Abstract

This paper reports on a study that investigated the changes of demotivation to learn English over the four college years among Chinese English as a Foreign Language Learners (EFL) from the perspective of Activity Theory. Semi-structured interviews were conducted on fifteen college EFL learners in China. The interview data were analyzed by means of content analysis to explore the changes in the demotivation among the participants and the reasons why their demotivation changed. The results revealed that: 1) the interviewees experienced changes in their demotivation during the four college years, with a stronger demotivation in the first and fourth year; 2) the dynamic disposition of the respondents’ demotivation is related to such factors as subject (Interest and future career), object (English examinations), tools (textbooks) and community (peers and teachers). The findings are implicative for teachers and students to tackle demotivation in English class for students at technological universities in China and other similar EFL contexts beyond.

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