Classroom Activity and Intrinsic Motivation in EFL Teaching and Learning

郑玉全

【Abstract】The question of how to motivate language learners has been a neglected area in L2 motivation research， and even the few available analyses lack an adequate research base. This article presents the results of an empirical survey aimed at initiating interviews and conducting follow-up questionnaire to obtain classroom data on motivational classroom teaching activities and the actual effect of these strategies. This current study provides new insights into English classroom teaching with further research investigation and teaching implication to promote students integrative motivation through classroom teaching activities.

【Keywords】Intrinsic motivation； class activity； classroom teaching and learning

Introduction

More and more researches have been conducted to investigate the various aspects of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in recent years. Intrinsic motivation has been defined as （a） participation in an activity purely out of curiosity， that is， from a need to know more about something （Deci， 1975； Woolfolk， 1990）； （b） the desire to engage in an activity purely for the sake of participating in and completing a task （Bates， 1979； Deci， Vallerand， Pelletier， & Ryan， 1991）； and （c） the desire to contribute （Mills， 1991）. Intrinsic motivation is based in the innate， organismic needs for competence and self-determination （Deci & Ryan， 1985； Woolfolk， 1990）， as well as the desire to seek and conquer challenges （Adelman & Taylor， 1990）. Most of the research done on motivation has been carried out in settings where the learner had a wide choice of activities， or in a free-play setting. In reality， the student has to complete tasks that are compulsory as well as evaluated （Brophy， 1983）. Teachers need to consider how instructional practices are designed from the motivational perspective （Schunk， 1990）. There is rare research and study on intrinsic motivation and tasks in Chinese EFL teaching and learning. This current study aims to fill in the gap from an exploratory perspective and follow-up studies are needed for more fruitful and comprehensive results.

Literature Review：

Intrinsically Motivate EFL Learners---Motivation-Research Background

Based on empirical study， D?rnyei （1994a） developed a more general framework of L2 motivation that attempts to synthesize various lines of research by offering an extensive list of motivational components categorized into three main dimensions， the Language Level， the Learner Level and the Learning Situation Level. The Learning Situation Level is associated with situation-specific motives rooted in various aspects of language learning in a classroom setting. Within this level， one out of three main types of motivational sources is discussed in this study as follows， that is， course-specific motivational components， which are related to the syllabus， the teaching materials， the teaching method and the learning tasks.

As Good and Brophy summarize， ‘motivation [in the classroom] did not receive much scholarly attention until recently， so that teachers were forced to rely on unsystematic “bag-of-trick” approaches or on advice coming from questionable theorizing （1994： 212）. Using motivational strategies is generally believed to facilitate students' motivation， but only a few studies have found empirical evidence to support this claim. The present study addresses the following research questions： （1） how do students react to different types of class activity in classroom teaching and learning？ （2） What types of class activity can intrinsically motivate English language learners in college classroom teaching and learning？

Interview Findings and Discussion

Three relevant themes emerged from the analysis are discussed： the general attitude toward English class， students feedback on different class activities and their preferable intrinsically motivated class activities.

General attitude toward English class

All the six participants expressed their willingness and likeness of attending English class. Four students stated that English class was interesting. One female student said that English class was boring but acceptable to attend while one low English level male student uttered that English class is fine because he had to learn English at school.

Students reaction to different class activities

Four types of class activity in Intensive English class were integrated in interviewing the six participants. They reacted to these learning tasks very differently. Detailed description is as follows.

Presentation

Five out of the six interviewed students appreciated the presentation activity very much. From the interview， the two female students and three male students disclosed that the presentation activity stimulated their desire to prepare for it and were willing to spend time in searching for materials and discussing together to make the PPT. The level of English proficiency has no effect on carrying out this classroom activity.

Reading aloud

Among the six participants， half of them disliked the reading aloud activity. The resulting reasons are poor pronunciation， boring task and feeling ashamed if they didnt know how to read the new words in front of the big class. Three students were pleased with this form of classroom activity.

Translation

Five in six participants took translation task as a workable exercise and agreed that they could do it without too much pressure and challenge. Only one student said translation was too difficult for her because of her English competence.

Writing

For the writing section， students were asked to write English essays with at least 100 words. All the six students regarded writing was a very difficult task to do and they wrote mainly for the reason that they had to get the score for course assessment.

Students Intrinsically Motivated Activity

At the end of each interview， all the six students were asked to describe their own preferable classroom activity that could motivate themselves intrinsically. These suggested activities can be generally categorized into three types： Oral English practice， reading and fun games.

Questionnaire Findings and Discussion

Male students hold stronger interests in different type of class activity， ranging from class presentation to writing tasks without exception. Class presentation， discussion and listening rank the first three places of likeness. This finding is in accordance with the finding from the interview. Female students found reading aloud more challengeable than male students， which showed by the level of difficulty 3.20 and 3.09 respectively. Both male and female students thought themed discussion fairly hard to complete， with the same level of difficulty， that is， 3.27. Apart from reading aloud and themed discussion， the other five class activities were more difficulty for male students than female students， especially listening task.

Class presentation and themed discussion both require a higher command of oral English proficiency and their correlation value is p<0.553， which is the highest among the six types of class activity. Reading aloud and translation focus more on new learned words and sentence structures which can be seen from their correlation value of p<0.472. Listening and writing are two class activities that students can arrange their time by themselves to prepare and perform in class.

Motivation and English learning

Based on the opening question asked in the interview， the current study placed two opening questions attempting to find out what motivated students to learn English and what types of class activity may intrinsically motivate them most. Integrative motivation is represented in the eleven students who are interested in English language and culture. Instrumental motivation is seen from the 13 students who were stimulated to learn English by the requirement of passing exams， two students who desire to meet the course requirement and one student who plans to go further study abroad. Intrinsic motivation is fully exposed by the 3 students who hoped to improve their English proficiency and another two students who took learning English as a habit. There are three students who had no interest in learning English. What kinds of class activity shall meet such needs then？

It is clearly showed that there are many class activities that can be integrated into present teaching to promote students intrinsic interest in learning English. Entertainment activity follows as the second most popular activity that students would like to have， such as watching movies， listening to songs， reading English newspapers and competitive games. Four types of activity used in current classroom were regarded as intrinsically-motivated activity， namely， presentation， reading aloud， writing and autonomic learning.

Conclusion and Implication

Based on the resulting interviews， class presentation， themed discussion and reading aloud were liked most by students. Translation and writing tasks were not welcomed by students. The finding from questionnaire is approximately consistent with that of interview. There is contradictory finding between interview and questionnaire. Reasons for such discrepancy lie in English proficiency and the level of task difficulty which closely relate with intrinsic motivation and learning activity.

Class activity with same or similar language requirements holds high correlation. Referring to the second research question， there are many different class activities that could motivate students intrinsically to learn English instead of the present class activities. New activity designs can be combined with present teaching activity to better cultivate students interest in English aiming at better outcome.

Current pedagogical trends in L2 and foreign language teaching call for a learner-centered orientation in language classrooms. In order to enhance students intrinsic motivation in learning English， many other class activities can be integrated into the present classroom teaching. More empirical study is needed to provide a fuller picture of intrinsic motivation and class activity.

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