English Learners’ and Teachers’ Preferred Strategies to Prevent Demotivation

This study aimed at investigating learners’ and teachers’ perception of language learning demotivation and their suggested strategies for preventing it. Participants of the study included 36 female and 24 male EFL learners in the 15-18 age range and 19 female and 11 male EFL teachers in the 25-50 age range. Their anti-demotivation strategies were sought by using a 40- item Likert type questionnaire in learners’ and teacher’ versions, with Cronbach’s alphas of .949 and .913, respectively. The results were analyzed and inferences were made. They indicated that both teachers and learners believed that “creating relaxing and stress free environment” and “setting goals” are the most effective ways to prevent demotivation. “Showing enthusiasm for teaching” was also regarded as effective as the above mentioned strategies. Although teachers and students had similar suggestions regarding the most effective strategies to fight demotivation, statistical analysis indicated that they were significantly different from each other when all their preferred strategies were juxtaposed and compared in one bulk. Taking the results of this study into account can help teachers be as closely aligned with learners as their practical wisdom guides them or favors their own preferences as their discretion and tact allow.