【Demotivation,in,China’s,College,English,Language,Classrooms】made in China

　　Abstract:Demotivation in second or foreign language learning is the dark side of motivation. It concerns specific external forces that negatively affect the language learners" motivational basis to learn the language (D�rnyei, 2001). Much research has been carried out in studying motivation both in general field and L2 (second language) field. In contrast, little research has been conducted on demotivation among language learners. This study inquires into which demotivational factor affected college students negatively most; and how did demotivation affect them and their English learning.
　　Keywords:Motivation demotivation amotivation self-motivating strategies
　　
　　ⅠIntroduction
　　In SLA field, motivation has been regarded as a key factor in L2 learning. However, most of the motivation researches in the past have typically conceptualized ‘motivation’ as a kind of ‘inducement’, that is, as a force whose strength ranges on a continuum from zero to strong, without much being said aboutnegative" motives which also exert its influence on ongoing student behaviors (D�rnyei, 2001). The students and teachers" classroom experiences suggest that the motivational influence that has demotivating effects on the students is rather common, such as public humiliation, devastating test results and conflicts with peers (D�rnyei, 2001). Therefore,demotivation" is a frequent phenomenon in the L2 classroom and this negative side of motivation deserves careful study.
　　Ⅱ Research on demotivation
　　Researchers (Gardner, 1985; Skehan, 1991) in the field of language learning motivation have stressed the effects of educational context in affecting learners’ motivation. Those studies show that factors related to the learning situation (e.g. teacher"s personality, teaching method and competence; the coursebook; teaching and learning equipment; and learning group) are significantly accounted for learners" demotives (D�rnyei, 1998; Inbar, Donitsa-Schmidt & Shohamy, 2001).
　　The general finding of Gorham & Cristophel"s (1992) study that teacher behaviours largely contributed students" demotivation is consistent with the results generated in the L2 field, in addition, this finding was further confirmed by a replicated study conducted by Gorham & Cristophel in 1995.
　　Aiming at using exploratory analysis, D�rnyei"s (1998b) study focused specifically on learners who had already been identified as being demotivated by their language teachers or peers, using a qualitative approach by conducting structured long interviews with 50 secondary school pupils in various schools in Budapest. Nine categories of demotivating factors were identified, in which only the primary demotives mentioned by the participants were included. The nine categories of demotivating factors were as follows:
　　1.the teacher (e.g. the teacher"s personality, commitment to teaching, competence, teaching method, teaching style, attention paid to the students, and rapport with students)
　　2.inadequate school facilities (e.g. group is not the right level or too big or too small; frequent change of teachers; using inferior teaching or learning equipments; seating arrangements; and classroom decoration)
　　3.reduced self-confidence (e.g. perception of too strict marking; previous experience of failure or lack of success in language learning)
　　4.the negative attitude towards the L2 (e.g. dislike of the way the language sounds, the grammar, the vocabulary, the whole structure of the language)
　　5.the compulsory nature of L2 study
　　6.the interference of another foreign language being studied (e.g. studying two similar languages at the same time)
　　7.the negative attitude towards L2 community (e.g. dislike of the people, the culture of L2 community)
　　8.the attitudes of other group members (e.g. dislike of group members)
　　9.the coursebook used in the language classes (e.g. coursebook is boring, useless, old-fashioned)
　　Although demotivation is a salient phenomenon in L2 field, yet not much research has been carried out on it. The little available research, conducted by Oxford (1998), Ushioda (1998), Chambers (1993) and D�rnyei (1998b) do generates a number of consistent results, that is teachers have a considerable responsibility in accounting for students’ demotivation, and teachers’ perception of demotivating sources differs from students’ perception of demotivating sources.
　　Ⅲ Background of the study
　　Realizing that demotivation has received little attention in China’s L2 classrooms and the large number of demotivated L2 learners after I took a MA module on motivation in L2 classrooms, I took an interest in investigating the following research questions:
　　1.Whether Chinese college students have the experience of being demotivated?
　　2.What are the perceived demotivating factors from Chinese college students’ points of view?
　　3.How demotivating are those factors from Chinese college students" points of view?
　　Participants in this study were students of Class 2006, Class 2007 and Class 2008 of Wenzhou City College, majoring in accounting, business administration and computing. In total, 200 questionnaires were distributed, and 110 completed ones were finally received. The proportions of male participants and female participants were as follows: 58.2 percent males and 41.8 percent females respectively (64 males and 46 females).
　　Questionnaires used in this study consisted mainly of scales derived from main demotivating factors identified by D�rnyei (1998b), which were the teacher, inadequate school facilities, reduced self-confidence, negative attitude towards the L2 and L2 community, attitudes of group members and coursebook. The questionnaire was composed of two sections. The first part of the first section comprised 4 scales 16 items (item1-item16, each scale contains four items, each item has two questions), asking students aboutwhether you have this kind of experience" in order to investigate the frequency of those experience. The scales were as follows: the teacher (teacher"s personality, commitment, teaching method): item 7, 10, 11, 14; inadequate school facilities (frequent change of teachers, group is not the right level or too big, inferior teaching and learning equipments): item 1, 2, 6, 15; reduced self-confidence (lack of success, encouragement or praise, unrealistic goals): item 4, 5, 9, 13; attitude towards group members: item 3, 8, 12, 16.
　　Each question was followed byhow demotivating you think it is if you have this kind of experience". Only the participants who had the stated experience were asked to answer the second question of each item. The second part of the first section (item 17-24) aimed at investigating students" attitude towards the coursebook (item 18, 19, 22, 23), L2 and L2 community (item 17, 20, 21, 24), and how demotivating those factors were if they were perceived negatively. Six points likert-type scales were used, ranking fromvery often" (1 point) tonever" (6 point), andvery demotivating" (1 point) tonot at all" (6 point). Following these questions, demographic information on the sex of the participants was requested.
　　Ⅳ Results and discussion
　　On the whole, the results of the data gave rise to three categories that affected students negatively most: (1) factors related to coursebook; (2) factors related to reduced self-confidence; (3) factors related to teacher, which lend support to the results reported by Ushioda (1998) and D�rnyei (2001).
　　The coursebook:
　　It comes as much surprise that coursebook top the list of demotivating factors that affected students negatively most, second in frequency and first in salience. The reasons for this are not clear. It could due to several facts. First, work in China"s L2 classrooms is mostly coursebook-based. Second, usually coursebook is the only teaching and learning material used in the classroom. Third, the writers of cousebook put too much emphasis upon grammar and vocabulary, giving little consideration to the actual needs of the students. Fourth, teachers have no right to decide on which coursebook to use.
　　There were significant positive correlations between the salience of coursebook related factors and the salience of the factors related to the attitude towards group members (r=.358, p 　　The teacher:
　　The teacher was third on the list of demotivating factors that affected students negatively most, fifth in frequency and third in salience. This result is fully consistent with the reported results by Ushioda (1998) and D�rnyei (2001). On the list of the frequency of all of the items, the item regarding teacher"s boring teaching method was third in frequency, mean=3.47. This could be the case that students were no longer satisfied with the traditional grammar-translation teaching approach. This is imaginable, given the fact that China"s classrooms are normally teacher-centered.
　　There were significant positive correlations between the frequency of teacher related factors and factors related to the attitude towards group members (r=.493, p