Self-Positioning and Critical Thinking: Demotivated Students in English for Academic Purposes

With burgeoning attention to English for Academic Purposes (EAP), increasing emphasis has been placed on learners’ Critical Thinking (CT), their experiences of demotivation, and how these factors interact within EAP writing framework. At the same time, learners' self-positioning in the EAP context has emerged as a process variable influencing their academic engagement and writing development. This study employed Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) as the primary analytical tool, collecting questionnaire data from 473 Chinese university students to examine the relationship between CT and Demotivation. To enhance the scientific rigor of the findings, stimulated recall diaries were introduced as a triangulated data source and two student participants were invited to explore, through the lens of self-positioning, the mediating effects between CT and Demotivation. Findings from the quantitative analysis indicated that Misconceptions in CT exerted the strongest influence on demotivation, followed by Valuing CT (VCT), and lastly Confidence in CT (CCT). The qualitative results revealed that teachers exerted a strong mediating effect on learners’ CT cognition and subsequent writing demotivation trend. This study contributes pedagogical insights from a positive psychology perspective, offering EAP instructors a deeper understanding of how learners’ cognitive beliefs and emotional attitudes significantly shape their academic writing experiences.