An Investigation Of Demotivation In English Learning Of Non-english Majors In Vocational Colleges

Motivation is considered to be one of the main determinants of second language learningachievement. A lot of research has been made in the area due to its importance in SLA both athome and abroad. But most of the research focused on the positive factors that generateinterest in learning and facilitate the learning process, and less attention was paid to thenegative factors that diminish the learners’ motivation. However, it is not difficult to find thatsome students’ English learning motivation, especially for vocational college students, isgradually decreased or even lost during their learning. A survey made by Cai Jigang in2009demonstrates that42.8%of students who have difficulties with English lack explicit learningmotivation. So demotivation has become a salient phenomenon in foreign language learning.And research on the topic can offer some implications for language learning and teaching.The present study employed both quantitative and qualitative methods to explore thenegative forces that undermine the English motivation of vocational college students, makinggender and learners’ English proficiency as two variables. Three specific research questionswere designed:1) What are the demotivating factors for vocational college students?2) Isthere any gender difference in demotivating factors?3）Are the demotives different in terms oflearners’ English proficiency? To answer the three questions, three instruments were used: aclose-ended questionnaire, a semi-structure interview and PRECO of Shandong. Two hundredthirty nine participants were administrated to the questionnaire. According to their responses,statistics were computerized and analyzed with the software SPSS17.0.The demotivatingfactors that affect non-English majors of vocational colleges can be clearly shown by applyingmethods of descriptive statistics and factor analysis. Independent Samples T-tests wereemployed to examine if there exist significant differences in demotivating factors in terms ofgender and English proficiency. Four demotivated students were interviewed to verify theresults of questionnaire.Three major findings are stated as follows:1)The demotivating factors that decrease themotivation of vocational college students include both internal and external factors. Tendemotivating factors emerged from the study. They are school facilities, compulsory nature of English study, past experience, characteristics of classes, reduced self-confidence, coursebook, lack of intrinsic-motivation, class environment, the teacher and the assignment. Thefactor of school facilities lists the top of them.2) Significant differences are found betweenboys and girls in the teacher, lack of intrinsic motivation, the assignment and classenvironment.3) As for English proficiency, significant differences exist between HP studentsand LP students in past experience of English study, course book, lack of self-confidence andlack of intrinsic motivation.The thesis is composed of six chapters. Chapter one provides a general introduction tothe background, the theoretical and practical significance, and an overall structure of thethesis. Chapter two is the literature review concerning about some motivation theories relatedto SAL/FLL and a few related studies on demotivation both at home and abroad. Chapterthree introduces the research design including the research questions, data collectioninstruments, data collection procedures and data analysis methods. Chapter four presents theresults of both the questionnaire and the interview. Chapter five is a detailed discussion of theresearch findings according to the research questions in light of literature review. Chapter sixconcludes the thesis with a summary of the main findings of the study, their implications forEnglish teaching and learning, as well as the limitations of the present study and somesuggestions for further research.