Demotivation in Second Language Acquisition

Keita Kikuchi is currently an associate professor at Kanagawa University. He obtained an MA in ESL from the University of Hawai'i at Manoa and an EdD in TESOL from Temple University. His research interests include curriculum development and second language acquisition, especially individual differences. He has been working in this field for 10 years.

Keita Kikuchi is currently an associate professor at Kanagawa University. He obtained an MA in ESL from the University of Hawai'i at Manoa and an EdD in TESOL from Temple University. His research interests include curriculum development, educational psychology and second language acquisition, especially individual differences. He has been working in this field for over 10 years.

This is the first book that focuses exclusively on demotivation and demotivators in instructed language learning. By examining the psychology of learner motivation from the opposite direction and focusing on why learners lose engagement in learning, it helps us gain deeper insights into motivation. This is a must-read book for teachers, who face the formidable task of keeping learners motivated.

Kay Irie, Gakushuin University, Japan:

This is an ambitious and timely exploration into the neglected issue of demotivation. Demotivation has been a pervasive problem for language teachers yet largely ignored by researchers until relatively recently. Through a series of carefully designed studies of learners studying English as a foreign language in Japanese schools, Kikuchi convincingly argues for demotivation and demotivators as the legitimate target of inquiry that expands the breadth of L2 research.