Towards lessening learners' aversive emotions and promoting their mental health developing and validating a measurement of English speaking demotivation in the Chinese EFL context

Abstract

While a plethora of studies has been conducted to explore demotivation and its impact on mental health in second language (L2) education, scanty research focuses on demotivation in L2 speaking learning. Particularly, little research explores the measures to quantify L2 speaking demotivation. The present two-phase study attempts to develop and validate an English Speaking Demotivation Scale (ESDS). To this end, an independent sample of 207 Chinese tertiary learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) participated in the development phase, and another group of 188 Chinese EFL learners was recruited for the validation of the scale. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were employed to determine the factor structure of the scale. The EFA results revealed a six -factor solution with Teacher -related Factors in Learning Spoken English (TFLSE), Interest and Valence in Learning Spoken English (IVLSE), Self -efficacy in Learning Spoken English (SELSE), Negative Peer Influence in Learning Spoken English (NPILSE), Undesirable Environment for Learning Spoken English (UELSE), and Negative Influence of Assessment and Learning Materials in speaking class (NIALM). In the validation phase, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was performed to validate the internal structure of the scale. The CFA results showed that the model fits the data well. Overall, the ESDS is a robust and trustworthy psychometric tool that could be utilized to examine L2 speaking demotivation. Implications for diminishing EFL learners' demotivation, lessening their aversive emotions and promoting their mental health are also discussed.