Abstract

The study investigated secondary vocational school students’ motivational level to learn English and the demotivating factors perceived by them in the current school stage. To this end, questionnaires were administered to students in a national key secondary vocational school located in Shanxi, China and 62 valid questionnaires were collected. The results revealed that 75.8% of respondents had already been demotivated in English learning before the secondary vocational school, and the main causes were their dislike of teachers, too much homework and the lack of learning methods. However, there were not so many respondents thinking that they had been further demotivated in learning English in the current vocational school. Concerning the demotivators perceived by participants, the experience of failure was the most dominant whereas the teacher-related factors were the least significant, and the internal factors were more influential than the external ones in impairing participants’ learning enthusiasm. New demotivating factors like the perceived increasing roles of Chinese and failing to see the practical significance of English in future jobs and life were also found in this study. Based on the findings of demotivation peculiar to students at secondary vocational schools, the specific motivational strategies were also suggested.

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