A Survey Of Rural Primary School Students’ Demotivation For English Learning Across The Grades

It has long been revealed that both English teachers and students in China suffer from lack of motivation to learn English at different levels,yet not much has been explored on this topic,particularly on the demotivation for learning English as a foreign language(hereafter EFL)among primary school students(hereafter PSS)in rural areas.This study investigates the PSS’demotivation for learning EFL in rural areas and the relevant demotivating factors.Specifically,it intends to address the following two research questions:1)How does rural primary school students’ demotivation for English learning develop across the grades?2)What are the potential factors correlated to their demotivation for English learning?The subjects of the present study are 861 students from Pingchang Primary School in Zhenjiang(Grade 3:216,Male:100,Female:116;Grade 4:221,Male:106,Female:115;Grade 5:201,Male:106,Female:95;Grade 6:223,Male:107,Female:116).The instruments include a set of questionnaires,a post-questionnaire interview and an English proficiency test.Based on relevant internationally published studies(Gardner et al,2004;Dornyei,2001,2009;Kim,2009,2013),the questionnaires of the present study focus on three aspects:L2 English learning demotivation,learner factors,and social factors and were further revised by the supervisor.The data were collected by the author and analyzed via Excel 2003 and SPSS 17.0.The results of data analysis reveal the following findings:1)The rural primary school students’ demotivation increases as they advance from Grade 3 to Grade 6.and there is a significant difference between Grade 5 and Grade 6 probably because of the increasing pressure from too many tests and graduation across the grades.Grade 6 students show a statistically higher level of demotivation compared with Grade 3,4 and 5 students in self-development demotivation,academic demotivation,patriotic demotivation,achievement demotivation,integrative demotivation,instrumental demotivation and social trend demotivation.2)Among all the learner-related factors,the rural primary school students’ demotivation for EFL has significant correlations with English proficiency and loss of interest in EFL.Among all the social-related factors,the rural primary school students’ demotivation for EFL only has significant correlations with limitations of teachers’personality and competence and inadequacy of learning content.However,the rural primary school students’ demotivation has not been found significantly correlated to parental factors,demonstrating that rural primary school students are lack of sufficient and practical support from parents,who are in general less educated and less wealthy than those in the urban areas.These findings provide some pedagogical implications for English teaching in rural primary schools in China.Firstly,it is necessary for English teachers to have a better understanding of their students’ difficulty in English learning and try all the means to stimulate students’ interest in English learning so as to help their students to cope with their difficulties in learning English,to reduce their anxieties of increasing amount of exams with the grades,foster their interest,self-confidence,and joys in learning English.Secondly,the parents of rural primary school students need to know the importance to support their children in the English learning via practical and positive manners so as to improve on their offspring’s interest and achievements in English learning.