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.
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.
Mohammad Hassanzadeh; Monavareh Jafari
Abstract
Teacher motivation is of paramount importance to the growth of any education system. Despite its significance, the topic has been largely overlooked at the expense of learner motivation research. To further investigate the issue, a questionnaire was developed to find the status of teacher (de)motivation ...
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Teacher motivation is of paramount importance to the growth of any education system. Despite its significance, the topic has been largely overlooked at the expense of learner motivation research. To further investigate the issue, a questionnaire was developed to find the status of teacher (de)motivation and its underlying components within the Iranian context. The survey also examined the difference between male versus female, and English language versus non-English subject teachers in terms of their (de)motivation. The participants consisted of 509 secondary school teachers from 18 Iranian cities. The questionnaire content was grounded on a focus-group interview as well as a number of extant need-based motivational theories. Upon data collection, a Principal Components Analysis was conducted to identify the minimally optimum items of the so-called 'need-based teacher motivation inventory' (NTMI). The findings underscored English teachers’ low motivation, suggesting that secondary school English teachers were less dissatisfied with their school administration and colleagues, the work environment, and the job itself. However, they felt demotivated by meagre earnings, inequity in payment, lack of autonomy and recognition, poor contribution to decision-makings, inadequacy of in-service training programs, unfair opportunities for promotion, non-standard teacher evaluation criteria, and unappealing instructional materials. The results also showed no difference between female teachers and their male counterparts. Nevertheless, English-subject teachers were found to be less motivated. Iranian Ministry of Education seems to be in desperate need of restoring the dignity of its staff through investing in improved services, reasonable payment, and imparting the recognition that teachers deserve.
