The influence of teacher motivation on the use of motivational teaching strategies in English as a Foreign Language classrooms

Abstract

Considering that one of the factors that affect the use of different motivational teaching strategies to motivate language learners is the motivation of the teacher, the purpose of this research is to examine how teacher motivation influences the use of strategic teaching decisions in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms. This study is based on the theoretical proposals of Deci and Ryan (2000; 2020) on motivation through intrinsic and extrinsic concepts; Dörnyei and Ushioda (2011), Czikszentmihalyi (2014) and Dinham and Scott (2000) on the study and classification of the main aspects of teacher motivation; and Dörnyei (2001) on the common motivational strategies used in language classrooms. The collection of data was based on a questionnaire answered by twelve English teachers from different teaching contexts and the analysis followed a qualitative and interpretative perspective. The responses showed that most participants are intrinsically motivated to teach English. However, there is also the presence of individuals that state being extrinsically motivated to teach the language. Considering the demotivational aspects, teachers are mainly demotivated by factors extrinsic to the act of teaching. They mentioned the motivational strategies they use when teaching and stated that they face difficulties while implementing them. Then, participants commented on whether their level of motivation to teach English influences how they use motivational teaching strategies in ESL classrooms.