The Journal of Asia TEFL Vol 4, No 1, pp.

79-105, Spring 2007

Demotivation: Understanding Resistance to English

Language Learning – The Case of Vietnamese
Students

Tran Thi Thu Trang

Hue College of Economics, Vietnam

Richard B. Baldauf Jr.

The University of Queensland, Australia

Demotivation in English language learning was investigated, using

Vietnam as a case study, with three main foci: (i) the reasons (i.e., the
demotives) underlying demotivation; (ii) the degree of influence of
different demotives; and (iii) students’ experiences in overcoming
demotivation. Using stimulated recall essays from 100 university students
of their foreign language learning experiences, the findings indicated that
demotivation was a significant issue for EFL learning, and a framework
for discussing the different sources of demotives was developed. While
some categories of demotives occurred more frequent than others, no
category appeared to be more or less difficult to overcome. Rather,
students’ awareness of the role of English language and their
determination to succeed were critical factors in overcoming
demotivation.

INTRODUCTION

There is a long history of the study of motivation in language learning.

Research results indicate that motivation is one of the main determining

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factors in an individual’s success in developing a second (L2) or foreign

language (FL) (see, e.g., Dornyei, 1990, 2001a, 2001b; Gardner, Lalonde,
Moorcroft, & Evers, 1985; Oxford & Shearin, 1994; Scarcella & Oxford,
1992; Warden & Lin, 2000). Research has shown that motivation is crucial
for L2 learning (Dornyei, 1994; Oxford & Shearin, 1996) because it directly
influences how much effort students make, how often students use L2
learning strategies, how much students interact with native speakers, how
much input they receive in the language being learned, how well they do on
curriculum-related achievement tests, how high their general proficiency
level becomes, and how long they preserve and maintain L2 skills after
language study is over (Ely, 1986a, 1986b; Spolsky, 1989; Scarcella &
Oxford, 1992). However, as important as motivation is, it clearly is not the
only factor relevant to L2 and FL language learning. This has become
particularly apparent in a world were where intercultural communication and
foreign language learning have become an increasingly necessity for many
people.
As English has become more and more important as an international
language, in most countries around the world, large numbers of students are
being required to learn it through compulsory programs in schools and
universities. Yet, despite its apparent utility as a lingua franca or a world
language (Brutt-Grifler, 2002), and the fact that students must pass
examinations in it to graduate, many students are failing to learn it
successfully. This situation also applies to students in countries where
learning other foreign languages is compulsorily, but where the drop out rates
in courses, once compulsion ends, are very large, in some cases being so
significant that the viability of teaching some of these languages is
undermined. In countries like the United States and Australia (Hornberger,
2005), students literally drop out of foreign language study, while in
countries like China, Japan and Vietnam students either mentally withdraw or
look for strategies to pass the required exams with a minimum of effort. Are
these examples of resistance to language learning (Canagarajah, 1999), a lack
of motivation, or might some other factor or factors be involved, particularly

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as part of language teaching and learning process? Based on our own

experiences, we supposed that demotivation might be a factor that would
account for at least some of these problems, but that its existence and scope
have not been adequately investigated. Thus, this study is the first step in
defining and testing the impact of this construct in a specific context. As a
starting point for investigating this question, and as a way of trying to define
what this concept might consist of, we have chosen to do an intensive
grounded theory case study in a fairly controlled situation in Vietnam.
Despite the current extrinsic pressures to learn English as a foreign
language in Vietnam, many students don’t seem ever to have developed any
interest in learning English, or if they have, they seem to have lost that
interest for some reason, that is, they have become demotivated. In both
cases, their achievement in English as a foreign language has been negatively
affected. While those without any interest in English might possibly be
motivated to improve by applying conventional and available language
teaching solutions, including motivational techniques (see, e.g., Ho, 1998),
the problem faced by the latter group is more complicated as it requires that a
critical look be taken at the underlying causes of demotivation to ensure they
are properly understood so that effective solutions to the problem can be
devised.

STUDIES OF DEMOTIVATION
Despite the probable importance of demotivation in learning in general,
and L2 and FL learning in particular, to date few studies have focused on
student demotivation. Even studies which mention it (e.g., Ho, 1998) have
tended to equate demotivation with low motivation, rather than examining it
as a phenomenon in its own right. Three of the early studies, which examined
the issue of demotivation, were done in the field of instructional communica-
tion. Gorham and Christophel’s 1992 study tried to determine what factors
were perceived as demotives by college students taking introductory com-

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munication classes. Demotives were collected from students’ responses to the

open-ended question: “What things decrease your motivation to try hard to do
your best in that class?” The research findings revealed three main categories
of demotives, i.e., context demotives (factors likely to be regarded as ante-
cedent to the teacher’s influence), structure/format demotives (factors over
which the teacher is likely to have some degree of influence, if not complete
control), and teacher behaviors (factors likely to be perceived as under the
teacher’s direct control). Teacher-related factors, which consist of class
structure or format-related demotives and the demotives resulting from
teacher behaviors, accounted for 79% of all the responses. In a follow-up
study to ascertain whether the perceived sources of demotivation could be
replicated, Christophel and Gorham (1995), using the same question to detect
demotives with another group of college students studying communication,
obtained findings that were consistent with those from the first study.
However, in both studies, no attempt was made to examine the cases of the
students who might have already been demotivated before entering the
college class nor was it is clear whether the responses were to real or
hypothetical sources of demotivation, i.e., did those who indicated the so-
called demotives really suffer from them?
To examine the degree to which teachers’ perceptions of what affects
student motivation were similar to those found in student reports, Gorham
and Millette (1997) conducted a further study based on Gorham’s previous
research in which teacher participants were asked, with reference a specific
class, to respond to the open-ended question, “What do you perceive
decreases students’ motivation to try to do their best in this class and to
achieve your instructional goals?” The results indicated that teachers and
students agreed on a set of central factors that are relevant to demotivation.
The high frequency categories were similar across both data sets and the
order of frequency of mention of demotives was more similar than different
across all categories in the data, which gave the researchers reasonable
confidence to conclude that the set of demotives identified provided a viable
description of classroom motivational dynamics. Despite these similarities,

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teachers were more likely to attribute student demotivation to performance-

related factors such as the students’ lack of success on graded work, the
students’ lack of prerequisite skills or knowledge and the students’ heavy
workload. In contrast, students attributed more of their demotivation to
teacher behavior, in particular poor presentational skills, lack of enthusiasm
on the part of the instructor, and to the instructor’s overall choice and
organization of course material.
In the area of L2 classroom learning, student demotivation has not been
the topic of much research with Chambers (1993), who examined the
problem using questionnaires to gather both student and teacher perspectives,
providing the only evidence, that is, his research is the only study that was
fully devoted to demotivation in L2 learning completed so far. In contrast to
the findings of the Gorham and Millette’s study (1997), the reasons
underlying student demotivation were perceived quite differently by the
teachers and their students. Teachers perceived the causes of demotivation to
be related to psychological, attitudinal, social, historical and geographical
reasons, but they explicitly excluded themselves. The students’ perceived
reasons for demotivation also varied, i.e., teachers’ behaviors, class size, etc.
Unfortunately, Chambers did not try to determine what the demotives were or
to look at them critically, instead simply listing the students’ opinions. As a
result, Chambers could draw only a few conclusions about the impact of
demotives on the language learning experience. Thus, while there have been
studies that have explored issues related to demotives, no attempt has been
made either to create a framework to aid in better understanding the
phenomenon, nor to relate it to issues of curriculum and teaching.
Oxford’s 1998 study advanced the understanding of demotives by taking
into account the time factor. She recognized that demotivation is a process
that can be best understood by “looking backward”, i.e., by asking
participants to recall their learning experiences over a period of time, in this
case, five years. The students were asked to write a stimulated recall essay
using a variety of prompts, including “Describe a situation in which you
experienced conflict with a teacher”, and “Talk about a classroom in which

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you felt uncomfortable”. The findings drawn from the content analysis of the
student essays revealed four broad sources of demotivation, i.e., the teacher’s
personal relationship with the student, the teacher’s attitude towards the
course or the material, style conflicts between teachers and students, and the
nature of the classroom activities. However, since the prompts used by
Oxford specifically referred to the teacher’s role as a source of demotivation,
other potential sources might not have been provided by participants in the
study.
Ushioda (1998) filled this gap by asking the participants to identify what
they found to be demotivating in their L2-related learning experience without
specifying any prompts. Her findings were not unlike the conclusions arrived
at in the previous studies, that is, the demotives were related to negative
aspects of the institutionalized learning context such as particular teaching
methods and learning tasks. Nonetheless, Ushioda provided only a very
general description of her demotivation results as they formed only a part of a
broader discussion on effective motivational thinking.
Finally, while it is not difficult for the students who are involved with, and
quite interested in, language learning to point out things that may be
classified as demotives, it is also the case that being able to name such
demotivating factors does not provide any insights on the possible effects that
demotives may have on different students. Dornyei (1998) addressed this
issue by hypothesizing that only demotivated students, or those who have
experienced demotivation, can indicate the actual reasons that resulted in
their loss of interest in language learning. Thus, in selecting participants for
his research, he focused only on those who had been identified as
demotivated. Data were collected through long structured interviews. His
findings were consistent with the results reported by previous researchers in
that the largest category of demotives directly concerned the teacher.
Nonetheless, while such material provides interesting insights, one may
wonder whether the data collected from interviews alone are sufficient,
informative and valid in dealing with such a sensitive problem, especially
across all cultural situations. For example, while interviews might be

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culturally suitable for use with Western students, Asian students may not feel
comfortable discussing this face-confronting issue in person. In addition, it
can be argued that students need time to recall demotivating incidents, so the
immediacy of the interview method may not be the most effective technique
for gathering clearly presented particular experiences that have led to
demotivation.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

While most of the literature on teaching and learning languages focuses on

the motivation of students to learn a language, the high extrinsic motivational
context and the failure of students to adequately learn foreign languages
(especially English) under those conditions, suggests that motivation alone
may not be a sufficient explanation for understanding and treating the current
FL learning problems found in such contexts. In addition, the first author’s
own English language learning experience provided a powerful instance
which suggested that demotivation, rather than a lack of motivation, might be
a significant problem that needed to be investigated.
Thus, the first purpose of the present study was to examine the level of the
student demotivation in EFL learning and to document the underlying
sources of demotivation suffered by students. In this context, it is important
to note that all four of the L2 studies that addressed demotivation included a
mixture of ESL/EFL students and those studying a language other than
English (LOTE). Therefore, the setting selected for this study also provides a
change of focus as it examines whether the special status of English as an
international language makes any difference in terms of student
demotivation, i.e., it allows us to compare and contrast the demotives found
in earlier research with those suffered by EFL students.
In addition, it seemed reasonable to assume that demotives are different in
terms of their levels of influence on individuals (i.e., some may be more
potent than others, and be more difficult to overcome). However, none of the

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previous studies took into consideration the long term effect of demotives to
see whether particular demotives have a differential impact. Some types of
demotives might have a permanent effect on students, while other types of
demotives might be easier to overcome once the detrimental influence ceased
to exist. The focus of this study was therefore on the role of demotivation in
students’ learning of English as a foreign language with the following four
issues being addressed:

(1) To what extent is demotivation a problem?

(2) If demotivation is a significant problem, what are the factors that are
likely to contribute to demotives?
(3) Are demotives different in terms of their levels of impact?
(4) What are the factors that assist students to overcome demotivation?

Vietnam was chosen to be the context for initially testing these questions.

CASE STUDY METHODOLOGY

Participants in the study were 100 second-year EFL students from a

University of Economics in central Vietnam. The students were not English
majors and so were studying English to fulfill their 4 semesters of English
graduation requirement, but would have been aware of the importance of
English for economics and business in Vietnam. More than 90% of the
students had studied English for at least 8 years prior to doing the stimulated
recall tasks, while their place of home residence indicated that they came
from different parts of the country. Thus, the sample met four key
requirements needed for an initial study of the demotivation construct:
(1) long term exposure to mandatory FL English instruction and therefore
the increased possibility of having experienced demotivation,
(2) a focus on extrinsic, rather than intrinsic motivation (e.g., English
majors might be more intrinsically motivated and be less likely to
suffer demotivation),

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(3) coming from a range of home locations, thereby providing a variety of

English instructional experiences, and
(4) coming from a discipline (economics) where English is significant to
career prospects and therefore a probable extrinsic motivational factor.
Stimulated recall methodology was used to collect retrospective data.
Students were asked to recall their English learning experiences, to think
back across the whole learning process, and then to write a three part essay.
The first section of the essay dealt with the existence of demotivation and its
sources (“Have you ever been demotivated in learning English? Why?”); The
second section examined whether or not students had been able to overcome
demotivation, and their experiences in coping with demotivation (“Do you
like learning English now? How have or haven’t you recovered your interest
in learning English?”); The third section was to explore student perceptions
on how best to minimize demotivation (“In your opinion, what are some
possible solutions to minimize demotivation?”). The prompts were provided
to focus students’ attention on their own demotivating experiences, and
avoided suggesting any specific source for the demotives, for instance,
teacher behaviors. To avoid any threat to face, students wrote their essays
anonymously outside of university class time, and none of the students were
ones that had been taught by either of the researchers. Students were asked to
write their essays in Vietnamese so as to facilitate their ability to express
themselves, and were given a week to complete the task.
Initially, all 100 essays were classified into four groups based on students’
answers to the prompts: Group 1 (9 students) indicated they had not been
demotivated, Group 2 (47 students) indicated they had been demotivated but
had recovered from it, Group 3 (21 students) indicated they had been
demotived and then had overcome demotivation but not absolutely, and
Group 4 (20 students) indicated they had been demotivated and were still
feeling demotivated. The remaining three students consisted of two who were
unmotivated to study English and one who presented confounding
information.

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Translation and coding were done for the first section of the student
essays, which dealt with demotivating factors, and the second section of the
student essays, which dealt with the factors that helped students overcome
demotivation. The third section of the student essays that provided students’
suggestions on how to minimize demotivation were recorded and analyzed
separately.
The constant comparison approach (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) was used to
develop categories for coding, with the unit of analysis being each phrase,
sentence or paragraph which described a separate observation or incident
related to student demotivation. These categorizations were applied after
reading and rereading each piece of student writing and then listing the
related segments of the essay on a computer screen. For example, “teacher
was too strict” was place in the subcategory “teacher behavior”. After all the
essays had been analyzed in this way, the labels were then grouped into
categories based on the similarity of their attributes. For example, “teacher
behavior” and “teaching method” were grouped under the category “teacher-
related factors”. Then, these categories were classified into two main groups,
i.e., internal attributions and external attributions, the former being student-
related factors, while the latter were external or outside factors.
Next, the demotivating descriptions, categories and subcategories were
assigned code designations (see Table 1), and then the list of categories for
coding was used to code the complete set of data. Coding was done
separately for each group so that it could be used to examine the possible
levels of influence of different demotives. This group-based coding also
allowed a synthesis of demotives to easily be created.
Three English teacher colleagues were recruited to do co-coding of the
data, the results were compared and adjusted in order to ensure coding
reliability. In addition, a group of five teacher researchers were also recruited
to do a Q-sort of the subcategories (Kerlinger, 1964). That is, a list of all
subcategories that had been generated was given to each of them for sorting
into categories. Their results were then compared with the groupings
developed by the researchers, discussed and the category groupings were

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adjusted appropriately. This list of demotives was then used to generate the
final framework for the 88 essays in which demotivation was mentioned (see
Table 1).

RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

The Extent of the Demotivation Problem

The first research question dealt with the extent to which the demotivation
had been an actual problem for language students in Vietnam. Out of the
sample of 100 students, 88 indicated they had been demotivated to a greater
or lesser extent, most on several occasions. Many students found
demotivation to be an unavoidable phenomenon, in other words, they did not
seem to be surprised about or reluctant to acknowledge its existence. While
demotivation was a matter of concern for the students themselves, they
seemed to have accepted its existence even though they were uneasy about it.
Furthermore, demotivation often was found to occur over discontinuous
periods of time with 21 of the 88 students having overcome their
demotivation for some period of time, but not absolutely, since they
subsequently were demotivated.

The Types of Demotives that Students Encountered

The second research question was concerned with factors perceived by

students as demotives that had made them lose their interest in learning. A
total of 372 demotivating encounters related to 48 demotives were found,
which were grouped into 14 categories. Based on the nature of the demotive
categories, these 14 categories were classified into two groups: internal
attributions and external attributions (see Table 1). The former included
students’ attitudes towards English, their experiences of failure or lack of
success, and incidents related to their self-esteem; the latter consisted of
teacher-related factors, the learning environment, and other external factors.

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TABLE 1
A Coding Framework for Demotivation: Categories of Instances
Mentioned by Vietnamese Economics Students

Internal attributions
IA. Attitudes towards IE. Experiences of failure or IS. Self-esteem (12)
English (58) lack of success (65)
IA1. difficult to IE1. fail to understand lessons IS1. feel insulted (5)
pronounce (6) (lost background knowledge) IS2. unconfident (fear of
IA2. large vocabulary (31) losing face/
(26) IE2. left behind classmates (7) incompetence/afraid of not
IA3. complicated IE3. fail to answer teacher’s being able to satisfy parents’
grammar (26) questions, do exercises, tests (8) expectation) (7)
IE4. fail to communicate in
English (11)
IE5. get low marks despite
having studied seriously (8)
External attributions
Teacher-related demotivating factors
ETb. Teacher ETc. Teacher ETm. Teaching methods ETg. Grading and
behavior (24) competence (14) (97) assessment (5)
ETb1. insult ETc1. fail to ETm1. uncreative, boring ETg1. test outside
students (4) pronounce, ways of conveying lessons (does not
ETb2. lack of difficult to knowledge (39) cover material) (2)
care, understand (6) ETm2. teaching language ETg2. not equal to
enthusiasm ETc2. low skills incomprehensively students’ levels of
(13) credibility (8) (22) proficiency (2)
ETb3. strict, ETm3. speed of teaching is ETg3. no corrective
inflexible (5) too fast (10) feedback (1)
ETb4. ETm4. ineffective
demonstrate distribution of L1 & L2 use
favoritism (2) (6)
ETm5. lessons limited to
textbook (6)
ETm6. repeated lessons
from class to class (1)
ETm7. different teaching
methods among different
teachers (1)
ETm8. frequently test
students (1)
ETm9. inappropriate
workload (11)

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Learning environmental demotivating factors

ELc. ELo. ELl. Learning ELt. Class ELb. Textbook (9)
Classroom Opportunities to conditions time (12)
atmosphere use English (18) (23)
(17)
ELc1. quiet ELo1. lack of ELl1. ELt1. ELb1. boring (3)
and boring (6) opportunities to crowded unfavorable ELb2. not equal
ELc2. contact to groups (4) class time with students’ levels
stressful (10) foreigners in ELl2. (1) of proficiency (5)
Elc3. negative class (8) insufficient ELt2. ELb3. availability
behaviors of ELo2. lack of teaching and limited of instruction books
classmates (1) opportunities to learning class time (1)
use English facilities (10) (11)
outside class (10) ELl3. unequal
levels of
proficiency
between
classmates (6)
ELl4. lack of
extra-
curricular
activities (3)
Other external demotivating factors
EOb. Obligation (13) EOn. Negative changes (5)
EOb1. compulsory nature of English (4) EOn1. replace teachers from the better to the
EOb2. parents’ interference (1) worse (1)
EOb3. social burden (1) EOn2. change learning environment, away
EOb4. have to study many other subjects from old friends (4)
apart from English or concentrate on main
subjects for college entrance exams (7)

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TABLE 2
Frequencies and Distribution of Demotives by Coding Categories
Demotive categories N Percentage
Grand total 372 100%
Internal attributions
IA. Attitudes towards English 58 16%
IE. Experiences of failure or lack of success 65 17%
IS. Self-esteem 12 3%
Total 135 36%
External attributions
ETb. Teacher behavior 24 7%
Teacher- ETc. Teacher competence 14 4%
related ETm. Teaching method 97 26%
factors ETg. Grading and assessment 5 1%
Subtotal 140 38%
ELc. Classroom atmosphere 17 5%
ELo. Opportunities to use English 18 5%
Learning ELl. Learning conditions 23 6%
environment ELt. Class time 12 3%
ELb. Textbook 9 2%
Subtotal 79 21%
EOb. Obligation 13 4%
Others EOn. Negative changes 5 1%
Subtotal 18 5%
Total 237 64%

As can be seen from Table 2, student-related demotives accounted for

36% of the total number of demotivating encounters, whereas external factors
related to 64%. Among the external demotives, teacher-related factors were
the main source of demotives accounting for 38% of the total number of
demotivating encounters. Demotives that resulted from the learning
environment accounted for 21%, and the remaining 5% were related to other
external factors, including obligation factors and negative changes in
students’ courses.

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TABLE 3
Internal Demotivating Factors
Category N Percentage
IA. Attitudes towards English 58
IA1. difficult to pronounce 6
16%
IA2. large vocabulary 26
IA3. complicated grammar 26
IE. Experiences of failure or lack of success 65
IE1. fail to understand lessons (lost background 31
knowledge) 7
IE2. left behind classmates 8 17%
IE3. fail to answer teacher’s questions, do exercises, tests 11
IE4. fail to communicate in English 8
IE5. get low marks despite having studies seriously
IS. Self-esteem 12
IS1. feel insulted 5
3%
IS2. unconfident (fear of losing face/incompetence/afraid 7
of not being able to satisfy parents’ expectation)
Total 135 36%

Internal factors accounted for 135 out of 372 demotivating encounters. As

summarized in Table 3, students’ experiences of failure or lack of success
were the highest of the internally related factors, accounting for 17% of the
total number of demotivating encounters. There were 65 demotivating
encounters involved in this demotive category with many students admitting
to have lost interest in learning due to the decline in their background
knowledge of English. Students’ negative attitudes towards English generated
58 demotivating encounters (16%), while 3% of demotivating encounters
were related to students’ characteristics, that is, their self-esteem.
External attributions consisted of 237 demotivating encounters, accounting
for 64% of the total (see Table 2). These factors were classified into three
sub-groups: teacher-related factors, learning environment, and others with a
total of 11 demotive categories, generating 129 (35%), 90 (24%) and 18 (3%)
demotivating encounters, respectively. Teacher-related factors were the most
frequent causes of student demotivation. Specifically, ineffective and
improper teaching methods caused a large number of demotive encounters,
that is, 97 out of 372 demotivating encounters, or 26%.

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Among teacher-related factors, teaching method had the highest frequency

in demotivating students (26%), followed by teacher behavior (7%), teacher
competence (4%), and grading and assessment (1%). Out of 88 demotivated
students, 59 had, to a greater or lesser extent, been affected by demotivation
through teaching method. As can be seen from Table 4, teaching method
triggered 9 demotives, in which uncreative, boring ways of conveying
knowledge was found the most demotivating.

TABLE 4
Teacher-related Demotivating Factors
Category N Percentage
ETb. Teacher behavior 24 7%
ETb1. insult students 4
ETb2. lack of care, enthusiasm 13
ETb3. strict, inflexible 5
ETb4. demonstrate favoritism 2
ETc. Teacher competence 14 4%
ETc1. fail to pronounce, difficult to understand 6
ETc2. low credibility 8
ETm. Teaching method 97 26%
ETm1. uncreative, boring ways of conveying 39
knowledge 22
ETm2. teaching language skills incomprehensively 10
ETm3. speed of teaching is too fast 6
ETm4. ineffective distribution of L1 & L2 use 6
ETm5. lessons limited to textbook 1
ETm6. repeated lessons from class to class 1
ETm7. different teaching methods among different 1
teachers 11
ETm8. frequently test students
ETm9. inappropriate workload
ETg. Grading and assessment 5 1%
ETg1. test outside lessons 2
ETg2. not equal to students’ levels of proficiency 2
ETg3. no corrective feedback 1
Total 140 38%

The learning environment accounted for 21% of demotivating encounters.

Specifically, the learning environment generated five demotive categories,
including unfavorable classroom atmosphere (5%), insufficient opportunities

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to use English (5%), unfavorable learning conditions (6%), unfavorable class

time (3%), and improper textbook [use / selection] (2%).
Two factors that caused demotivation for students, which could not be
grouped with the other external categories, were obligation and negative
changes (See specifics in Table 1).

The Influence of Different Demotives

The third research question was concerned with the levels of influence of
different demotives. In order to consider the long-term effect of demotives
and find the answer to the question of whether demotives are different in
terms of their levels of influence, the sample was limited to the 88 students
who, to a greater or lesser extent, had experienced demotivation, these being:
Group 2 (53%) those successfully overcoming demotivation, Group 3 (24%)
those who were uncertain of whether they had overcome demotivation or not
because they still felt demotivated at times, or forced themselves to study
English, and Group 4 (23%) those who were still feeling demotivated.
First, the demotives suffered by the students in each of the three groups
were compared and contrasted so as to determine whether there were any
distinctions that could account for the fact that some students overcame
demotivation while others seemingly could not. In Group 2, 47 students
described 189 demotivating encounters, for an average of 4 demotives per
student, while in Group 3, 21 students discussed 84 demotivating encounters,
also providing an average of 4. The 20 students in Group 4 indicated 99
demotives, for an average of 5. However, it was not usually possible to tell
from the students’ essays whether the demotives they suffered occurred on a
single occasion or happened at different times. Thus, even though the ratio of
demotives per student in Group 4 was on the average higher than that in
Groups 2 and 3, there was insufficient evidence to conclude that the number
of demotivating experiences that students suffered had some effect on their
ability to overcome demotivation.

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With regard to the distribution of different demotive categories for each of

the three groups, Figure 1 shows the trends across demotive categories. While
there was a difference in terms of quantity, in general, the three groups had
quite similar patterns in their distribution of demotivating categories.

FIGURE 1.
Distribution of Demotive Categories by Group

60

50

40
Frequencies

Group 2
30 Group 3
Group 4
20

10

0
IA

IE

IS

c
m

t
l
b

n
EL

EL
ET

ET

ET

EO

EO
EL

EL

EL
ET

Demotive categories

When the rank orders of demotive categories among the three groups were
compared, it was impossible to conclude that particular types of demotives
had an effect on whether or not students could overcome demotivation. It was
also not possible to determine from this data which demotives were easier to
overcome than others.
The findings suggest that other aspects might be involved in the degree of
influence of demotives, which should be more carefully considered in a more
focused study.

Overcoming Demotivation

To better understand how students (in Group 2 & Group 3) had overcome
demotivation, they were compared and contrasted and the reasons provided

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were classified into two groups: internal factors and external factors. Most of
the factors that helped the students in Group 2 overcome their demotivation
(see Table 5a, 5b) concerned internal factors (71%) rather than external
factors (29%). Five internal factors that significantly contributed to students’
overcoming demotivation were: an awareness of the importance of English
(27%), personal reasons (16%), self-improvement (12%), self-determination
(12%), and positive attitudes towards English (4%). These responses suggest
that by keeping the importance of the role of English in mind, students were
encouraged to try to learn more, and importantly, had a good reason to try to
overcome their demotivation. External factors included positive changes in
teacher behavior (6%), teaching method (7%), learning conditions (9%), and
external encouragement (7%). These students cited 121 instances of re-
motivating encounters, which meant that each student had needed on average
2.57 motives to regain their interest in learning.

TABLE 5a
Reasons for Overcoming Demotivation – Group 2

Internal factors
Category N Percentage
Self-improvement 14
- get progress and like English more 8 12%
- have better learning method, well-arranged time schedule 6
Attitudes towards English 5
- like English itself 2
4%
- like to understand multi-cultural aspects of English speaking 3
countries
Personal reasons 19
- don’t want to feel inferior because close friend is better at 2
English
- want to discuss with boyfriend in English 1
- want to help father in studying English documents 1 16%
- code-switching 1
- like to translate English idioms, songs into Vietnamese 2
- like English football teams, English songs, funny stories 9
- like to be able to understand world news on TV, internet 3
Awareness of the importance of English 33 27%
Self-determination 15 12%
Subtotal 86 71%

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Demotivation: Understanding Resistance to English Language Learning

TABLE 5b
Reasons for Overcoming Demotivation – Group 2

External factors
Category N Percentage
Teacher behavior 7
- more enthusiastic, devoted, caring 6 6%
- proper criticism 1
Teaching method 9
7%
- better and more effective teaching method 9
Learning conditions 10
- proper class size 2
9%
- availability of learning facilities 6
- more opportunities to contact to foreigners in class 2
External encouragement 9
- friends’ encouragement 3
- teachers’ praises 1 7%
- teacher support and encouragement 3
- family encouragement 2
Subtotal 35 29%
Total 121 100%

The students in Group 3 indicated 22 re-motive encounters (see Table 6),

which meant that each of them only benefited from about one motive.

TABLE 6
Reasons for Overcoming Demotivation – Group
Category N Percentage
Internal factors
Attitudes towards English 2 9%
- like to communicate in English 2
Personal reasons 2 9%
- like English songs 2
Awareness of the importance of English 14 64%
Subtotal 18 82%
External factors
Teacher behavior 1 4%
- more enthusiastic 1
Teaching method 3 14%
- better and more effective teaching method 3
Subtotal 4 18%
Total 22 100%

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Thus, students in Group 2 and Group 3 differed in terms of the number of

motives (i.e. 2.57 vs 1.1) that had helped them recover their interest in learn-
ing, and it can be concluded that the more motives students have, the more
possibilities they have to completely overcome demotivation. With regard to
types of motives, in direct contrast to demotivating factors, internal factors
were seen to have greater effect on students in both groups than external
factors, and students’ awareness of the importance of English was the motive
that was the most salient. The most practical benefit that students supposed
they could get from having a good English proficiency was that they would
have a better opportunity to get a good job. This was, indeed, very important
in motivating students as well as in helping them to recover their motivation.
Importantly, among internal factors, the self-improvement factor and the self-
determination factor were found only in Group 2 students. That is, students’
self-determination pushed them to study harder and get better results, thus
increasing the feeling of being motivated and being more likely to overcome
demotivation absolutely. Moreover, students’ awareness of the importance of
English was the principle reason that set up and maintained their self-
determination. It is, therefore, reasonable to suggest that student self-
determination in overcoming demotivation is an important factor to foster.
Students’ perspectives on solutions to overcome demotivation were also
gained from students’ responses to the essay prompts: “In your opinion, what
are some possible solutions to minimize demotivation?” There were 26
strategies suggested by 57 students to help overcome demotivation. Apart
from emphasizing the responsibilities of students to overcome their own
demotivation, the respondents also placed more emphasis on the responsibil-
ities of teachers. In particular, they posited that teachers have a greater impact
on learners during the learning process than others.

FURTHER DISCUSSION AND RECOMENDATIONS

Given the large proportion of students in the sample who admitted having
experienced demotivation, it is clear that not only does the phenomenon of

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demotivation exist in EFL learning in Vietnam but is also a serious problem.

Despite strong extrinsic motivation, for some students demotivation had a
very strong impact that destroyed their interest in learning English, whereas
for others, demotivation decreased their interest in learning English. In all
cases, it was evident that demotivation had a negative impact on students,
preventing them from gaining expected learning outcomes. These results
suggest that the demotivation is a significant language problem that needs to
be specifically addressed in FL learning.
One of the findings of the study that is consistent with the general results
reported in previous studies is that the largest source of demotives was
related to teachers. Teachers were found to have a strong impact on students’
demotivation or motivation to learn. Furthermore, it is teachers who, if they
are aware of the demotivation phenomenon, are best placed to deal with it
effectively.
Within the four demotive categories related to teachers, teaching methods
provided the largest source of demotives. The majority of the student
participants admitted having suffered from some negative aspects of teaching
methods, raising the need to reconsider the teaching methods that have been
used to teach English (or other foreign languages) in order to understand
possible mismatches between teaching methods and preferred student
learning styles. However devoted the teacher is, teaching and learning may
not be effective if teaching methods do not match student learning styles.
While teachers can not cater for all student needs, surveying students’
expectations of teachers and satisfaction with methodology in tertiary courses
can make teaching more effective and more closely aligned with students’
needs. Appropriate teacher classroom behavior also needs attention because
negative behaviors usually hurt students, leaving them with negative feelings
toward English that are difficult to overcome.
Another important finding is that many students were demotivated because
of inadequate background knowledge of English. School and university
syllabi set progressive standards for subsequent classes that students were
supposed to have met, and teachers in subsequent classes kept these in mind

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when preparing lessons. Therefore, the large number of students who failed
to make adequate progress in their previous classes found themselves with
gaps in their knowledge, were not capable of dealing with current lessons,
and felt demotivated. The data suggests several possible reasons for this
related to students, teachers and curriculum. First, some students were not
motivated to work hard and failed to develop adequate background know-
ledge. Second, as we have already shown, demotivating teacher behaviors
contributed to students’ lack of progress. And third, different educational
settings may apply different standards of teaching, resulting in different
levels of knowledge for students entering universities. This indicates the need
for a more consistent curriculum for students below the tertiary level, and
programs of remedial assistance to help weaker students to overcome their
demotivation by helping them to develop the skills needed to continue on
with more advanced work.
In particular, students’ awareness of the importance of English was the
most frequent motive that helped them to overcome demotivation and recover
their interest in learning. Thus, the data supports the argument that the special
status of English as an international language, and its importance to
economics students in this study play a very important role in motivating
students as well as in helping them to recover their motivation, with most of
the students who had absolutely overcome demotivation or who had
overcome demotivation for some period of time having used this as a re-
motivating factor. Nevertheless, an awareness of the importance of English
alone was not enough to help students to overcome demotivation absolutely.
Students were more likely to completely overcome demotivation if their
awareness of the importance of English triggered their self-determination to
learn English, making them more autonomous and independent of affective
factors. In this respect, teachers need to support this effective internal strategy
in order to help students set up and maintain their self-determination by
making clear the practical benefits of learning English. The study also
suggests that teachers need to include other motivational techniques in their
classes as the extent to which students could overcome their demotivation

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was greatly affected by (i) the number of motives they experienced and (ii)
their degree of self-determination.
This study suggests that student demotivation – the loss of motivation due
to particular circumstances – is a major problem in foreign language learning
settings like Vietnam. While motivation strategies may help to avoid or
overcome demotivation, there are other causes of demotivation, particularly
extrinsic ones related to students, teachers and the curriculum, that also need
to be more explicitly addressed. Better teacher training and awareness, and
more appropriate curriculum and support would undoubtedly help to reduce
these extrinsic problems. However, further research into matters like the
match or mismatch between teaching styles and learning styles, or studies
designed to obtain information about the demotivation phenomenon at
different levels of education to consider age related variables need to be
undertaken.
Thus, for this group of FL students at least, extrinsic factors were the
principal causes of demotivation, while intrinsic factors were those that had
the most impact on remotivation. This suggests that changes in teaching and
curriculum practices have the potential to have greatest impact on increasing
students’ success in FL learning.

THE AUTHORS
Tran Thi Thu Trang is an English lecturer and officer in the Office for
Research management and International Relations – Hue College of
Economics, Vietnam. She got her MA degree at the University of
Queensland, Australia. Her research interests cover ESP and business
communication. Her forthcoming publications include A Critical Perspective
on Student Silence in the Classroom and The Involvement of Teachers in the
Student Demotivation Phenonenon (Teacher’s Edition).

Richard B. Baldauf Jr. (PhD Hawaii) is Associate Professor in TESOL at the

University of Queensland, Australia. His research interests include second

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language teaching, and language and language-in-education policy and

planning, particularly in the context of Asia and the Pacific. He is co-author
of Language Planning from Practice to Theory and Language and Language-
in-Education Planning in the Pacific Basin.

END NOTE

1. Students have to pass examinations to progress in their educational

studies and careers. Specifically, they have to take an English test as part of
their graduation examinations in secondary and upper secondary schools.
English is also a subject to be examined in the university entrance
examinations for many subject majors. A Certificate of English is also a job
requirement in a variety of fields.

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