Reflection On Students' Demotivation In Foreign Language Classroom: From Language Teacher's Perspective

Analysis of motivational studies has pointed to motivation as the key to success in learning a foreign or second language. First language acquisition seems easy and painless, but for many, the road to acquisition of a foreign language means hours spent in a classroom environment learning a complex topic; and that is seldom perceived to be easy. Motivational psychologists and educators are interested in how learners' thinking affects their actions, which are their important choices in school, their engagement with academic tasks, and their ability to persist effectively in the face of setbacks.Early theories proposed inner forces, such as instincts, traits, and will, as the motivational factors that account for students' engagement in learning activities. Since the mid-twentieth century, psychological models and theories of motivation began to focus on achievement motivation rather than a general focus on engagement in learning. That is, situations that can be judged as success or failure became the focus, and learner beliefs about one's competence became the resort for all the theorists and researchers in their relevant studies. Subsequent perspectives began to address students' cognitions and affects about aspects of the learning or achievement process as important factors in motivation. When it comes to foreign language learning and teaching, the conditions and factors involved are far more complex and many theories have been developed to account for this particular setting. In Gardner's (1985) motivation theory, he contends that the individual's attitudes towards the second language (L2) or foreign language and the community in which that L2 or foreign language is spoken, as well as his or her ethnocentric orientation, might exert a directive influence on the language learning behavior. Nonetheless, within the framework of expectancy-value theories, it is argued that the way people process past experiences of failure or success of L2 or foreign language learning may consequently influence his or her future achievement (Dornyei, 1990; Schmidt et al., 1996; Skehan, 1989). Clement and his colleagues propose that positive attitudes would orient the individual to seek contact with members of the L2 or foreign language community. To the extent that this contact is relatively frequent and pleasant, self-confidence in using the language involved would develop (Clement et al., 1994). Inspired by Deci and Ryan's (1985) theory of intrinsic/extrinsic motivation and self-determination theory, researchers have argued that learning success and enhanced motivation is conditional on learners taking responsibility for their own learning, being able to control their own learning and perceiving that their learning successes and failures are to be attributed to their own efforts and strategies rather than to factors that are out of their control. Consequently, the promotion of learner autonomy or self-determination is of vital importance in L2 or foreign language classrooms. Dornyei (1994) asserts that in a foreign language setting instrumental orientation will have a greater influence on language learners. He creates a model of foreign language learning motivation that can account for and include some of the expanding views of motivation. Three different levels of factors are included, which not only allow for the inclusion of orientations but also for specific situations that involve the learner and the surrounding context.Meanwhile, the teachers' role in shaping students' motivation is considered to be complex yet of vital importance. This is so because teachers act as key figures, or authorities within learning surroundings, who affect the motivational quality of the learning process by providing mentoring, guidance, nurturance, support and limit setting. On the other hand, when the topic is students' demotivation, previous studies also indicate that students perceive their teachers as the most powerful factor that affect their unwillingness or reluctance to learn a foreign language, urging the teachers to take responsibility in reflecting on their language classroom and teaching behavior so as to help demotivated students regain their learning initiation.Since the classroom setting is one in which hundreds of interactions occur between teachers and students, based on Richards and Lockhart's proposed modal of reflective teaching and data from an empirical study of demotivation among college English majors, in this thesis the author tends to emphasize teacher's responsibility in diminishing or eliminating students' demotivation and tentatively suggests an working procedure for English teachers in China to reflect on data collected from their own classroom, which is beneficial to both language teachers for career development and learners in learning achievement. In a more comprehensive respect, this study may inspire policy makers and university or college administrators to reflect on the overall management of foreign language education, including curriculum design, selection of textbook, teacher assessment, class arrangement, etc.This thesis consists of the following six chapters:Chapter One provides an introduction to the background of this study, including a brief summary of previous study, the objectives and significance of the thesis, and the organization of the paper.Chapter Two deals with the general theoretical background of researches of motivation, including the definition of motivation, main theories of motivation and the studies of motivation in learning a foreign language.Chapter Three shifts the focus from motivation to demotivation in foreign language learning. In this chapter, the definition of demotivation will be firstly discussed. Then previous studies on foreign language learning demotivation both at home and abroad are to be introduced, so as to pave way for an empirical study of English learning demotivation in the next chapter.Chapter Four is an empirical study, which explores the relationship between English proficiency and demotivation and teacher's influence on students' demotivation.Chapter Five provides a suggested procedure for English teachers in China of how to reflect on students' demotivation in learning English within each classroom.Chapter Six is the concluding part. It first summarizes the findings and significance of this thesis. And limitations of the research method and process in the thesis will be discussed, which provides suggestions for other teachers and researchers in their study of foreign language learning motivation and demotivation in the future.