Essay On Demotivation

It is a widely accepted opinion that teaching is a complex process in which teachers attempt to transfer specific knowledge or a target skill to the learners in given circumstances. The process attains the attributes of complexity, mainly for circumstantial or personal factors, and in some cases for the interplay of both.

The conditions for teaching become unfavorable when the placement of learners on a program is inappropriate, the teaching material is not in line with the needs, interests and proficiency level of the learners, teaching and learning aids are insufficient, teaching style is unsuitable and so on. Most of these factors cause the learners to lose interest in learning. This loss of interest is one of the very important reasons behind the failure of effective teaching.

Investigating the causes of demotivation is comparatively a new area of research in L2 learning.

This essay uses a study conducted to identify common causes of demotivation for learning L2 at Japanese high schools. Falout Joseph, Elwood James and Hood Michael conducted a study in 2009 surveying 656 Japanese L2 learners at different high schools. The study found the following five demotivating factors:

1. Learning contents and material,

2. Teachers' competence and teaching styles,

3. Inadequate school facilities,

4. Lack of intrinsic motivation

5. The test scores. (ibid.)

The study indicated that the majority of L2 learners considered the learning contents and material, and the test scores as strong demotivating factors. However, the teachers' competence and teaching styles were found to be less demotivating factors than the other factors (ibid.). Although the study was done on Japanese students, the results can mor...

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Hence to conclude, it can be said that motivation in all its facets is an important agent that influences human behavior positively on the achievement based tasks. And the lack of it is one of the major hindrances that affect the achievements. Psycholinguists have been studying it since long, but a major boom in the field has been observed from the mid of twentieth century when Dr. Robert Gardner started conducting deeper research in the field. It has been called a complex phenomenon affecting human behavior in intricate ways. The importance of motivation has led syllabus designers to design learner centered teaching materials replete with interesting activities planned after conducting interest and need based analyses. The educational policy makers have started proposing methods that cater the learners' beliefs and interests more than ever before.