The Function of Different Motivational Factors of Young Child Group in English Learning: The Effect of Parental Involvement

Abstract

With the effect of globalization, English as lingua franca has been treated significantly important all over the world. Since 1982, Chinese students need to study English as their compulsory subject in school. Moreover, Chinese parents also try their best to support their children in English learning for better English abilities in the future to increase their competitiveness in society, and the age of Chinese children start to learn English also tends to be younger. However, the results of these effort did not turn out well. Lack of motivation among Chinese students is one of the major issues to cause this result. It is necessary for Chinese educational departments and parents to find the way to motivate children in English learning. This literature review will talk about the motivational factors influencing child group before the age of 12 and introduce the importance of parental involvement in motivating this child group. As the results, even though interest is the biggest motivation for children before 12 years old, on the other side, they are motivated more by extrinsic motivations while older children who are older than 6 years old will start to turn the extrinsic motivations into more intrinsic motivation. Also, it is noticeable that parental involvementplays an important role in influencing motivation in English learning of this child group psychologically and financially. As the advices, teachers and parents should utilize the strategies that can cultivate children’s interest in English learning.