Ebrahim ُSamani; Raziyeh Bagheripour; Sara Atarzadeh
Abstract
The concept of demotivation has received the same attention as motivation, especially in the EFL context. However, a review of the literature in Iran’s context indicates a lack of studies exploring the nature of demotivating factors, that is internal or external, and the role of variables of the ...
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The concept of demotivation has received the same attention as motivation, especially in the EFL context. However, a review of the literature in Iran’s context indicates a lack of studies exploring the nature of demotivating factors, that is internal or external, and the role of variables of the structure of schools, fields of study, and proficiency level. The context of the study was the schools of Bam City in Iran. Sampling technique was stratified random sampling, and totally 244 female students of different types of schools that are public, vocational, private schools, and school for the talented responded to a demotivation questionnaire. The analysis of the collected data through the questionnaire using factor analysis indicated that three factors of “learner,” “learning situation,” and “teacher,” were present. According to descriptive statistics, demotivated students considered themselves as the main reason for not progressing in English which emphasized the role of internal factors. In addition, according to one-way analysis of variance, demotivational factors did not differ significantly among different fields of study, however, different school types were significantly different from each other in terms of these factors. Finally, the result of the Pearson correlation test indicated the existence of a significant relationship between demotivational factors and students’ achievement. The findings of this study provide necessary insight to both teachers and their students in their act of teaching and learning languages.
Hani Mansooji; Ahmad Mohseni; Alireza Ameri
Abstract
A significant proportion of academic exercise today, even for those who do not speak English as a first language, has to do with the English Internet and the texts within. Accordingly, the present study focused on examining the effects of extensive multimedia-based English Internet reading on enhancing ...
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A significant proportion of academic exercise today, even for those who do not speak English as a first language, has to do with the English Internet and the texts within. Accordingly, the present study focused on examining the effects of extensive multimedia-based English Internet reading on enhancing motivation in EFL learners’ English reading. Specifically, the quasi-experimental pretest-post-test design was used to compare the performance of three groups of Iranian university EFL students (i.e., one control and two experimental groups) in terms of their degrees of motivation, prior to and following university-level general English courses which included a multimedia-based Internet extensive reading program on the one hand, and a linear text extensive reading program on the other. Analysis of the results revealed that the extensive reading of both linear and multimedia Internet texts enhanced Iranian EFL readers' reading motivation, an enhancement which was not observed in the motivation of the participants in the control group who did not experience any such program. However, there was no statistically significant difference observed in the amount of motivation improvement between the linear text and the multimedia Internet groups. Teachers may be the most beneficiaries of the present study as they can gain insights into how far they should enter the realm of integrating Internet-based reading programs into general English courses.
Asghar Afshari; Zia Tajeddin; Gholam-Reza Abbasian
Abstract
Motivation is a crucial factor in learning a foreign language. However, some learners may become demotivated during their experience of learning a language. Demotivation among learners has rarely been addressed from the teachers’ perspectives. The purpose of the current study was to investigate ...
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Motivation is a crucial factor in learning a foreign language. However, some learners may become demotivated during their experience of learning a language. Demotivation among learners has rarely been addressed from the teachers’ perspectives. The purpose of the current study was to investigate novice and experienced English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ perceptions of sources of demotivation among language learners. Initially, through convenience sampling, different institute teachers were contacted. Thirty novice (n = 15) and experienced (n = 15) English language teachers volunteered to participate in face-to-face semi-structured interviews to investigate their beliefs about sources of learners’ demotivation. Content analysis was run to extract relevant demotivation sources, and frequency analysis was used to summarize and report the data. The findings revealed that both novice and experienced teachers had largely similar perceptions of sources of demotivation. Both groups indicated that method of instruction, teacher personality, classmates’ behaviors, anxiety, and physical environment of the language institutes have the potential to negatively affect motivation in learners. However, they differed in the degree of importance they attached to the factors falling within each of these demotivation sources. The findings suggest that teachers need to develop an awareness of the sources of demotivation among learners and the strategies to cope with them.
Masoud Azizi; Majid Nemati
Abstract
One may not comment on the effectiveness of teacher corrective feedback (CF) before first ensuring learners’ attendance. The majority of the studies carried out on teacher CF have mistakenly presupposed learners’ attendance to and noticing of teacher feedback without any attempt to check ...
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One may not comment on the effectiveness of teacher corrective feedback (CF) before first ensuring learners’ attendance. The majority of the studies carried out on teacher CF have mistakenly presupposed learners’ attendance to and noticing of teacher feedback without any attempt to check or ensure them. The present study was an attempt to examine the effect of CF on learners’ writing ability when it is accompanied by Draft Specific Scoring, a technique designed to maximize learners’ motivation to attend to teacher feedback while minimizing the negative effect grading might have on learners’ attention (Azizi, 2013; Nemati & Azizi, 2013). In so doing, 57 intermediate students of English Language Literature at University of Tehran, in the form of two groups with one receiving CF and the other one receiving CF plus Draft-Specific Scoring (DSS), were studied. The results of the Split-plot ANOVA between the two groups’ pretest and posttest indicated that the treatment group could significantly outperform the control group in overall writing proficiency as well as the four components assessed in IELTS writing task 2. In addition, learners’ motivation, attendance, and attitudes were explored into using a questionnaire and a written interview. The participants experiencing DSS reported a high level of motivation and attendance. They also held a very positive attitude toward the technique they had undergone. The results indicate that it is possible to make teacher corrective feedback work if the intervening variables, more particularly motivation, are taken care of.
