Demotivation: The Unseen Side of Vocational High School Students’ Motivation in Learning English

This descriptive qualitative study aimed to investigate the demotivating factors experienced by vocational high school students in learning English. Nineteen students of Department of Graphic Production students of SMKN 4 Malang were involved as research participants. The findings revealed that the students experienced both internal and external demotivation. External demotivation was more dominant compared to internal demotivation. External demotivation fell into four themes—i.e., teacher’s behaviour and competence, teacher’s teaching method, learning environment, and the materials of English lesson; while internal demotivation fell into three themes—i.e., students’ attitude toward English, students’ experience of failure, and students’ self-esteem. It is suggested that teacher should improve their awareness of this phenomenon and expected that proper treatment from the teacher can minimize students’ demotivation in learning English.