The Effects of Student-centered Teaching Methods on the Motivation of English Language Learning

In recent years, student-centered teaching methods have received increasing attention. Many educators and researchers advocate a shift from a purely teacher-centered approach to a student-centered approach to teaching and learning. The study aims to explore the effects of student-centered teaching methods on the English learning motivation of college students majoring in English in Chinese universities. This study used questionnaires to investigate the effects of four teaching activities (group discussion, presentation, debate, and role-play) on the motivation to learn English. Furthermore, this study reveals the influence of teaching activities on language performance, and explores oral skills, English vocabulary use and English performance in English learning. It is found that the above four activities can improve the motivation of Chinese college students to learn English to some extent. The research results show that applying student-centered teaching methods is conducive to improving the motivation of Chinese college students in English language learning. Selecting teachers' teaching methods is crucial to improve students' motivation to learn English. This paper aims to improve students' motivation to learn English. It gives some suggestions to teachers for four activities, which are speech, group discussion, debate, and role-playing, to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning. Based on the evaluation from participants, it is suggested that a clear purpose in a teaching activity should be addressed in a teaching context.