Download Full PDF

Jianling Xie

University of Houston-Downtown, USA

 

Katarzyna Gallo

Mississippi State University, USA

 

Yan Zhan

Yan Zeng

Jiangxi Agricultural University, China

 

Xiang Huang

City University of Macau, China

 

Xia Liu

Min Fan

Jiangxi Agricultural University, China

 

Abstract

The existing research on demotivators in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms is extensive, but there is still not much known about how different students react to these demotivators. This study aimed to extend prior research by examining the connections between gender, academic performance, and factors that can demotivate students. We adopted the Learner Perceptions of Demotivators Scale (Xie et al., 2021) to measure three demotivating factors: negative teacher behavior, loss of task value, and low expectancy for success. Data were collected from a sample of undergraduate students in China (n = 320) representing various majors. The results showed that negative teacher behavior was a unique demotivator in several ways: (a) female students showed higher need for relatedness-supportive teacher behavior (t = 2.22, P = .03); (b) there was an interaction effect between gender and performance on negative teacher behavior F (1,316) = 4.63, p = .03; and (c) low-performing male students were less sensitive to negative teacher behavior. Practical implications and recommendations for future research are discussed.

 

Keywords

Demotivator, demotivation, interaction effect, negative teacher behavior