Effects of English Learning Motivation on Elementary School students’ English Performance

[[abstract]]The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of English learning motivation on elementary school students’ English performance in Taichung city, and to understand whether the effect would be different due to gender or learning environmental differences. The subjects of this study are the fifth–grade students’ in public elementary schools in Taichung city. A questionnaire investigating English Learning Environment and English Learning Motivation was designed by the researcher and served as the research tool. A convenient sample of 403 students from 13 classes was chosen in this study. The total effective copies of the questionnaire were 396. The collected data were statistically analyzed descriptively first (mean and standard deviation), then a one-way ANOVA test was conducted, all through the SPSS software version 12.0. Findings of this study include: 1. Gender has significant impact on integrative motivation. 2. Family members’ attitudes has significant impact on students’ English learning motivation. 3. Various years of after-school English learning do not have any impact on English learning motivation. 4. Gender does not have any impact on instrumental motivation. 5. The three variables of Gender, experiences of English-learning in cram schools and family members’ attitude all have impact on students’ English achievement. 6. Students’ English learning performance out of high integrative motivation is better than that of instrumental motivation