The Survey On The English Learning Demotivation And Remotivation Of Chinese High School Students

After nearly sixty years of development,the study of language learning motivation has developed from the initial social psychological stage to the present process-oriented stage.Motivation research in process-oriented stage does not regard motivation as a relatively stable learner characteristic any more,but focuses more on its dynamic aspect,exploring how it changes and which factors lead to these changes.Influenced by the process-oriented approach,from 1990 s,the negative aspect of motivation-demotivation has gradually attracted the attention of researchers.Then the study on the phenomenon of remotivation and its influencing factors also gradually emerges.The study of English learning demotivation in China started quite late and the research subjects were mostly college students.Only in recent years,has the study on English learning demotivation among high school students began to appear.However,the research on English learning remotivation has not been really initiated in China,and there is still no research conducted on English learning remotivation of high school students.To probe the overall condition of Chinese high school students' English learning motivational fluctuation,examine the key demotivating and remotivating factors for their English learning,and provide some suggestions for high school English teaching and learning,a questionnaire survey was conducted among 830 students from 3 different high schools and 98 English teachers from various high schools in Hebei province.Through analyses of the data,the major findings can be concluded as follows:(1)The overall condition of Chinese high school students' motivational fluctuation is quite worrying and alarming.Quite a large proportion of students are stuck in a constant low-level motivation throughout their whole English learning process.English learning demotivation is a very prevalent problem among high school students and the number of students who have experienced remotivation in English learning is much less than those who have suffered or is suffering demotivation.(2)From students' perspective,they are demotivated by a mix of external and internal factors with internal factors being slightly more influential thanexternal factors.lack of effective learning strategies,unattractive teaching method and low English learning aptitude are perceived as the most important demotivators for their English study.Compared with students,teachers are much more likely to attribute student demotivation to student-related factors such as lack of self-improvement,lack of prerequisite knowledge or skills,lack of intrinsic interest and lack of effective learning strategies etc.(3)Teachers and students share highly consistent opinions concerning the attribution of student remotivation.They both realize that internal and external factors can exert parallel influences on student remotivation.They both think that self-improvement,awareness of the importance of learning English,teachers' encouragement and support,parents' encouragement and support and peers' influence and help are the key remotivating factors for students.Among the two internal factors,students regard awareness of the importance of learning English as the most important remotivator while teachers rank self-improvement as the primary source of student remotivation.Based on the research results,this paper puts forward suggestions on restraining or eliminating students' demotivation and facilitating their remotivation from four aspects: schools,teachers,parents and students.