【正文】 ol ……………………… ............7 Learners’ Anxiety in Classroom……………………………………………… .7 ExamOriented Learning Mode ……………………………………… ............7 4. Methods of Inspiring and Cultivating Students’ Motivation ………… ..……… ....8 To Create a Pleasant and Supportive Learning Environment………... ..............8 The Application of Collaborative Learning………………………………… ....9 To Familiarize Learners with Target Language Culture……………… ...........10 To Generate Students’ Motivation…… ...……………………………… .........11 To Enhance Students’ Sense of SelfEfficacy and Their Confidence… ..11 Attribution Training………………………………… .………………… 13 5. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………… .14 References………………………………………………………………………… ...15 1 1. Introduction As globalization continues to develop, English is being more important than ever. In most middle schools in china, English is an important and pulsory subject for students. In that case, researches on English learning have been paid more attention to. There are Lots of factors that influence second language acquisition, such as motivation, ability, learning strategy, learning attitude, age, gender, etc. According to Jakobovits’ survey, among those elements, motivation accounts for 33%, ability 33%, intelligence 20%, others 14% (Jakobovits, 1970). “Motivation on foreign language learning is one of the most dynamic factors in individual factors of language learners (Qin xiaojing, 20xx). Motivation, therefore, plays an important role in affecting foreign language acquisition. Motivation is so important that many second language researchers have been researching on it in the last three decades. One of the most general and well known dimensions in motivation theory is intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Generally speaking, internal motivation is regarded as a central motivator in the educational process. Meanwhile, cognitive motivation theories, as a kind of theory laid more stress on the learner’s internal thoughts, beliefs and emotions rather than the external environment, are emphasized in this paper. In the 1990s, the Hungarian scholar Dornyei puts forward a prehensive theory of motivation. This theoretical framework divides all the motivation ponents into three levels—the level of language, the level of learners, the level of learning situation. Dornyei’s theory illustrates that learning motivation of foreign language is not only related to the learning subject (learners), but also related to the learning object( target language) and learning situations. For the first time, he bines the motivation studies with language teaching and learning closely, providing a theoretical base for inspiring student’s learning motivation. However, previous studies focus more on the classification of the learning motivation and theoretical research. Fewer researches on the relationship between motivation theory 2 and teaching and the application of motivation theory are conducted before. In this thesis, first of all, the author expounds the definition of previous scholars about motivation, from Pit Corder, Garnder, to Pintrich amp。 Schunk, to Du Fuxing. Secondly, the author illustrates the traditional classification of motivation: integrative motivation and instrumental motivation, internal motivation and external motivation. Thirdly, the author sums up the main problems of Chinese English learners in middle school: the anxiety in English classroom and examoriented learning mode. In order to solve those problems, the author suggests a series of methods for stimulating students learning motivation. 2. Related Theories of Motivation In this section, the author illustrates some basic conception, including definition and classification of motivation and analyzes some closely relevant motivation theories which are applied in the methods to inspire and motivate students’ learning motivation. The Definition of Motivation The study of motivation is a prominent area both in the fields of psychology and education. Before we conclude those methods for English teachers for stimulating students’ foreign language learning, the author believes it is essential to illustrate that what motivation is. According to Gardner, motivation refers to the bination of effort plus desire to achieve the goal of learning the language. (Gardner,1985). His theory about foreign language learning motivation is regarded as starting point for other researches. Brophy put forward a definition that “Motivation is a theoretical construct used to explain the initiation, direction, intensity, and persistence of behavior, especially goaldirected behavior” (Brophy, 1998) Another definition made by Pintrich and Schunk suggests: “Motivation is the 3 process whereby goaldirected activity is instigated and sustained”. “Motivation is a process rather than a product. As a process, we do not observe motivation directly but we infer it from such behaviors as a choice of tasks, efforts, persistence, or verbalization” (Pintrich amp。 Schunk , 1996). Simply speaking, motivation is the learner’s direct inner drive to guide and stir personal behavior, and excite personal efforts to achieve goal. As Du Fuxing(20xx) summarizes, motivation is a state of cognitive and emotional arousal which may produce a conscious decision to act, and it needs a period of sustained intellectual and/or physical effort in order to attain a previously set goals. Thus in author’s opinion, teachers should be aware of different kinds of internal factors and external factors, and how they have influence on learning behaviors, and what kind of factor would be more likely to arouse learner’ interest and promote learner’s autonomy so as to achieve learning goals. Classification of Motivation According to learning goals and needs, four major kinds of motivations have been ide