Wake Up Your Students to Learn : Causes of Demotivation, and Motivational Strategies in Teaching English as a Foreign Language

This study aimed at investigating the causes of demotivation among university students who study English language as a university requirement in Saudi Arabia, and to propose a motivational strategy according to the results.we hypothesized that; pedagogical, social, cultural and economic factors may have caused the problem. A stratified random sample is chosen from the entire population (the Saudi female -students at university level). 100 students from Taif university were subjected to the administration of the questionnaire which is designed to test the four major types of motivation (intrinsic,integrative and instrumental). Results show that the respondents are intrinsically, extrinsically and integeratively demotivated whereas, positive results are obtained on the instrumental type of motivation, which indicates a badly need for a motivational strategy. we suggested and adapted version of Dornyi's strategy. Teachers and instructors of English can make a great benefit from our experience in Saudi as it is all done in our university campus (2014) and can be applied worldwide.