Exploring Factors Demotivating EFL Students in Reading Skills

Abstract

Language educators have been investigated a number of methods to motivate learners for language enhancement. Motivation is key to keep language learners engaged in any language classrooms, but the opposite side of motivation have not been fully examined to avoid losing learners’ interest especially in learning reading. The study aims to explore major demotivating factors in learning reading through EFL learners’ perceptions. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed to gain insight into learners’ perceptions of the motivating factors. The study examined 121 EFL students by using a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire. The results indicated that demotivating factors were not perceived very high although negative feedback and the influence of themselves while learning reading were most considerable. From this finding, suggestions were drawn for both language learners and teachers as they should pay more attention to these demotivating factors to help students learn reading better as well as find best solutions to minimize the effects on those factors.