Demotivating Factors Affecting EFL Learning of Saudi Undergraduate Students

Abstract

Demotivation is a research area which has recently been the focus of many research works in language learning field. In Saudi context, there is lack of reserach that investigated demotivating factors affecting learning English among Saudi undergraduate students. Therefore, this study aims at investigating the factors affecting English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learning of Saudi undergraduate students. A questionnaire adopted from Sakai and Kikuchi (2009) was used to obtain the data. The questionnaire consists of 35 close-ended items on a 5-point Likert scale on six factors of demotivation: characteristics of classes, teacher’s behavior, course contents and teaching materials, effects of low test scores, classroom environment, and lack of selfconfidence and interest. The sample of this study involved 101 undergraduate students from three faculties studying at King Khalid University, Saudi Arabia; these faculties are: Languages and Translation, Sharia, and Humanities. Descriptive statisticsand T-test were used to anlayze the data collected in the present study. The findings reveal that characteristics of classes was the most demotivating factors affecting EFL learning of Saudi undergraduate students. The findings of this study provide pedagogical implications on the teaching and learning of English in Saudi Arabia.