Understanding L2 Demotivation Among Chinese Tertiary EFL Learners From an Activity Theory Perspective

This study reports on the results of a qualitative inquiry on second language (L2) demotivation among 14 Chinese EFL learners from the perspective of Activity Theory. Semi-structured interviews were applied to collect data. Through the qualitative content analysis approach, this study found that L2 demotivation prevailed among the participants, influenced by an array of mediational factors including subject-mediated, rule-mediated, community-mediated, tool-mediated, and labour-of-division-mediated factors. The findings imply that L2 demotivation results from the contradictory relationship among the above mentioned factors in the activity system and is a socially mediational construct. The findings shed light on the formulating mechanism of L2 demotivation and provide insightful implications for overcoming the detrimental effect of demotivation in the Chinese EFL context and beyond.