Demotivating Factors of English Learning for Chinese Middle-school Learners

Abstract

Demotivation has not been extensively researched in the second language study compared with a well-investigated field on learning motivation. Motivation is significant to influence learning performance of language that students will gain. According to the reviews on many previous research solving demotivated English learners issues, the study specifically pays attention to Chinese younger middle school ESL (English as a second language) learners, as analysis of learners learning experiences in public education might promote findings on influencing factors of demotivation. In this research, it focuses on the demotivated English learners, and explores the main factors for deficiency of motivation. The instrument applied in this study is a questionnaire modified from Sakai and Kikuchis [20] and focusing on 6 possible demotivating factors from literature review, which includes 28 items and has been tested on 197 Chinese ESL younger students. The results in this paper illustrate that students might be positively influenced by teachers. However, features of classes and students English learning experiences are considered as the most demotivation items by Chinese younger learners of English study.