A Study On Demotivating Factors In Art Major College Students' English Learning

Motivation is considered to be one of key factors that influence the success of foreign language learning.In recent decades,a number of studies have been made in this field by scholars both at home and abroad.As researchers probe more deeply and widely on motivation,demotivation which is regarded as the negative counterparts of motives has received increasing attention.However,the previous studies mainly target on middle school students and non-art major college students,and there are few studies on art major college students.Therefore,the present study employed both quantitative and qualitative methods to explore demotivating factors which undermine the English motivation of art major college students.Four research questions were designed: 1.What are the demotivating factors for art major college students? 2.Is there any difference in demotivating factors considering different gender? 3.Is there any difference in demotivating factors considering different English proficiency levels? 4.Can demotivating factors predict English test scores and establish regression model?One hundred and thirty five participants who came from a private undergraduate college were administrated to the questionnaire whose reliability and validity were tested.According to their responses,statistics were computerized and analyzed with the software SPSS 20.0.In the present study,factor analysis,independent samples T-tests,one-way ANOVA,and multivariable linear regression analysis are employed.After the questionnaire,six demotivated students were interviewed.According to the analysis of the data obtained from the questionnaire and interviews,conclusions are reached as follows:1.Eight demotivating factors emerge from the study,and they are experiences of failure,loss of interest and target,class materials,learning strategy deficiency,inadequate school facilities,curriculum setting,teaching approach,and learning atmosphere.The most salient demotivating factor is teaching approach.What is more,experiences of failure,learning strategy deficiency,curriculum setting and learning atmosphere also have much influence on the demotivation.Although,art major college students tend to attribute demotivation toexternal demotivating factors,the ratio of internal demotivating factors is higher than that of similar researches at home and abroad.2.There are significant differences between boys and girls in inadequate school facilities and learning atmosphere.Compared with girls,boys are more likely to be affected by these two factors.3.Except for inadequate school facilities,there are significant differences among different English proficiency levels in seven demotivating factors.High-proficiency students attribute their own demotivation to teaching approach which belongs to external demotivating factors,while middle-proficiency students and low-proficiency students think demotivation are affected by both internal and external demotivating factors.4.Among the eight demotivating factors,experiences of failure and loss of interest and target can predict English test scores.And it is able to establish regression model.Based on the results of the present study,some pedagogical implications are put forward in the hope to help students prevent demotivation and remotivate themselves.These pedagogical implications include strengthening the classroom interaction,enhancing students' learning confidence,carrying out the training of learning strategies,setting appropriate goals,adopting self-motivation strategies,setting up personalized curriculum and creating a good learning atmosphere.