Demotivating Factors in an Iranian Private Language Institute: Do teachers and Students Think the Same?

Abstract

The main focus of this study was to investigate to what extent Iranian intermediate EFL learners were motivated to learn English. Besides, an attempt was made to find the differences between teachers and learners in terms of their perceptions of demotivation sources and the strategies used to reduce them. To that end, some two hundred Intermediate English learners doing their BA's in different fields, one hundred experienced EFL teachers with at least three years of experience, and 80 novice EFL teacher with less than three years of experience were asked to participate in the survey and share their perceptions of demotivation sources as well as strategies to reduce demotivation. For this survey study, a quantitative approach was adopted. The results revealed that all the motivational constructs of Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) considerably decreased as the EFL learners were preceding along the course. Furthermore, Demotivation Sources Questionnaire (DSQ) and Demotivation Reduction Strategies Questionnaire (DRSQ) were distributed among the chosen participants, and one-Way ANOVA was run to examine any statistically significant difference between the three groups of participants' perceptions or priorities of two constructs. The findings revealed that there was no remarkable difference between the perceptions and priorities of three groups. The study concluded with several suggestions for language teachers and