Exploring the Demotivating and Re-Motivating Factors among MA Students of TEFL at Wollega University, Ethiopia

Abstract

The present study explored the demotivating and re-motivating factors from the point of view of MA students at Wollega University. The study employed mixed method, and the quantitative data were gathered from 161 students, and to gather the qualitative data, six students were interviewed. SPSS 16 was employed to analyse the quantitative data. The qualitative data were analysed using NVivo. An explanatory factor analysis was conducted to revalidate the questionnaire and to explore the sampling adequacy and factorability of the items. Based on the result, nine demotivating factors were retained. As the result of independent t-tests revealed, there were no significant differences between male and female students and government and self-sponsor students regarding the demotivating factors. However, the one-way ANOVA revealed a statistically significant difference across respondents’ year of study for most of the factors except instructors’ characteristics and administrative decisions. The interviews were analysed to explore the possible re-motivating factors. Three major sub-themes (curriculum revision, improving facilities and improving administrative decisions) were emerged. It was concluded that curriculum decision is the most prevalent problem for MA in TEFL students. To solve this problem, the researchers recommended the need for MA in TEFL curriculum.