The High incidence of the didactic act on demotivation in learning English as acknowledged by teachers and students

Abstract

Demotivation in learning English among vocational school students (grades 10 and 11) at Nuestra Señora de Fátima High School (Onzaga, Santander, Colombia) led us to undertake this research study. Its goal was to assess the incidence of the didactic act on this problem as well as to develop a plan of teaching strategies aimed at fostering motivation to learn English, using new ICT tools. The plan intended to improve the education quality and motivation at the vocational high school level. A mixed methodology was used in this research study, which was based on a socio-educational model. The techniques used included observation, document analysis and interviews (both semi-structured and structured). The instruments administered were a questionnaire, a survey and a Likert scale. The selection of the samples involved the use of simple probability random sampling. The results confirmed the proposed hypothesis that the didactic act has a high incidence on demotivation in learning English as acknowledged by teachers and students. The conclusion highlights the existence of a cold didactic relation, poor communication and misinterpretation of the remaining characteristics of the didactic act.

Keywords

• didactics of english
• information and communication technologies (ict)
• significant learning
• didactic action
• demotivation / motivation