On Demotivating Factors for English Learning of Vocational College Students in Leshan City, Sichuan, China

Abstract

In the studies of the second language motivation, demotivation is comparatively new. More and more scholars have been studying demotivating factors in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) since the 1990s. The paper is to probe into the demotivating factors for English learning of vocational college students in Leshan City, Sichuan, China. About 250 students with different majors in Leshan Vocational and Technical College were involved in this study and they were asked to finish a close-ended questionnaire about demotivation in their English learning. By analyzing the data collected from the study, the author reached the following conclusions: The first, demotivation is a serious problem among vocational college students; the second, demotivation negatively affects the students’ language proficiency in terms of the following four factors: learning failures, teachers’ competence and teaching styles, lack of intrinsic motivation, and inadequate facilities and learning context. Besides, tentative proposals are further put forward with a hope to benefit English teaching in vocational colleges and minimize the students’ demotivation