INVESTIGATING THE NOTION OF DEMOTIVATION AMONG A COMMUNITY OF EFL LEARNERS
4. Data Analysis and Results
Once the transcribed interviews were analyzed and appropriate coding and then categorization were done and the reliability and validity of the extracted categories were double checked and proved by two researchers familiar with qualitative methods of enquiry, the following themes were found to be the most distinguishable ones for each of the interview questions:
4.1. Demotivating Factors Related to Friends and Family
Majority of the participants (16 out of 24) repeatedly stressed that parents as well as friends keep telling them that taking part in English classes for years is both a waste of time and money. Also, great majority of them believed they are being humiliated by friends who find them studying English too often or in case they make simple mistakes when using the language (English). For instance, Kiarash believed that;
“I would choose the English class and then …. That`s why I was dubbed “The wet blanket”…. In addition, my father started nagging me after a while; He tried to convince me that it didn’t worth what it cost and I was supposed to withdraw”.
Next, were also other demotivating factors named by both male and female participants such as not having any family members or enough friends with whom they can converse in English or the rare chance of traveling abroad and using the language in real context. After all, they also gave reference to having friends whose level of English might be far better or far worse than them and thus either of the cases will result in losing their appetite.
4.2. Demotivating Factors Related to English Teachers
Data analysis for this question resulted in the emergence of two major themes; those demotivating factors related to teachers’ attitudes towards teaching and those related to teachers’ own personal features.
Teachers’ Attitudes towards Teaching
The participants counted teachers’ way/style of teaching as the most distinctive demotivating feature mainly because they push students memorize series of useless issues or correcting students’ mistakes on the spot and in front of peers (direct correction)! Besides, they pictured teachers as the ones who firmly believe there should be failing students in each class, and all passing the course seems odd! They also pointed to the scoring system teachers employ and consider it as an absolute unfair judgment. Finally, students stressed that teachers just perform as far as they have to and never go one step beyond the textbook to teach us few more demanding new materials. For instance Kimia claimed that;
“The most impressive factor of demotivation is the teacher. In some cases, the teacher might discourage the students to take the courses less serious by inappropriate way of teaching and false treatments which include unfair judgments…..this way, pupils lose the desire to participate in classes and the environment will turn into an exasperating one”.
Teachers’ Personal Features
From among the pointers under this category, majority of the participants (16 out of 24) considered teachers who are either too strict or too easy going as the most demotivating and devastating issue! They claimed a good teacher should be capable of having enough control over when and to what extent to be serious or friendly in class and being an extremist in either of these approaches would definitely result in introverted students. Next after this, came the highlighted fact that teachers tend to discriminate between students of higher and lower proficiency and competency levels and behave distinguishably different towards them. For instance, Mohammad stated that;
“……moreover, there are some other teachers who explicitly admire one of the students in front of the others. This can have a demotivating effect on other pupils and leads to under- achievement”.
Among other reasons, existed issues such as teachers as being demotivated members of the teaching profession and their not being able to involve all students equally in the learning process and bring the balance to the learning environment. Besides all, teachers’ lack of mastery over the teaching material and
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at the same time having high expectations from students were the next two demotivating factors in students’ perspective!
4.3. Demotivating Factors Related to Educational Settings
In response to the last question, participants referred to motivation killers both relevant to their schools as well as the language institutes they had studied in. Therefore, common themes for both settings were extracted.
The first factor went to schools’ and institutes’ lack of facilities as well as being physically in a poor condition i.e. being cramped, small, and dark or having uncomfortable chairs and lack of educational facilities like up to date TVs or DVDs or up dated course books. Next came the schools’ or institutes’ strict rules and regulations which make students always worry about any probable failure.
Most importantly, students expressed dissatisfaction with the teachers employed at schools. They believed majority of these teachers do not have enough mastery over what they teach. Also, they believed the textbooks employed are poorly written and not perfectly up to date. For instance, Sara asserted that;
“At schools, teachers are not qualified enough, books are really old & students are not in the same level. So no more information & knowledge can be added to ours ….. Therefore, students won’t be willing to learn the language. In Iran, schools are not good places to rely on for learning a new language”.
Finally, inappropriate class times that do not go with class times at school, high costs per term, lots of terms to pass and school English teachers’ discouraging students to take part in English classes of institutes were also among other demotivating factors mentioned by students.
4.4. Gender Differences Concerning Demotivating Factors
In order to shed light on the second research question; the difference in demotivating factors when it comes to gender, a close investigation within and among themes were carried out, and there existed more of a similarity index rather than a differentiating one i.e. the number of male and female students, in mentioning the discussed demotivating factors, were closely the same. Thus, male and female students shared equal and similar perspectives when it comes to being demotivated in learning English.
However, very tiny and subtle differences surfaced in only one or two of the previously discussed factors. For instance, the idea of “English classes being taken for years is a waste of time”, was highlighted mostly by female students than male ones. Also, those who were mainly concerned about schools’ or institutes’ strict rules and regulations and fear of failing as the result, were all female students not male ones! Finally, as for demotivating factors related to teachers, these were the girls who gave reference to demotivated teachers as the most devastating and demotivating factor!
5. Discussion and Conclusion
The current study intended to investigate the existing demotivating factors among EFL male and female students studying in language schools in Iran. The analysis of the data resulted in the emergence of almost common factors among male and female students (educational settings’ lack of facilities and poor physical condition, strict rules and regulations being employed both at schools and institutes, teachers’ not being moderators in class etc.). Similarly, for the second research question and the gender differences, there came to be minute differences which went to the female participants. Generally speaking, some issues were stressed by female participants more than male ones, which was a clear indication of their sensitivity towards those factors. Finally, these were the girls who gave reference to demotivated teachers as the most devastating and demotivating factor!
Although the current research has been a case study of advance EFL students of language schools in one city in Iran, the outcomes of the study are to a great extent in line with those of renowned researchers both inside and outside Iran which were also referred to in literature review. The results are well supported by Razmjoo and Moiinvaziri (2014), who also gave reference to “methods and personality of teachers” as a demotivating factor in their study among university students. In the same way, some of the demotivating factors listed by Dorneyi (2001) were also highlighted by the participants of this study such as “Teachers’ personalities, commitments, competence, and teaching methods” etc. However, apart from some previously mentioned differences extracted in the themes and ideas presented by the participants of this
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study, the main distinction lies in the fact that very few of the studies mentioned in the literature review paid close attention to gender equalities or un-equalities of ideas when it comes to demotivating factors, specifically through employing a qualitative approach which needs a close scrutiny of ideas as well as the great time consuming nature of explaining and extracting the similarities or the differences. Moreover, since carrying out a pure qualitative study is a long term process which demands ongoing data analysis and collection, majority of the studies mentioned in literature review have used either a mixed method design or very limited number of participants, but the researchers in this study have tried their best to focus on a larger scope of participants to better illustrate the sample and make the generalizability of the results to other similar contexts a more valid one.
The implications of the study could be relevant to teachers, learners, stake holders, and textbook and curriculum designers. As EFL teachers and researchers, the importance of taking students’ needs and application of appropriate stimulus which undoubtedly result in motivation into account should not be diminished. This is the point which has been repeatedly stated by Kumaravadivelu (2006) as claiming that “conducting regional studies can be of great importance not only to get familiar with the sociocultural context of each region but also to try to develop new views and theories as well”. Therefore, the results can be considered as an awareness for teachers so as to run similar case studies, action or classroom researches to actively construct and reconstruct the underlying expectations and needs of their learners to adjust their teaching style according to the learners’ needs. Moving in the same line, it is worth noting that motivating and demotivating factors can have the same influential or detrimental effect on learners’ process of language learning. Thus, neither of them should be given the priority! Once learners are demotivated due to any of the mentioned factors and any other regional one, the cyclic process of encountering increased numbers of these demotivated students would be undeniable. Moreover, demotivation can also be threatening since peer influence is an un-resistible fact and consciously or not it will put the teacher, the class environment and the learning outcome under its immediate effect!
Finally, since this research has been carried out on limited regional scope as well as with limited number of participants, suggestions for further research would be of great benefit in case similar studies be carried out in higher educational settings or doing the same study while shifting the focus on EFL teachers rather than on students, and then a comparison of ideas would be a relevant and fruitful one for EFL teaching learning context. Above all, as EFL teachers, practitioners, curriculum designers, teacher trainers or even as teacher students, let us not forget the crucial issue that our teaching process would never meet its end product if learners’ motivation is not considered as a priori. As teacher researchers we should investigate through various practical ways of increasing pupil’s motivation in language learning and do away with the old saying that “my students are not motivated in their language learning”!
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