A study on the relationship between motivation in English learning and attitudes towards English learning environment in Hong Kong primary schools /

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Student Projects

2018

Lam, Ka Man

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For most of the Hong Kong students, they only learn and speak English in schools. Thus, both classroom and outside-classroom experiences are crucial in enhancing the English proficiency of students. Due to the exam-oriented education system and Chinese culture concepts like 'saving face' and 'avoiding to show off', students may not dare to speak English in the public outside schools (Yang, 2010). Building authentic English-rich environment at schools could provide more opportunities for students to practice their target language and to expose themselves more to the target language.On the other hand, L2 motivation is strongly related to the environment where the language is learnt (Dörnyei, 1990). According to the study of Hsieh (2002), there is a positive relationship between learning environment and students' motivation. Physical environment, instructional arrangements and social situation are the three most relevant aspects in language learning environment within the school context. The purpose of this study is to further explore how these aspects affect L2 learning of students and their motivation in the context of Hong Kong primary schools. Oxford and Shearin (1994) suggested that teachers could adopt several motivational strategies to increase students' motivation for language learning and these strategies are relevant to promotion of stimulating language-rich environment at schools.In this study, questionnaires were distributed to English teachers and students and interviews have been conducted in a primary school, in order to investigate the relationship between teachers' motivational strategies, students' motivation, the attitudes and the ratings of importance for both teachers and students towards the current English learning environment on their campus. A positive relationship between students' motivation and the English learning environment, as has been reported in previous studies (Hsieh, 2002), was observed in this study. These findings lead to the conclusion that by promoting English-rich environment, students' motivation can be enhanced

LG51.H43 hp BEd(EL) 2018eb Lamkm

https://educoll.lib.eduhk.hk/records/qTFrFBz3