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Differences in Demotivation Between Chinese and Korean English Teachers: A Mixed-Methods Study

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Abstract

This mixed-methods study investigates the differences in demotivation between Chinese and Korean English teachers. A questionnaire on demotivation was conducted on 58 Chinese and 94 Korean in-service teachers to find out the dominant factors in teacher demotivation. Follow-up interviews with teachers were conducted to explore the reasons as to why teachers found the salient factors to be demotivating. The results indicated that the number of students per English classroom was the detrimental factor for both Chinese and Korean teachers. Moreover, the only factor that Chinese teachers perceived to be more demotivating than Korean teachers was the excessive interference or expectations of school parents. For Korean teachers, large amounts of administrative tasks and students’ lack of interest in English were found to be the most detrimental factors. From the findings of this study, practical implications as well as research suggestions are provided.

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Notes

  1. In this paper, L2 is interchangeably used as referring to both second and foreign languages.

  2. Snowball sampling is identified as “a few people who meet the criteria of the particular study and then asks these participants to identify further members of the population” (Dörnyei 2010, p. 61).

  3. The class size in both countries is larger than the OECD average, which is 21 in elementary schools and 23 in junior high schools. In the average numbers of students, the numbers in decimal point were rounded up.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of English Education, College of Education, Chung-Ang University, 221 Heukseok-dong, Dongjak-gu, Seoul, 156-756, South Korea

    Tae-Young Kim, Yoon-Kyoung Kim & Qian-Mei Zhang

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  1. Tae-Young Kim
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  2. Yoon-Kyoung Kim
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  3. Qian-Mei Zhang
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Correspondence to Tae-Young Kim.

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Kim, TY., Kim, YK. & Zhang, QM. Differences in Demotivation Between Chinese and Korean English Teachers: A Mixed-Methods Study. Asia-Pacific Edu Res 23, 299–310 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-013-0105-x

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