The Psychological and Cognitive Processes Underlying College Students’ Demotivation to Learn English

Abstract

This study aims to construct a model to explain Chinese college students’ psychological and cognitive processes underlying their demotivation to learn English. Grounded theory method and cognitive maps were creatively combined to analyze the interview data from 21 college students in China’s universities. This study found three paths underlying students’ demotivation to learn English: 1) the large discrepancy between students’ actual selves and their possible selves might firstly produce motivation for a short period but then could cause low self-efficacy and negative affects. The large discrepancies might also directly generate negative affects among college students; those different negative affects could lead to demotivation of English learning. 2) college students’ low ought-to selves could cause their low ideal selves and then demotivation of English learning; 3) demotivation to learn English might also associate with low value of English learning in college students’ minds. At the end of this research, some pedagogical implications are given based on those findings.