| Motivation is widely regarded as an essential factor which will influence second language acquisition or foreign language learning.Motivation is so influential that it has been systematically studied in different countries,and fruitful results have been achieved at home and abroad.In comparison with a great number of researches on motivation,relatively a few insightful studies have been carried out on demotivation.Over the past two decades,foreign researchers have gradually turned to do research on demotivation with consideration of its great influence on English learning.It is in recent years that Chinese researchers have attached importance to the demotivation.However,few studies have targeted senior high school low achievers.Therefore,it is necessary and meaningful to conduct the current investigation to outline an overall picture about their demotivation.Accordingly,the combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods have been employed in this investigation.A sample of 184 senior high school low achievers from Nanchang was chosen as the participants,including Senior One and Senior Two.By means of questionnaire,the present investigation tried to deal with two research questions:(1)What is the overall picture of demotivation among senior high school low achievers in EFL learning?(2)What are the most significant demotivating factors of low achievers’ English learning in senior high school? Eight demotivated learners took part in the follow-up semi-structured interview to elaborate their demotivation deeply.Descriptive statistics,exploratory factor analysis and stepwise multiple regression analysis were used to process the collected data.The results of the present investigation can be summarized as follows:(1)Demotivation was indeed a prevailing and serious problem in EFL learning among senior high school low achievers.The questionnaire extracted seven demotivating factors : Teacher-related Factors,Lack of Intrinsic Interest and Self-confidence,Learning Contents and Materials,Deficient English Learning Abilities,Inadequate School Facilities,Characteristic of English Classes and Undesired Influence of the Peer;(2)Learning Contents and Materials,Teacher-related Factors and Lack of Intrinsic Interest and Self-confidence identified the three most significant factors triggering senior high school low achievers’ demotivation in EFL learning. |
