A re-examination of demotivation factors of Japanese Language major students in China

The aim of this research is to re-exam the demotivation factors of Chinese students majoring in Japanese Language. From July to December 2014, a semi-structured interview with nine Japanese Language students was conducted and from these interviews, 81 demotivation factors were extracted by using M-GTA analysis. As a result, a questionnaire consisting of 35 items was used as the next step of the research. In June 2016, a pilot study was conducted with 36 Japanese major learners from a university in Gansu province, China. The items of the questionnaire were revised based on the results of the pilot study. From September 2016 to April 2017, the questionnaire was conducted during Japanese classes. The 283 respondents were from three universities located in Shanghai, Hunan province and Liaoning province respectively. Factor analysis was carried out on the data collected through the Likert scale questionnaire. As a result, a five-factor structure was assumed. The five factors are 1. Lack of intrinsic motivation and learning ability 2. The difficulty of Japanese language 3. Lack of Japanese proficiency and sense of accomplishment 4. Dissatisfaction with the teacher, and 5. Problems with the choice of major