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【Abstract】This paper aimed at exploring Chinese primary students’ English-learning orientation from the perspective of various L2 motivation concepts. The particular interest of this research was the investigation of whether or not there were any differencesin terms of motivation among urban and rural students and reasons behind the difference. The participants comprised 30 3rd grade primary students from Heze Experimental Primary School. A set of questionnaire was used to collected data. The findings indicate that urban students displayed a significantly higher level of motivation than rural students. The results also showed that urban students are more intrinsic-oriented and active in English learning while rural students are more instrumental-oriented and passive. Future research drawn from this research were presented in the end.
【Key words】urban students; rural students; learning motivation; motivation orientation
【摘要】本篇文章旨在从第二语言习得动机方面研究中国小学学生的英语学习动机。本文调查了城市学生和农村学生之间的学习动机差异及其背后的原因。共30名来自菏泽牡丹区实验小学的学生参与了本次研究。一整套原创调查问卷发放并收集了参与者的信息和意见。本文研究发现，与农村学生相比，城市学生展现出了更高程度的学习动机。调查结果同时显示，城市学生在英语学习中表现相对主动而农村学生则相对被动。基于本文研究结果，相关未来研究将在结尾部分提出。
【关键词】城市学生 农村学生 学习动机 动机取向
1. Introduction
Motivation， as one of the most important variables that impacts language-learning outcomes （D?rnyei， 1998）， has been studied and explored by many scholars within the context of EFL in recent decades. However， few studies have been done on the contrast between Chinese primary urban and rural students’ motivation.
In China， students are assigned to a school according to their home address. In fact， many parents， especially the ones who live in the rural areas， tend to send their children to better schools in the city. From my personal teaching observation as a primary school teacher， I have found from time to time that most rural students tend to show less enthusiasm when it comes to learning English compared to their urban classmates. These observations have triggered the present study， which aims to explore 3rd grade Chinese students’ motivation for studying English， with an emphasis on comparison and contrast between urban and rural students.A set of motivation-orientation questionnaire was distributed among participants in order to answer the following two questions：
a. Is there any difference between Chinese primary urban and rural students’ English-leaning motivation？
b. Which motivation orientation has the strongest influence on urban and rural students？ 2. Literature Review
Motivation， as defined by Chang （1997）， is an internal force，which prompts an individual to develop an inclination toward various behaviours. In the second language （L2） acquisition context， motivation not only effects students’ learningprocess but also their performance and achievements. Therefore， in the past few decades， numerous research works have been generated onmotivation.
Gardner and his colleagues proposed the socio-educational model （Gardner 1985）. This model aims to explore learners’ motivation from a social and cultural perspective and introduces two key types of orientations to the L2-motivation research. Integrative orientation refers to an openness toward the target-language group and the interest to interact with it. Instrumental orientation， as a counterpart of integrative orientation， is about learning the target language for pragmatic reasons. However， with the development of the global status of English， the integrative orientation has been questioned by many scholars.
Because of the limitation of Gardners’ theory， various research works were carried outduring the 1990s to emphasiseon an individual’s cognitive aspects of motivation （D?rnyei， 1990）. Deci and Ryan （1985） developed the self-determination theory， which made a distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic of motivation.Extrinsic Motivation refers to behaviour that is driven by external rewards， while intrinsic motivation refers to behaviour that is driven by inherent pleasure.
Apart from the literature mentioned above， there are many other influential motivation theories， such as expectancy-value theories， which deeply influenced the L2 motivation research area， and they have their own way of classifying rules. However， the questionnaire only adapted Gardner’s socio-educational model and the self-determination theory due to the length of the research. In the next section，the usage of the motivation-orientation questionnaire to collect data will be discussed.
3. Methodology
3.1 Participants
The total number of participants in this study were 30 pupils who were placed into two groups based on their household registration， each group have 15 students. All of the participants comes from the 3rd grade of Heze Experimental Primary School， and they were randomly chosen by according to their willingness to participate. The survey wasconducted in a regular classroom setting andwas permitted by students’ guardians. The participants were given 20 minutes to finish the questionnaire and were informed that the data collection would maintain confidentiality and anonymity. 3.2 Instrument
As a flexible and efficient tool， a questionnaire was designed to assess students’ language-learning motivation. The questionnaire was originally developed in English. However， aset of the Chinese version of the questionnaire wasalso distributed among the participants，in consideration of their elementary language level. There were two sections in the questionnaire： student profile and motivation orientations. The first section aimed to collect students’ background information. Adapted from the Attitudes and Motivation Test Battery （Gardner
【Key words】urban students; rural students; learning motivation; motivation orientation
【摘要】本篇文章旨在从第二语言习得动机方面研究中国小学学生的英语学习动机。本文调查了城市学生和农村学生之间的学习动机差异及其背后的原因。共30名来自菏泽牡丹区实验小学的学生参与了本次研究。一整套原创调查问卷发放并收集了参与者的信息和意见。本文研究发现，与农村学生相比，城市学生展现出了更高程度的学习动机。调查结果同时显示，城市学生在英语学习中表现相对主动而农村学生则相对被动。基于本文研究结果，相关未来研究将在结尾部分提出。
【关键词】城市学生 农村学生 学习动机 动机取向
1. Introduction
Motivation， as one of the most important variables that impacts language-learning outcomes （D?rnyei， 1998）， has been studied and explored by many scholars within the context of EFL in recent decades. However， few studies have been done on the contrast between Chinese primary urban and rural students’ motivation.
In China， students are assigned to a school according to their home address. In fact， many parents， especially the ones who live in the rural areas， tend to send their children to better schools in the city. From my personal teaching observation as a primary school teacher， I have found from time to time that most rural students tend to show less enthusiasm when it comes to learning English compared to their urban classmates. These observations have triggered the present study， which aims to explore 3rd grade Chinese students’ motivation for studying English， with an emphasis on comparison and contrast between urban and rural students.A set of motivation-orientation questionnaire was distributed among participants in order to answer the following two questions：
a. Is there any difference between Chinese primary urban and rural students’ English-leaning motivation？
b. Which motivation orientation has the strongest influence on urban and rural students？ 2. Literature Review
Motivation， as defined by Chang （1997）， is an internal force，which prompts an individual to develop an inclination toward various behaviours. In the second language （L2） acquisition context， motivation not only effects students’ learningprocess but also their performance and achievements. Therefore， in the past few decades， numerous research works have been generated onmotivation.
Gardner and his colleagues proposed the socio-educational model （Gardner 1985）. This model aims to explore learners’ motivation from a social and cultural perspective and introduces two key types of orientations to the L2-motivation research. Integrative orientation refers to an openness toward the target-language group and the interest to interact with it. Instrumental orientation， as a counterpart of integrative orientation， is about learning the target language for pragmatic reasons. However， with the development of the global status of English， the integrative orientation has been questioned by many scholars.
Because of the limitation of Gardners’ theory， various research works were carried outduring the 1990s to emphasiseon an individual’s cognitive aspects of motivation （D?rnyei， 1990）. Deci and Ryan （1985） developed the self-determination theory， which made a distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic of motivation.Extrinsic Motivation refers to behaviour that is driven by external rewards， while intrinsic motivation refers to behaviour that is driven by inherent pleasure.
Apart from the literature mentioned above， there are many other influential motivation theories， such as expectancy-value theories， which deeply influenced the L2 motivation research area， and they have their own way of classifying rules. However， the questionnaire only adapted Gardner’s socio-educational model and the self-determination theory due to the length of the research. In the next section，the usage of the motivation-orientation questionnaire to collect data will be discussed.
3. Methodology
3.1 Participants
The total number of participants in this study were 30 pupils who were placed into two groups based on their household registration， each group have 15 students. All of the participants comes from the 3rd grade of Heze Experimental Primary School， and they were randomly chosen by according to their willingness to participate. The survey wasconducted in a regular classroom setting andwas permitted by students’ guardians. The participants were given 20 minutes to finish the questionnaire and were informed that the data collection would maintain confidentiality and anonymity. 3.2 Instrument
As a flexible and efficient tool， a questionnaire was designed to assess students’ language-learning motivation. The questionnaire was originally developed in English. However， aset of the Chinese version of the questionnaire wasalso distributed among the participants，in consideration of their elementary language level. There were two sections in the questionnaire： student profile and motivation orientations. The first section aimed to collect students’ background information. Adapted from the Attitudes and Motivation Test Battery （Gardner