An Investigation Into English Learning Demotivation Of Non-English-Major Students

The thesis is based on the second language acquisition theory. First, the definitions ofmotivation and demotivation are defined, and then previous studies home and abroad thatinvestigated demotivation of English learners have been reviewed to identify commondemotivating factors among university students. The aim of the present study is to find out thedemotivating factors and list out the frequency and order of demotivating factors, to comparethe difference in demotivating factors between less motivated and high motivated learners,and to analyze the differences in the frequencies of demotivating factors among males andfemales. The study aims at arousing Chinese foreign teachers’ attention to the presentsituation and will conduct more research in this area to improve both foreign languageteaching and learning.Based on previous studies on demotivation, the present study employs the questionnaireto collect data. The subjects of this study are207freshmen and sophomores of non-Englishmajors of Hunan City University. A35-item demotivating scale (Kikuchi and Sakai,2007) isutilized to collect data. After collecting the data, excel is utilized to analyze the data.Pearson Chi-Square and frequency and percentages are used for data analysis to determinethe demotivating factors, the differences in demotivating factors between less motivated andhigh motivated learners, and to examine the differences in frequencies of demotivating factorsamong male and female. Three demotivation factors, namely, teacher-related factors,student-related factors, and learning situation factors are extracted. The study indicates:(1)Learner demotivation is a quite common problem, but about75%students thinks they have ahigh English motivation.(2) Ten detailed10demotivation factors are identified: lack ofopportunities to actually use English, instability of motivation, teacher’s personality andteaching competence and methods, teaching model, influences of other subjects andextracurricular activities, teaching material, disruptive classmates, inadequate teachingfacilities, assignment(from high to low in mean).(3) Among the two groups of the students,the high motivated and less motivated, there is slight difference in the frequency and order of demotivating factors. The data analysis shows that the high motivated students blame theirteachers more for their demotivation, while although the less motivated students thinkteachers are very important, they are more easily influenced by external factors and theirdemotivation is partly due to their low English learning competence.(4) For the difference offrequency and order of demotivating factors between males and females, males are moreeasily influenced by teaching materials, teaching facilities, other subjects and extracurricularactivities and assignment and they also blame their demotivation partly for their low Englishlearning competence, whereas females demand higher performance of teachers, includingpersonality, teaching competence and methods and teaching model.There inevitably exist some limitations because of its subjective classification ofdemotivating factors, fewer objects which may affect the accuracy of the data analysis. Butbased on the questionnaires, the author finds out some demotivating factors and providessome strategies for overcoming demotivation. These findings are hoped to provide certainreference value for college English teaching and learning.