On Demotivating Factors Of High School Students’ English Learning

First year of high school is an important time for students to lay a good foundation in English.Among the many factors that influence students’ success in learning English,one of the critical factors is motivation.That’s why motivation has been studied by experts and scholars both at home and abroad.Demotivation is an extension of motivation study,and as the antithesis of motivation,it provides a distinct perspective on students’ English learning.Based on the theories of Dornyei’s motivation and demotivation theory,activity theory and Weiner’ s attribution theory,this research attempts to explore and analyze the senior one students’ English learning demotivation in Nanning ASEAN High School and solve the following three questions:(1)What is the overall performance of English learning demotivation in the surveyed school?(2)What main factors account for the demotivation in learning English among the participants?(3)What are the similarities and differences between English teachers and students in attribution of demotivating factors?In order to answer the above three research questions,this study uses a combination of quantitative research and qualitative research methods.297 students in the first year of Nanning ASEAN High School were surveyed.Data were collected anonymously through a questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS software.The author also adopted classroom observation and face-to-face interview with six senior English teachers and six students to verify and supplement the research results of the questionnaire.The results showed that :(1)English learning demotivation in Nanning ASEAN High School is at a high level among many students.(2)The main factors that affect the English learning demotivation of grade one students in Nanning ASEAN High School are learner-related factors,course-related factors and environment-related factors,while teacher-related factors have little effect.(3)Both teachers and students attributed English learning demotivation to students themselves and they all think teacher-related is the least influence factor on English demotivation.But the opinions of students and teachers differ in terms of environment and course factors and hold the opposite ideas.At the end the author put forward some suggestions from the aspects of learners,teachers,courses and learning environment to decrease the English learning demotivation of senior one students in Nanning ASEAN High School.The author hopes that this study will contribute to the efforts of high school teachers and students in dealing with the problem of demotivation.