. Younger learners on the whole need the exercise of such authority more, adults less: but even adults prefer to be faced with a clear demand such as “I want you
45、to do this assignment by Friday” than a low-key request like: “Do what you can, and give it to me whenever you finished.”Authoritative demands can be, of course, over-used or misused: if learners only do things because they are obeying commands, without any awareness of objectives and results or inv
46、olvement in decisions, they are unlikely to develop personal responsibility for their own learning or long-term motivation to continue. On the other hand an over-emphasis on learner freedom and autonomy and corresponding lack of authoritative demand by the teacher can lead to noticeable lowering of
47、effort and achievement, and often, paradoxically, to learner dissatisfaction. Teachers have, surely, a duty to use their authority to “push” their studentsparticularly the younger onesbeyond what they might be willing to do on their own, towards what Vygotsky (1961: Ch.6) called their “zone of proxi
48、mal development”the next stage in achievementwhich can only be attained by a learner with the support and help of their teacher.4) TestsThe motivating power of tests appears clear: learners who know they are going to be tested on specific materials next week will normally be more motivated to study it carefully than if they had simply been told to learn it. Again, this is a useful incentive, provided there is not too mu