bstractIn recent decades, academic work has examined motivationto learn English among speakers of foreign languages, reasons for demotivation that might exist among them, and strategies for motivating them; however, concrete strategies for avoiding demotivation among English asa foreignlanguage (EFL) students have not yet been considered in detail. To rectify this, the presentstudy addressesthe following question: Which strategies do EFL learners believe are more and less effective in preventing demotivation? The participants in this study were 336 Japanese high school students, each of whom completed41 questions on their beliefs regarding the effectiveness of various strategies for preventing demotivation on a six-point Likert-typescale. Factor analysis of responses identified five primary factors (teachers’sensitivity, students’ feelings, English usage, traditional teaching style, and goalorientation) in preventing demotivation