The Influence of External Factors in Classroom Teaching on S

The Influence of External Factors in Classroom Teaching on

Students’ Motivation in English Learning

摘 要:在中国,学习英语的主要途径仍是课堂英语学习。为了鼓励学生学好英语,老师们经常会对学生说;“你们应该培养学习英语的兴趣”,“你们应该建立自信心”等。毫无疑问,学生自身学习英语的积极态度和期望对他们学好这门语言有很大的帮助。然而,如何更好地激发学生的学习兴趣,使他们在英语课堂上很好地学好这门语言呢? 在这篇文章里,笔者根据自己十四年的英语教学经验提出并分析了课堂上的一些外在因素对学生学习的内在动力的影响,比如教师的课堂言行、教学材料、教学方法等。

关键词:课堂教学 外在因素 内在动力 教学方法

1.Introduction

In English learning, students are strongly affected by motivation which, according to Wajnryb, falls into two categories: integrative and instrumental. Integrative motivation occurs when the students are intrinsically interested in learning English and wish to become a member of the target cultural community; while the instrumental motivation occurs when the students study English for the purpose of gaining something, such as money or a better job (Wajnryb, 1992, p. 31). Whether the basis of motivation is integrative, instrumental or a blend of the two, it helps learners establish their learning goals, promotes the acquisition process, and brings about a satisfactory learning result.

With motivation being an indispensable factor in learning success, it is very important for teachers to help students maintain their motivation or help them generate motivation. This is because in actual classroom learning, many students with great interest and expectancy in learning English may lose their motivation or students without any ideas may be motivated and become interested in learning English. Thus, this paper aims at analyzing the influence of external factors in classroom teaching on students’ motivation. From observations of many classes at Hawaii Pacific University, Global Village English, and University of Hawaii, I have learned that the external factors in classroom teaching like teacher behaviors, teaching materials, and teaching methodology play a significant role in arousing students’ motivation in learning English.

2.Teacher behaviors

Since a teacher is the one who always stands in front of the class and organizes the whole class process, everything the teacher does has a motivational influence on students. Teacher behaviors in classroom are manifold, including verbal and

non-verbal immediate behaviors, attitudes towards teaching, and the commitment to teaching. As all know, some teachers shout all the time. There is not a single class in which they do not shout at students. This behavior of teachers creates an unpleasant environment where students are treated as “criminals” and put students in a dilemma of whether they should be active or passive in class activities because they will get verbal “punishment” for both imperfect performance and silence. This stressful atmosphere simply demotivates students, even inhibits their initiatives.

Conversely, if teachers follow the humanistic approach, the result will be quite different. As in many classes I have observed for my practicum I, most teachers treat students as friends, tolerate their errors, and try to reduce stress to the minimum. Therefore, in order to build a relaxed atmosphere, “the teacher should be a patient, engaging person who supports students’ leading efforts. Students should feel comfortable taking intellectual risks because they know that they will not be embarrassed or criticized if they make a mistake” (Dornyei, 2001, p. 121).

3.Teaching Materials

In addition to the teacher behaviors, teaching materials used in the process of language teaching are also very vital. Authentic materials that are suitable and exploitable are capable of generating learner interest, hence stimulating students’ motivation in learning. Nunan (1999) defines authentic materials as those that were not created purposely for language teaching (p. 27). This means that most objects in daily life qualify as authentic materials like pictures, labels, menus, newspapers, television or radio programs, and films. I have been further convinced the value of authentic materials after observing some classes during my observations.

In EFP 1350 reading class, the teacher always brought a bunch of latest newspapers to the class, and then he would put students in pairs to have them discuss news articles in the newspapers. According to my observation, students were enthusiastic in reading and discussing newspaper articles because they always actively shared their opinions and asked questions about both content and vocabulary in the newspapers. Since newspapers provide interesting and real events happening in the world, students are naturally attracted to reading the newspaper articles by their curiosity to know the news. What is more, newspaper articles enable students to learn a lot of popular and updated English vocabulary that might be impossible for them to learn in many textbooks.

Another class that makes me believe the effectiveness of authentic language teaching is Level 3 Grammar Class at Global Village English. The grammar point the teacher taught in that class was how to express future tense with the sentence structure of “subject + modal verb +base verb”. In order for students to understand when they could use the sentence structure, the teacher put students in dyad and had them study some authentic language samples of future tense on the handouts that were collected

by the teacher from films, TV, and real conversations. Based on what they had learned from the handouts, students were asked to talk to each other in pairs about “what is likely to happen to your partner in one year from now”. By studying future tense sentences from various authentic samples and using them …… 此处隐藏：11383字，全部文档内容请下载后查看。喜欢就下载吧 ……