An Exploratory Study Of Interpreting Trainees’ Demotivators

Learning motivation is a key factor in influencing language learning achievement.At present,there are a great number of studies focusing on learning motivation.But previous studies mainly placed emphasis on motivation from the positive side and relatively few scholars have studied motivation from the negative side.However,motivation is not only subject to positive factors but also negative factors,thus presenting dynamic development.Demotivation is expressed by the temporary reduction of motivation due to negative factors.But if those negative factors decrease or diminish,the motivation level will rise again.Therefore,motivation research should not only pay attention to the positive changes in motivation.The exploration of the negative decline of motivation cannot be ignored as well.Considering the high intensity and difficulty of interpreting training,the motivations of interpreting learners are susceptible to negative impacts and thus fluctuate or even drop,which largely influences the effect of interpreting pedagogy.Demotivation study is of great significance to the theory and practice research of interpreting pedagogy.This research mainly adopts the method of self-made questionnaires to examine interpreting learning demotivation of 129 interpreting postgraduates at two universities.At the phase of questionnaire design,this paper refers to previous demotivation research tools in foreign language teaching and also employs semi-structured interviews and reflective essays to explore learning demotivation of interpreting learning students.Before the formal questionnaire survey,this paper conducted a pilot study of questionnaires.Based on the results of the pilot study,questionnaires were revised to ensure that the validity and reliability of questionnaires conform to statistics requirement and language and format accord with the norms of questionnaire investigation.The formal survey was carried out by paper questionnaires and online questionnaires,and questionnaires and their data were encoded in order for statistical analysis.Through analyzing the results of a formal questionnaire survey,this paper finds that(1)Five demotivators of interpreting learning are extracted:society,career intentions,learners,learning environment and teachers.These five aspects of negative factors constitute interpreting learning demotivation.(2)The five interpreting learning demotivators differ among learners at different phases of the study.(3)The disparity of the five interpreting learning demotivators is manifested by(a)The impact of career intentions related factors is the most significant on interpreting learning demotivation,and students at different grades evidently differ in career intentions related demotivator;(b)Learner related factors have a relatively remarkable impact on interpreting learning demotivation and the effect is more evident on lower-grade students than higher-grade ones;(c)Society related factors have a relatively remarkable impact on interpreting learning demotivation and the impact is slightly greater on higher-grade students than lower-grade ones;(d)teacher related factors have a relatively remarkable impact on interpreting learning demotivation and the discrepancy of impact on students at different grades is not obvious;(e)learning environment related factors af~fect interpreting learning demotivation and the impact increases when students enter higher grades.This research aims at revealing the impact disparity of demotivation which consists of different social and learning factors among learners at different stages of the study.This study extracts five interpreting learning demotivators,which will provide a reference for future interpreting learning demotivation research.Based on the results of this study,the researcher suggests that future studies should not only keep an eye on the impact of learner and teaching environment related factors,but also pay attention to the influence of social and career related factors on interpreting learning demotivation.In addition,when enhancing the intensity to train student interpreters,universities should also take into account the matching between interpreting talents training and the demands of the language service industry to provide greater access to internship opportunities and reinforce interpreting trainees’ learning motivation.