Demotivating Factors And Remotivation Strategies In Yi EFL Learners In Junior High School

Motivation plays a very important role in the process of foreign language teaching.Besides,it can also directly affect students’ learning enthusiasm and learning effect in the process of language acquisition.In addition,the new English curriculum standard also specifically states that attention should be paid to motivate students to learn English.Therefore,various researches on motivation have been carried out.However,for ethnic minority students who study foreign language as a third language,their foreign language learning process is quite different from that of Han students in terms of cultural heritage,language transfer,learning conditions,and learning environment.For a long time,people do not have a clear understanding about foreign language teaching in ethnic minority areas,for instance,their English learning motivation,which makes it difficult for ethnic minority students to make progress in foreign language learning.Yi students with huge number have insufficient learning conditions.Meanwhile,learning difficulties and language transfer are relatively prominent.Therefore,the purpose of this study is to investigate the learning motivation of Yi students and its demotivating factors.This thesis takes Yi junior high school students as the research participants,and it attempts to answer the following research questions:(1)What is the overall English learning motivation level of Yi junior high school students?(2)What are the influential demotivating factors in learning English for Yi junior high school students?(3)What strategies can be adopted in order to remotivate their learning motivation towards English?This study designed a questionnaire on English learning motivation and demotivating factors for Yi junior high school students.What’s more,it also used semi-structured interview to collect data.Participants in the questionnaire survey were 116 junior high school students from Ebian Middle School in Ebian Yi Autonomous County,Leshan City,Sichuan Province.The questionnaire used SPSS software for descriptive statistics,factor analysis,and principal component analysis.The interview involved 10 Yi students and 2 English teachers.Research shows that:(1)The overall motivation level of Yi junior high school students is not high.Although they have relatively high instrumental motivation and extrinsic motivation,they have invested little time and effort in English learning.(2)Through principal component analysis,this study has extracted eight Yi junior high school students’ demotivating factors,namely,teachers,coursebook,school environment,language-based difficulties,self-confidence,attitude towards English community,stake-holders influence,and nature of course.In addition,by interviewing ten Yi students,this study extracted four factors that impaired motivation,which were self-confidence,technology,teachers’ competence,and learning difficulties.(3)Based on the above research and further interviews with two English teachers,this study proposed remotivation strategies for Yi students from three dimensions: students,teachers,and the school environment.