时间：2022-04-23 11:49:35
【Abstract】With the requirement of economic development， English has become so important that every university student needs to study English. Thus， studying English becomes a critical mission. How to study English better？ Undoubtly， motivation should be one of the reasons. There is a question， how to increase the motivation of university students in English learning？ This paper will expound the importance and ways to motivate university students.
【Key words】Motivation； English learning； Way
1 Motivation
Albert Bandura comes up with his theory Self-efficacy theory. In his theory， he thought that people are active decision-making behavior. Person's variables of cognitive areas such as expectation， attention and evaluation play important roles in decision. Among which， the expectations can be divided into result expectation and effect expectation. Result expectation means that the estimate of individual to the result of his behavior， while effect-expectation is speculation and judgment of individual to whether he can finish his task. This speculation and judgment is individual self-efficacy. In other words， the effect-expectation is self-efficacy.
Types of motivation：
According to the source of motivation， it can be divided into intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. As to these two kinds of motivation， there will be a detail explanation as flowing.
1.1 Intrinsic motivation
1）Meaning of intrinsic motivation
Intrinsic motivation refers to a person engaged in spontaneous activity of the kind of awareness. Intrinsic motivation is related with the activity itself directly. As the fact that doing some things can stimulate people’s interest and make people feel happy， the activity itself is the purpose which is pursued by the actors. In a word， once a motivation doesn’t need external force， it will be intrinsic motivation.
2）The way to enhance the intrinsic motivation
（1）To foster interest， setting novel goal to make confliction appear between existed cognitive and the situation to initiate one’s curiosity and exploration.
（2）To stimulate one’s curiosity and tendency in exploration–to maintenance and set confusion.
1.2 Extrinsic motivation
1）Meaning of extrinsic motivation
Extrinsic motivation refers to the kind of motivation which is caused not by the activity itself but by the external stimulus or reasons that is not intrinsically linked with activities.
2）The way to enhance the extrinsic motivation
（1）To ensure that university students will get what they have learned and stimulate them to continually get the experience of success.
（2）To have right learning strategies and improve learning efficiency. With the information age， learning to learn， having certain learning strategies and fostering the capability of life-long learning have become prerequisite for one to survive and develop. Therefore， language learners should be conscious to train their learning strategies and develop appropriate learning strategies， and then improve their capability in reflection and adjust their learning strategies.
2 The ways to improve the motivation of university students
It is said that “you can lead a horse to water， but you can’t make him drink.” To some degree， motivating university students study English is just like that. we know that the positive motivation plays a key role for university students to learn English. Here comes a very important problem： how to improve the motivation of university students？ The answer is written as follows.
2.1 To clear the target of English learning
The target is the expected result that human pursuit in activity. It is a necessary prerequisite to stimulate human's enthusiasm， and further more， to promote human to do something inherently. Target can direct， stimulate and sustain human’s behavior. When the students entered university， they may feel unaccommodating to the model of university’s management. In universities， the study is mainly depending on students themselves. University students should establish appropriate learning goals combined with their English level as soon as possible. However， no matter what the targets are， these targets should suit students themselves.
2.2 To foster interest
It is the good way to foster interest by training students’ learning motivation consciously. Once students’ enthusiasm is emerged and be kept， their motivation will naturally be enhanced. To strengthen the emotional communication with teacher may be a good way to foster interest. In order to enhance the learning motivation， university students should communicate with their teachers regularly and enhance the development of friendship between teachers and students so that the students would have strong sense of trust and intimacy to their teachers. Thereby， the students would be interested in the courses taught by the teachers. As it is put， “to respect for his teacher， to obey the teachers’ words”.
3 Conclusion
In conclusion， motivation is a fatally important thing of English learning. The ways that were mentioned above are more important to motivate and sustain university students in English learning. As an old saying， “It is always better to teach a person who is hungry to fish than to give him some fish”. In other words， learning English requires the university students to stimulate their learning motivation and find proper ways to get better achievement in English. As university students， it is essential and useful to acquire more knowledge of educational psychology especially motivational rationale and effective methodologies.
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