On Students’ De-Motivation, Gender, Major, and Educational Level in Iranian EFL Context

The present study investigated de-motivation among Iranian secondary high school and university students with respect to gender, major, and level of education and explored students’ experiences in overcoming de-motivation. Data were gathered from 485 participants who comprised 215 male and 270 female. A 35 Likert type item de-motivation questionnaire developed by Sakai and Kikuchi (2009) was administered. Based on factor analysis, five de-motivating factors were identified- Learning Contents and Materials, Teachers’ Competence and Teaching Styles, Inadequate School Facilities, Lack of Intrinsic Motivation, and Test Scores. To analyse the collected data Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis Test were employed. The results indicated that students’ gender and major were influential elements for their motivation, but educational level did not influence students’ motivation and also ‘Importance of English’ was the prominent reason for overcoming de-motivation.