Demotivation for learning English among Junior High School Students
Megumi Tokuyama 021082
Summary
Today, there are a lot of English learners in Japan. Though each learner’s aim is
different, it’s efficient for learners to have intrinsic motivation when they are learning something.
However, at the same time, some people don’t like learning English. When they are in the
middle school or the high school, some students may become demotivated even though they
previously had motivation. In this thesis, my aim was to examine when subjects felt motivated
or especially demotivated in class. Besides, I wanted to find out what kind of factors affected
middle school student’s demotivation.
From the questionnaire data, I found some factors which affected the subject’s
motivation or demotivation. Mainly, the attitudes of teachers, classmates and friends were the
main reasons to feel motivated or demotivated. Instrumental or extrinsic motivation such as
passing for entrance examination tended to work among subjects. Besides, I found out there was
a period in which subjects lost their motivation to learn English.
Research questions
1. How do subject’s feeling change through three years in middle school?
2. When do subjects feel demotivated?
3. What kind of factors will cause student’s demotivation to learn English?
The experiment
Subjects:
136 junior high school students from 1st grade to 3rd grade.
Instrument:
A questionnaire, which was designed for junior high school students who
are studying English.
Results
The Second grade was one of the periods in which they lost their motivation.
Moreover, male students tended to have higher demotivation compared with female students.
When subjects feel demotivated to learn English, the attitudes of teachers, friends and
classmates strongly affected it. Besides, students need to know why they were learning with
activities. If they can understand its effects, it will be easier to be motivated.
Table 2.4 The number of the students who answered about their motivation toward
English learning.
st
1 grade
2nd grade
3rd grade
Sex
High
Medium
Low
Male
3(13%)
17(74%)
3(13%)
Female
1(5%)
16(84%)
2(11%)
Male
1(4%
20(87%)
2(9%)
Female
3(1%)
19(83%)
1(4%)
Male
4(1%)
13(54%)
7(29%)
Female
4(1%)
18(78%)
1(4%)
Male
8(1%)
50(71%)
12(17%)
Female
8(12%)
53(82%)
4(6%)
16
103
16
Total
When subjects study English, over 50% of students felt demotivated

when students have a lot of homework,

their friends laugh at their English,

teachers get angry about homework,

teachers request them to complete translation in textbooks, students hand in the homework
that keep a diary in English and return it with corrected red pen,

students read long story in their textbook

and they have to write their opinion in English.
In short, these were the external factors from teachers, classmate or friends. Besides,
monotonous work like just translation, reading long story and negative attitudes of the teachers
and friends help to decrease student’s motivation and increases their demotivation.
As for the
Speeches, because subjects answered it was not enjoyable and useful, we can say subjects have
demotivation for this activity.