Japanese Learners' Demotivation to Study English: A Survey Study

This paper presents a synopsis of the Japanese educational system and the inherent effects it has on Japanese learners of English as a necessary background for understanding how these learners have been conditioned as they enter their university studies. By replicating a study first performed by Sugita in 2008 on the effects of academic events on the motivations of secondary school "English as a Foreign Language" (EFL) students, this study seeks to shed light on whether or not similar effects can be found in university EFL students. Journal surveys were utilized to collect data concerning students recorded internal and external influences in regards to their English studies. The results showed marked differences between Sugita's secondary students and the university students from this study, namely in the levels of intrinsic motivations with regards to their English study, a reduced role of tests and other academic events as motivators for studying, and an overall lower level of motivational strength regarding English learning despite reporting a similar amount of study time per week as Sugita's secondary students.

This short paper considers the issue of demotivation of students in various language teaching contexts. It first explores demotivation in the literature and gives an outline of current theories in this emerging area of interest. Research that attempts to extract the factors that contribute to demotivation is analysed. In particular, Dörnyei"s seminal work in the area of demotivation is reviewed. Having presented the findings, the role of teachers in the area of demotivation is discussed with anecdotal evidence and observations. Finally, a research method is proposed. This paper is limited in scope, yet aims to introduce what the author feels is an important issue in post-secondary language education.

Asian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 2018

This paper reports on the perceptions of a group of Japanese high school students (N = 125) and a group of Japanese university students (N = 255) of English as a foreign language (EFL) about the influence of their English teachers as a factor affecting their own motivation. The study employed a questionnaire to collect data with the results computed statistically using SPSS 19. An independent samples t test was conducted on the means drawn from the five-point Likert-scale between university and high school respondents. The results revealed that university students view their teachers as influencing their own motivation more strongly than do high school students. The chi-square test on a range of teacher-related factors: teacher's classroom behaviour, personality, and teaching skills, also showed notable difference between the two groups of students.

In terms of student performance, there are a variety of factors that influence foreign language learning and student achievement. Language instructors hope that these factors are motivational, but often times they are demotivational. Such demotivating factors can affect an individual student's success as well as affect the rest of the class's performance as a whole. Therefore, this study attempts to identify and understand more thoroughly some factors involved in student demotivation by approaching this predicament from a point of view of native English speakers learning Japanese. Material collected through interviews with students learning Japanese as a foreign language forms the basis for the study's outcome. The students volunteered to participate in the study and were not singled out from their classmates for any particular reason. However, to meet the research's goal, the interviewer only selected students with more than five years of Japanese language learning experience. This research suggests that primarily four factors demotivate learners of Japanese.

Conference: ACLL2019 Stream: Psychology of the learner, 2019

Motivation, both intrinsic and extrinsic, are no doubt essential components to successful language learning. Addressing these factors, English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers in Japan exhaust their resources-thinking and employing a variety of strategies and materials-to encourage Japanese students and keep them motivated. However, in spite of these efforts, problems regarding decreased motivation are still seen to arise. Demotivation has become particularly noticeable among Japanese learners who show hesitation in speaking and participating in English class discussions. As noted by Uchioda (2013:9), 'demotivation is obviously viewed as a significant phenomenon in English language education in Japan'. Hence, to identify the root cause of this problem, the current study focused on identifying the factors that demotivate and inhibit Japanese students' participation in their English classes. In this research, a descriptive survey research design was utilized. The data used in the study was from the responses of 246 Reading classes' students and 56 Communication Classes' students from three universities in Tohoku. Respondents, who were initially identified using the purposive sampling technique, gave responses voluntarily. Data analysis revealed that Japanese EFL students patently lack interest in English as a class subject itself. Analysis of individual respondent profiles versus a variety of demotivating factors also unveiled significant differences. Further studies are recommended to address students' lack of interest in English language learning and examine the sources of this problem.

2013

This study examined demotivational factors among Iranian and Japanese college teachers of English. To achieve the purpose, the study used a 35item questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The results were compared with the similar study in Japan by Sugino (2010). The findings of the study revealed that Iranian and Japanese lecturers are much similar regarding motivation and demotivation in their teaching. However, there is difference with respect to the top items causing demotivation. For Iranian teachers, the most demotivating items were ‘No consistency in curriculum with clear goals’, ‘No bonus, ‘Little appreciation from the administration’, ‘Employment system is unstable’, ‘When students are not interested in studying’, and ‘Lack of research fund’. Whereas, the top demotivating items for Japanese college teachers were: students using cell-phones in classes, students sleeping in class, students taking rebellious attitudes, long meeting hours, much paperwork, and ‘fixed teachi...

Journal of Foreign Language Education and Technology, 2021

Motivation is a crucial part of language learning and many learners of English begin learning with a strong intrinsic/extrinsic motivation, but in most cases, it lessens in the process of time and these learners eventually lose their motivation. Especially in preparatory schools of universities in Turkey, this is a common problem. To address this problem, this paper focuses on the negative aspect of motivation, which is called demotivation, and tries to explore demotivational factors of preparatory school students in Turkey, and to investigate the reasons causing demotivation in students while learning English. Thus, it aims to help teachers analyse their students' motivational factors easily, and detect possible problems resulting from demotivation, and come up with solutions. These demotivational factors are investigated in terms of level of English, gender, and high school type. In order to explore factors causing preparatory school students to become demotivated, a questionnaire was conducted on a sample group of 67 students from three different private universities in İstanbul, Turkey. The obtained quantitative data were analysed through regression analysis, t-test and One-Way ANOVA test. The results demonstrated that gender of learners, the type of high school they graduated, and their level of English do not affect their demotivational levels.

Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching

This paper is about four Japanese university students majoring in international studies, who participated in a two-year study examining changes in their motivation. Using monthly interviews and a 29-item questionnaire on Dörnyei’s (2005) L2 motivational self system that was administered alongside each interview, the trajectories of learner motivation were investigated, based on both quantitative and qualitative data. First, changes in the participants’ motivation were identified using quantitative data. Next, a variety of motivators and demotivators that learners experienced both inside and outside of their classrooms were analyzed using the qualitative data. With the data obtained, this study focuses on how four learners’ language learning motivation and contexts adapt to each other, and how the dynamics of the four learners’ motivation changes due to their learning experiences. Each learner was different in their trajectory of motivation and the kinds of motivators and demotivator...

Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 2013

The aim of this research is to investigate the factors of demotivation in L2 learning of Pakistani undergraduates at the University of Balochistan, Quetta. A mixed-methods research design was employed in this study to explore the factors of demotivation. Quantitative data was obtained from the responses of a population of 116 first semester undergraduates in a questionnaire adopted from Sakai and Kikuchi (2009). The questionnaire comprised 35 close-ended items on a 5-point Likert scale on six factors of demotivation: grammar-based teaching, teacher's behaviour, course contents and teaching materials, effects of low test scores, classroom environment, and lack of self-confidence and interest. Qualitative data was obtained from an open-ended question on students' demotivating experiences in learning English in the same questionnaire. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the quantitative data while the qualitative data was analyzed by using content analysis to extract the themes or factors of demotivation and their categories based on Sakai and Kikuchi's framework. The findings reveal that all six factors were cited by students as demotivational factors with teaching method, lack of facilities and course content being the most cited factors, hence supporting Sakai and Kikuchi's (2009) framework. In addition, the qualitative data suggests that a new factor emerged-negative attitude of society towards English language-hence a contribution to the body of literature. The findings of the study have implications on the teaching and learning of English in Pakistan.

2016

As globalisation becomes an increasingly important issue, developing second language acquisition (SLA) in English is also becoming a major challenge. Since the commencement of high-speed rail services, foreign tourist numbers are expected to increase in Kanazawa City, where this research participants’ school is located, and the increased opportunity for linguistic, commercial, and cultural exchange will likely require greater English ability. Based on these factors, this study investigated how this change in Kanazawa City has effects on university students’ English learning, their learning motivation, and ‘international posture.’ This study used questionnaires and Cambridge English Examinations on three occasions from 2014-2015. Questionnaires and Cambridge English Examinations conducted in February 2015 showed that the students’ English ability, motivation, and international posture scored the lowest. This indicated that English classes are the only place to enhance English ability...