英语论文网

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Background
Since the College Entrance Examination System had been restored and the reformand opening-up policy had been carried out, English was regarded as a necessarysubject in the nine-year compulsory education, which led to that more and morepeople learned English with increasing enthusiasm. Ever since the implementation ofCET4 and CET6 (College English Test Band 4 and 6), English learning has beentaking the priority of college students. What is more, with the development ofeconomic globalization, one who can manage listening, speaking, reading and writingof English will have competitive advantages in finding a good job and studyingabroad. Therefore, it can be seen that English is so important for students in Chinathat many parents, with the principle of not letting children lose at the starting line,pay such more attention to their children’ English learning that they send theirchildren to take various English classes outside school. Although recently the reformof college entrance examination about decreasing the ratio of Englishhas beenconducted in several cities, the importance and significance of English has notchanged actuallyin China, and students in new century have had to face morerequirements and challenges.It is a good news that the reform of college entrance examination has beenexperimenting in several regions in order to change the direction from exam-orientedEnglish into application-oriented English. However, the fact is that the reform has notbeen popularized, and most regions still apply the old system, that is, exam-orientededucation, which emphasizes grammar, reading and writing, and dealing with massivequestions. Based on this kind of educational system, teachers still choose the methodof “duck-stuffing” to organize their teaching activities, which causes the loss ofstudents’ interests in learning English. Most students are forced to learn Englishbecause of the pressure of college entrance examination instead of learning out oftheir interest or willingness. So students are likely to give up learning English at oncewhen they get rid of the pressures from surroundings.
....

1.2 Purpose of the Study
As said in the background, some students are gifted in learning second languageand become excellent without much effort, while some students cannot handlelanguage learning very well no matter how hard they study. Based on the differencesexisted between the two kinds of students, many studies have been carried out byscholars in SLA field to find out the factors that influence students’ second languagelearning. Motivation and self-efficacy are regarded as two of the main non-intellectualfactors and have aroused more academic interests of applied linguists and languageteachers. With the constant development of motivational theory, more and moreattention have been focused on the L2 motivational self system (L2MSS), which wasproposed by D rnyei in 2005. The L2 Motivational Self System is such an constructthat concerns about the interrelationship between motivation and language learnerthemselves.Based on the previous theoretical and empirical researches, the L2motivational self system broadens the scope of L2 learning motivation theory andmakes itself applicable in different language learning contexts (D rnyei, 2009a).Generally speaking, it has to be admitted that in SLA field, the theories andempirical studies abroad are far more advanced than ones in