The Attribution Of Demotivation In English Learning Of Vocational College Students

Vocational education is an important part of higher education,occupying half of the higher education in our country.Attribution theory is recognized as the most systematic theory to explain learning motivation so far.Many researchers have conducted many studies since it was first proposed by Heider in 1958.Among them,Weiner is regarded as the most successful one.The three dimensions he proposed helped us better understand how different attribution influence consequent actions.In reality,many vocational college students have lost their confidence in learning English because of the incorrect attribution of English learning and the long-term lack of scientific guidance.Therefore,reasonable cognitive explanation of demotivation is particularly important.Through the investigation,this study focuses on the factors that lead to the phenomenon of demotivation and the general attributive tendency of vocational college students,explores the influence of attribution tendency on English learning demotivation,and tries to put forward the corresponding strategies to stimulate students' learning motivation and and promote their English learning.Based on the theory of learning motivation and attribution theory,this study employed mixed-methods approach to investigate 180 non-English major students from grade two of a vocational college in Jinan by answering a questionnaire on demotivation.The data were typed into the computer and dealt with SPSS19.0.Subsequently,10 students with English learning demotivation and 6 English teachers were selected to participate in the interview to verify the results of the questionnaire.The results of the exploratory factor analysis indicate eight demotivating factors:ability,effort,interest,experience of failure,course design,learning environment,learning materials and teacher's role.Those factors were further grouped into dimensions of learner,course design,teaching environment and teacher's role.Among them,the factors related to learners,especially the efforts of learners,are the main factors leading to English learning demotivation of vocational college students.The attribution of vocational college students shows a good and positive trend,and tends to attribute learning demotivation to the internal controllable factors.The data showsthat girls are more inclined to attribute demotivation to external factors.More motivated students tend to attribute demotivation to internal controllable factors such as effort and interest,while less motivated students attributed to the uncontrollable aspects such as ability or teaching environment.In addition,there are no significant differences in demotivating attribution between urban and rural students.Based on the findings of this study,some suggestions were proposed on how to enhance vocational college students' motivation and improve the effects of learning English from the perspective of students,teachers,teaching environment and course design by cultivating students' internal controllable attributions,improving the teacher's professional qualities and creating a harmonious and pleasant classroom atmosphere.Finally,this paper points out the limitations of the study,and puts forward the prospects and suggestions for the future research.