A Study On Demotivation Of High School EFL Learners

Motivation,as one of the critical determinants of foreign language learning achievement,has drawn much attention from experts and scholars worldwide.However,demotivation,as the opposite side of motivation,may negatively affect learners'behaviors and attitudes,impeding the foreign language learning process.Thus,it is quite necessary to identify the factors that demotivate foreign language learners and find possible solutions to avoid or,at least minimize their detrimental influences on language learning.The present study aims to explore the demotivating factors affecting high school EFL learners,the differences in demotivating factors between less motivated learners and more motivated learners,and the differences in demotivating factors in terms of learners' academic years.Likert-scale questionnaires are completed by 240 students from a high school in Zhejiang Province,with 80 students from each grade.After that,the follow-up interviews with 8 participants are conducted in order to illuminate and supplement the quantitative data.The collected data is processed by SPSS 22.0,and the interviews are recorded and transcribed for further analysis.Through factor analysis,seven factors are perceived by high school EFL learners as main sources of demotivation,namely,teacher's incompetence and poor personality,learning strategy deficiency,undesired textbooks,experiences of failure,undesired course content,parents' inappropriate attitudes and behaviors and lack of intrinsic motivation,among which teacher's incompetence and poor personality,learning strategy deficiency,undesired textbooks and parents' inappropriate attitudes and behaviors are found to significantly affect learners' motivation intensity.Secondly,less motivated learners are found to be more susceptible to external factors,whereas more motivated learners are more vulnerable to internal factors.Thirdly,students' evaluation of teachers and their perceptions of their learning strategy deficiency and experiences of failure are found to correlate with learners' academic years,among which students'evaluation of teachers deteriorates when students move from Grade One to Grade Two,while students' perceptions of their learning strategy deficiency and their experiences of failure amplify with the rise of academic years.Results of the follow-up interviews further support and illuminate the findings of the quantitative analysis.In addition,suggestions for teachers,schools,textbook designers and parents are also provided.