From: Marie-José Guilloteaux <mariegnu.ac.kr>
Subject: Motivating Language Learners: A classroom-oriented investigation of teachers' motivational practices and students' motivation
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Institution: University of Nottingham
Program: School of English Studies
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2007
Author: Marie-Jose Michelle Guilloteaux
Dissertation Title: Motivating Language Learners: A classroom-oriented investigation of teachers' motivational practices and students' motivation
Dissertation URL: http://etheses.nottingham.ac.uk/archive/00000271/
Subject Language(s): English (eng)
The teacher's use of motivational strategies is generally believed to
enhance student motivation, yet there is scant empirical evidence to
support this claim. This classroom-oriented investigation focused on how
the motivational practices of EFL teachers in South Korea related to
students' L2 motivation and motivated classroom behavior. In a first phase,
the motivation of over 1,300 students was measured by a self-report
questionnaire, and the use of motivational strategies by 27 teachers in 20
different schools was examined with a classroom observation instrument
specifically developed for this investigation, the Motivation Orientation
of Language Teaching (MOLT). The MOLT scheme, along with a post hoc rating
scale completed by the observer, was used to assess the teachers' use of
motivational strategies. The MOLT follows the real-time coding principle of
Spada and Fröhlich's (1995) Communication Orientation of Language Teaching
(COLT) scheme, but uses categories of observable teacher behaviors derived
from Dörnyei's (2001) motivational strategies framework for foreign
language classrooms. The results indicate that the language teachers'
motivational practice is directly linked to increased levels of the
learners' motivated learning behavior and their motivational state. In a
second phase, three high- and three low-motivation learner groups (selected
from the initial sample) were compared in order to uncover the students'
interpretations and understandings of the quality of their L2 instructional
contexts in relation to their motivation and motivated classroom behavior.
Results based on quantitative and qualitative datan (which were obtained
using three new instruments specifically designed for this study) indicated
that the motivational practices coexisting with different levels of
motivation were woven into the contents and processes of L2 instruction and
instruction in general. These contents and processes seemed to stem from
teachers' and students' beliefs about what counts as learning in the L2
classroom and what is the best way to learn an L2.
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