Demotivating Factors: A Study Of Chinese Junior High School EFL Learners

English as a compulsory curriculum is quite stressful for most of the Chinese junior high school students and may dampen students’ English learning motivation(Kim et al,2014).And junior high school students may be experiencing demotivators(namely the attribution of demotivation)in or out of English classes and these negative influencing factors may play an important role on English as a foreign language(EFL)learning process.What’s more,demotivation can result in long-term and lasting negative attitudes,bad behaviors and low learning outcome,and thus leads to students’ low English proficiency.Due to the prevalent demotivation of junior high school students,this study tends to address the following two research questions:1)What are the most demotivating factors of junior high school students in EFL and what are the differences among three grades and between genders?2)What are the similarities and differences between English teachers and students in the attribution of demotivating factors?In order to investigate students’ demotivators and find out the similarities and differences between teachers and students in the attribution of English learning demotivation,Six-hundred and fifty-seven students from a public junior high school in Guangzhou participated in the questionnaire;seven English teachers participated in the interview.In this study,both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used.Specifically,data from two hundred and sixty-two demotivated students was used for factor analyses to examine the demotivating factors of demotivated students and quantitative research method were conducted to examine the negative factors influencing all junior high school students’ English learning so as to supplement the quantitative data.Also,one-way ANOVA and independent-samples T Test were used to identify the differences among three grades,between genders respectively in the attribution of English learning demotivators.Results showed that difficulties in learning English was the most salient demotivators in junior high school students’ EFL learning process.Moreover,other negatively influencing factors were found demotivating as well: loss of confidence,language anxiety,inappropriate level of lessons and materials,lack of motivation,unsuitable teaching methods and teaching skills,and negative impact from others.Significant differences were found among grades in the demotivation attribution: Grade Eight students were more vulnerable to factor “Inappropriate level of lessons and materials” than Grade Seven students in their EFL learning process;and between genders: male students were more demotivated by factors like lack of motivation,unsuitable teaching style and teaching skills and negative impact from others than female students;and between teachers and students: students tended to attribute their English learning demotivation to course-related factors,like difficulties in learning English,inappropriate level of lessons and materials,while teachers tended to blame students demotivation for students themselves,like lack of prerequisite skills or knowledge,negative attitude or behaviors towards English classes and so on.Finally,due to the prevalence of students’ EFL demotivation,seven suggestions were provided for remotivation.The findings of this study may provide helpful information for English teachers,curriculum developers or English teaching researchers in China.Most importantly,this study would be insightful for English teachers to be reflective about their teaching and learners’ needs in their pedagogical preparations.