چکیده:
Demotivation is a relatively new topic in the field of second or foreign language acquisition which is in need of more rigorous research. In this regard, the present study was an attempt to investigate demotivating factors in learning English as a foreign language in an Iranian context. To this end, 382 Persian learners of English were selected through stratified clustering sampling procedure to participate in this mixed method study. The Data was collected through a 40-item Likert type questionnaire. The Factor analysis of the data extracted seven factors including a) inadequate facilities, b) reduced self-confidence, c) class characteristics, d) lack of purpose to study English, e) teaching methods, f) teachers and teaching styles, and g) negative attitudes toward English and the culture of English-speaking countries as demotivators. The Students‟ perceptions of these seven factors were compared based on their general English proficiency levels. The Results revealed that low proficient learners perceived reduced self-confidence and negative attitudes more demotivating than their counterparts at other levels of proficiency.
خلاصه ماشینی:
"The Factor analysis of the data extracted seven factors including a) inadequate facilities, b) reduced self-confidence, c) class characteristics, d) lack of purpose to study English, e) teaching methods, f) teachers and teaching styles, and g) negative attitudes toward English and the culture of English-speaking countries as demotivators.
Third, the demotivation questionnaire consisted of forty, 5-point Likert type, items which were designed to assess ten constructs derived from interview as follows: a) negative attitudes toward English and the culture of English speaking countries (items 24, 25, 31), b) inadequate instructional facilities (items 19, 20, 21), c) teachers‟ characteristics (items 12, 15, 38), d) teaching styles (items 13, 14, 26, 27), e) teaching methods ( items 2, 3, 5, 6, 39), f) lack of specified purpose to study English (1, 32, 33, 34, 35), g) reduced self-confidence due to negative experiences (items 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 17, 36), h) class activities and environment (items 22, 30, 37), i) peer pressure (items 23, 28), and j) textbooks (items 4, 16, 18, 29, 40).
Results The Qualitative analysis of interviews revealed 10 demotivating factors including negative attitudes toward English and culture of English-speaking countries, inadequate instructional facilities, teachers‟ characteristics, teaching styles, teaching methods, lack of specified purpose to study English, reduced self-confidence due to negative experiences, class activities and environment, peer pressure, and textbooks.
The results indicated that all three proficiency groups of low, mid, and high perceived such factors as inadequate facilities, class characteristics, lack of purpose to study English, teaching methods, teachers and teaching styles in the same way; however, their ideas were different with regard to negative attitudes and reduced self-confidence."