A Study of English Learning Demotivation Factors in Non—English Majors

徐永阳

【Abstract】English learnersdemotivation can negatively influence their attitudes and behaviors in English learning， degenerate classroom dynamics and teachers motivation. And it will result in a long-term and overwhelming negative learning outcomes. In the past research， researchers paid more attention to the optimistic aspects of the motivation， but few cared about the negative motivations， that is demotivation.Given this， it is worthwhile and meaningful to investigate the demotivation in English learning among Chinese students and the possible influential factors， so as to find solutions to reduce the negative effects of demotivation.  A questionnaire was developed in this paper in order to find the factors demotivated students in English learning. In this investigation， 280 sophomores from Northwest Agriculture and Forest University were asked to answer a questionnaire about demotivation. Based on the results of the questionnaire， there are four demotivating factors were founded： 1） learning failures; 2） teacher related factors; 3） lack of intrinsic motivation.; 4） course design. Finally， some suggestions were given to both students and teachers so as to better sustain and reinforce learners motivation to learn English.

【Key words】 demotivation; college English learning; influence factors

A Study of English Learning Demotivation Factors in Non-English Majors

Chapter I Introduction

1.1 Research Background

In the field of foreign language teaching and learning， inquiry about motivation began in the late 1950s， since Gardner and Lambert （1959） adopted the quantitative method on the study of foreign language learning and teaching. In addition， it is found playing a significant role in attaining second language proficiency （e.g.， Domyei， 1994， 2001） and one of the most crucial factors that determine the success of second language acquisition. However， there are not many researches focusing on study the factors which cause learners to lose their motivation.（Dornyci，2005;Trang&Jr，2007） During the past 20 years， demotivation has gradually aroused much attention because losing motivation has a close relationship with the failure of language learning. Research on demotivation not only helps find out the difficulty in students second language acquisition， but also helps teachers to do some teaching reflection. For example， what factors may cause students lose motivation in language learning， what kind of teachers behavior may lower the students motivation on foreign language learning？

1.2 Purpose and Significance

Demotivation is the opposite side of motivation. Many students go through a decrease in their study motivation， and this phenomenon seems to be particularly widespread among Chinese non-English major students in English learning and happens for many different reasons. It is easy to find out a variety of events that can be demotivating. Domyei （2001） concluded that “demotivation is a salient phenomenon in second language studies and that teachers have a considerable responsibility in this respect” （p.155）. Other researchers have also studied demotivation and found that there are other possible contributors to demotivation besides teacher behavior， such as the learning materials， test scores， learning environments and so on （see Chambers， 1993; Domyei， 1998; Oxford， 1998; Ushioda， 1996）.

1.3 Layout of the Study

This paper is consists of four parts. The first part begins with an overview of the study， and then discussed the necessity of the study. The second part shows the literature review of the study， both at home and aboard. The third part introduces the methodology of the study， including the participants of the research， the questionnaire， data collection， data analysis and result of the research. In the forth part， the author gives some suggestions to both students and teachers.

Chapter II Literature Review

2.1 Definition of Demotivation

Demotivation， as an emerging theory in the field of psycholinguists and second language acquisition， there still are no unified definitions about it. Dornyei （2005） defined the demotivation as “specific external forces that reduce or diminish the motivational basis of a behavioral intention or an ongoing action.”（p.141） 'demotivation' and 'demotives' are taken as the negative counterparts of‘motivation， and 'motives' respectively. A motive increases the tendency of an action while a demotive decreases it. In other words， a demotivated individual is the one who was originally had the full learning motivation to finish the task yet has lost his desire to do so due to some particular negative forces.

2.1.1Charmbers research on learners and teachers

In order to make clear why pupils who were quite capable of learning a foreign language but did not want to learn and even “dismantled” foerign language lessons， Charmber （1993） did a survey to 191 students and 7 teachers in 7 middle schools. The survey is about why students dont have the interests to the foreign language class. The survey about the teacher shows that， generally speaking， the student who dont like the foreign language usually have no interest in learning， have no confidence for himself， and have no desire to cooperate with others. These factors are not caused by teachers， but students think the main reason about demotivation in second language learning is teacher， such as the prelection is not clear， the explaining is not sufficient and some teacher may use bitter sarcasm.

2.1.2 Oxfords investigation

Oxford （1998） found 250 students （both in colleges and high schools） in America to make an investigation. He asked these 250 students to write an essay about their second language learning experiences in the past five years， and this investigation is especially focus on the teachers role in the secondary language learning. From this investigation， Oxford found that all the participants had the demotivation mood in their learning experience. Besides， four general themes appear from the content analysis： 1. discordant relationship between teacher and student. （e.g.， Teacher was too strict to the students and they always have been at odds）. 2. Teachers negative attitude towards teaching material and course. （e.g.， Teacher was lack of passion and get slack at his work）. 3. Teachers teaching style was in conflict with students characteristics， including multiple style conflicts， conflicts about the amount of structure or detail， and conflicts about the degree of closure or “seriousness” of the class. 4. The design and apply of the class activity was not practical and reasonable. （The activities were excessive and too repetitive）.

2.1.3 Ushiodas investigation

Ushioda （1998） made an interview about second language learning to 20 French learners in Ireland. From this interview， Ushioda found that the respondents attribute their outstanding grades to the personal ability. However， they believed their regress should be blamed to some objective factors such as the schools learning environment was not good. This result is same to the findings of Gorham （1992， 1995） and Chambers （1993）.

From the foregoing research， researchers all choose the high school students as the participants. And they all adopted the qualitative method， by doing interviews to collect students learning experience. From the research they found： Teachers improper behavior will take negative effect to the students. Schools facilities and environment will direct influence the learning motivation. These factors also may lower students self-confidence （D？rnyei，？2001）.

2.2 Demotivation research in China

In China， teachers and educational experts have also observed a great number of cases of demotivation in the Chinese English classrooms and they attempt to conduct some research on it.

Zhang Shuweis （1995） research on motivation mentions the forces decreasing students motivation. Based on Krashes Affective Filter Hypothesis， Zhang proposes that students motivation can be decreased by both intrinsic factors and extrinsic factors. The former refers to students affective factors such as lack of self-confidence， excessively high self-esteem， tension， anxiety， etc. The latter includes exam systems， learning environment， the role of teacher and so on. Unfortunately， the researchers only propose the demotivating factors from a theoretical perspective and they do not continue to make some empirical studies to support their statements.                     Zhang Zhe （2007）， Kong Zheqiong （2009）， Pan Zhengkai（2009） probe into the Chinese students FL learning demotivation applying the combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches in their theses for the degree of MA. Zhang Zhe and Kong Zheqiong choose the ordinary university students as their research subjects while Pan Zhengkai targets at the vocational college students. According to Zhang Zhe （2007）， students decrease of motivation is due to four categories of factors： teacher-related factors， students-related factors， coursebook-related factors， and learning environment-related factors. Five demotivating factors emerge from Kong Zheqiongs research （2009）： teacher immediacy， teacher competence and teaching styles， contextual demotivating factors， task-related factors， and learner-related factors. Four categories of demotivation are identified in Pan Zhengkais thesis （2009）： learning environment， learners， teachers and learning materials. Both Zhang and Kong find that teacher-related factors are the primary source of students demotivation. Pans findings are a little different since the learning environment–related factors emerge as the most demotivating sources. Kong and Pan share the same opinion that parental interference should not be overlooked since both of them have noticed from their respective research that certain parents influences are negative to students. Besides， Pan specifically explores gender differences on demotivation， which is not included in the previous research. principles.

Chapter III Methodology

3.1 Introduction

This article based on the former research both at home and aboard， combining the practical situation of the university students， aiming to discover the demotivation in college English learning among non-English majors. The specific aims are： （1） to find the factors which may decline the non-English majors motivation. （2） to give some suggestions to the English learning demotivation.

3.2 Participants

The participants for this study were 280 non-English major students from Northwest Agriculture and Forest University. Among these participants， 158 were male and 122 were female. And they are come from 8 different majors， including Computer， Agronomy， Biology， Forestry， Mathematics， Sociology， Science of Law and International Trade. And they are all sophomores. Their ages are from 18 to 21 and all have received at least 6 years English education before entering university.

The participants can meet the requirements of the study in terms of the following conditions： To begin with， they may not have very strong internal motivation for they are not major in English. Whats more， English is their compulsory course and their CET4 grade is related to their degree certificate. Thirdly， they had  learned English as a required subject for at least 6 years， so it was supposed that the long-term exposure to compulsive foreign language instruction might increase the possibility of their experiences of demotivation.

Chapter IV Data analysis and research findings

4.1 Data analysis

Chart 1.The average score of 32 different items are as follows：

Chart 2. The average score of the five dimensions of the demotivating factors：

From the chart 1 we can see that most of means， except for item （13） （It is difficult to understand the teachers explanations），item （24） （I learn English just for pass the exam and get the job.）， item （32）（I am afraid of making a fool in English class and leaves a bad impression to others.） ，were higher than 3.00. More than one-third of the participants choose 4 （mostly true）， 5 （absolutely true） for the following items： Item 10（Teachers intonation and pronunciation is not good.）， Item 13（Teachers explanation is not clear） and Item 29（The speed of the class is fast but the effect is bad. ） are concerned with teachers; Item 07（My grade in English exam is low） and Item 23（I am afraid of speaking English in the public.） are related to learners. In other words， it is safe to conclude that the participants attributed their demotivation largely to the teacher and themselves.

Chart 2 indicates the average scores of the five different kind of  demotivating factors. From the chart 2 we can see that among the five different kind of demotivating factors， the learner related factors are the most， and the next is teacher related factors， and then the task related factors， and the equipment and coursebook factors are less influenced.

Synthesize the data from the Chart 1 and Chart 2， we can find that most of the students blame the demotivation factors to themselves（ their failure experience and lack of confidence.） and teachers（improper teaching style and teaching method and scarce capacity）.

4.2 Research findings

According to the questionnaire result， the author holds the opinion that after the analysis of the five primary demotivating factors， there are four causes.

The first demotivating factor obtained in the research is learning failures. As is known to all， college English learning is much more difficult than the previous English learning. At colleges and universities， the English learning content is extensive and the learning tasks are heavy. Students are required to acquire high level of English listening， speaking， reading， writing and translating skills. It is especially worth noting that， nowadays， access to college and university becomes much easier and widespread. Many of the high school graduates who are entering the higher education are not prepared for college-level work. In light of the high standard of requirements and inadequate academic preparation of the students， learning failures seems unavoidable. What is worse， if students attribute their failures to lack of unchangeable natural ability rather than to the controllable causes such as incorrect strategies or insufficient effort， this will undoubtedly lead to their lack of motivation to continue learning. On the other hand， there is a wealth of talents in college and academic competition among college students is rather keen. When realizing they cannot match others in English learning， those who are originally confident will become inferior and frustrated.

The second factor is related to teachers. Considered as an significant role to transmitting wisdom to the students， teachers should also impart knowledge and resolve doubts. The fact that teachers are indispensable in motivating students has already been proved. But except for their roles as motivators， teachers also act as demotivators in the teaching-learning process while sometimes they turn demotivating without any awareness. In other words， teachers should be observant about whether they lack of interaction with the students in class or not， and whether their criticism has negative effect on their students motivation.

The third factor is the lack of intrinsic motivation. For those students who are non-English majors， they have to pass the English final examinations in each semester as well as the CET-4， without which， they could not get their bachelors degree. Whats more， those students hold the opinion that English study has nothing to do with their future. By this means， they do not take English as a serious thing. In other words， they are extrinsic motivated， which means they lack intrinsic motivation. From the previous research， an extrinsic motivated individual motivation will not be continued after the extrinsic goals are acquired. Thus， for those students， it is common to quit learning English as soon as they have passed those necessary texts since English to them is a burden instead of a pleasure.

The forth factor is course design. The teleology of College English is to develop students ability to use English in an all-round way， especially in listening and speaking， which conveys that teaching method of simply teaching language knowledge should not dominate the English class. In fact， nowadays the most representative and primary technique in English class is still Grammar Translation Method . In such classes， courses are taught mainly in the mother tongue to elaborate the complicated grammars， to explain the isolated words without contexts， or to translate the disconnected sentences， with little active use of the target language. In this way， the teaching can neither emphasizes nor enhances the ability of students communicative and thus surely degrade the students learning interests and driving force. From another aspect， teachers are responsible for adopting such a method; On the other hand， various foreign languages standardized tests which still centre on testing vocabularies， grammars and translations and omit to test communicative competence are to blame as well. Moreover， college English classes are often characterized by inadequate class hours and heavy learning tasks. In order to fulfill the teaching schedule， college English teachers have to present a great deal of information in each class and assign a lot of homework after class. In this condition， students need to spend much time in absorbing what teachers instruct， doing memorizing work， finishing exercises in order to catch up with the flow of the course and in case they fail in the English exams. If things continue this way， students are very likely to become both physically and mentally exhausted.

Chapter V Conclusion

5.1 Results

Based on the findings and discussions in the former chapter， in this part， the author gives some suggestions both to students and teachers on the basis of the result of the questionnaire. The suggestions to teachers consist of teachers language competence and teachers commitment. Suggestions to students are from two sides： setting appropriate goals and strengthening students self-confidence.

5.2 Suggestions

5.2.1 Suggestions to teachers

The role of the teacher in the teaching-learning process has often limited to the provider of knowledge. In fact， teachers play an important part at all stages of the motivational process. Apart from their roles as motivators， they serve as demotivators as well as remotivators throughout the teaching-learning process. In other words， the teacher is vital not only in initiating learners interests， but also in sustaining and re-activating learners motivation. And what the teacher should do is to avoid being a demotivator and do all they could to activate and re-activate their learners motivation through all kinds of effective strategies. In order to avoid or minimize the demotivating effects that teachers have on their learners， special attention should be paid to the following aspects：

a） Developing adequate teaching competency

There are teachers who are experts in their field but lack the adequate skills to convey their knowledge and understanding to their students， which will inevitably result in negative feelings on the part of students， undermining their motivation to learn. Therefore， developing the adequate competence as language teachers is of vital importance in facilitating the whole process of language learning. With regards to this， language teachers are encouraged to be equipped with a wide repertoire of teaching skills as well as motivational techniques if effective teaching is to take place.

b） Matching teaching styles with learning styles

The present study has shown that possible mismatches between teachers teaching styles and learners learning styles exist. No matter how devoted the teacher is， teaching and learning may not be effective if teaching styles do not match learners learning styles. While teachers can not cater to all students needs， surveying students expectations of and satisfaction with the teachers and the courses will aid in better understanding of students real needs， which further stimulates students determination to learn more and to make sustained efforts.

c） Organizing and maintaining a positive classroom climate

If learning is to be successful， it is crucial that teachers establish in their classrooms a climate where confidence is built up， where mistakes can be made without fear， where learners can use the language without embarrassment， where all contributions are valued， and where activities lead to feelings of success， not failure.

Whether it is the teacher faults， it is their responsibility to help their learners overcome demotivation and re-activate their interests in learning. On the one hand， teachers should help their students to recognize the importance of English. A realization of the importance of English serves as a powerful moving toward re-motivation. On the other， they should build up learners beliefs in themselves. Enhancing students self-images as language learners and their beliefs in their own effectiveness at learning the language might be vital to trigger their self-determination to learn. Although learners self-determination to learn English is essential to overcome demotivation， teachers roles to facilitate and guide can not be underestimated.

5.2.2 suggestions to students

Teachers are not， however， ultimately responsible for their students motivation. They do play an importance part in initiating and sustaining learners motivation， but real motivation comes from within each individual. It is the learners who eventually make their decisions to learn and to persist. The findings of the present study have thus suggested that the following aspects be crucial for language learners.

a） Developing self-efficacy

Learners sense of self-efficacy （our beliefs about our capabilities in certain areas or related to certain tasks） can play a crucial role in how they approach goals， tasks and challenges. People with high self-efficacy， that is， those who believe they can perform well， are more likely to succeed in attaining certain goals. However， language teachers often find themselves dealing with individuals who lack confidence in themselves as language learners， who have negative self-images as regards speaking other languages， and who are afraid to express themselves in the foreign language. Therefore， learners beliefs in their own effectiveness at learning the language are crucial in making persistent efforts.

b） Setting appropriate learning goals

A large number of students in the questionnaire expressed that they are no longer motivated to learn English because they do not possess goals. In fact， students should learn to set reasonable and proper goals in language studying. Setting a concrete goal can direct attention and effort towards activities to regulate the amount of the effort spent in the goal-oriented task， as well as maintain persistence until the goal is achieved. Loss of clear goals of learning English， and not understanding the purpose of studying English were important issues with learners who were identified as demotivated. The goal-setting processes definitely affect the foreign language motivation in that only when the learners know what to do and how to do clearly can they set out to take action. For those who are demotivated， to start from setting short-term goals may be effective. By achieving a serious of short-term goals， they can make progress regularly and get some external rewards， that can serve as external motives that in turn encourage them to set further goals and learn English willingly and with enjoyment. In addition， setting long-term goals is also necessary for students since clear long-term goals are beneficial for students' persistence in the English learning activities.

5.3 Limitations

The current study aims at finding the demotivation factors that affect students negatively most， how demotivation affect students English learning and what have they done to help their English learning when they were demotivated. The results of the study suggested that the factors of teacher and learner themselves affected the results most.

However， the limitation of this study is that the sample is not large enough and all the participants come from only one university， which might influence the results of the present study， so more participants should be included in future study.

【Bibliography】

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[3] D？rnyei， Z. （2005）. Teaching and Researching Motivation[M]. Beijing： Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.