jurnal

TEACHER’S PERCEIVED CHARACTERISTICS AND PREFERENCES OF MOTIVATIONAL STRATEGIES IN THE LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

BY WINDA HAPSARI

A.    INTRODUCTION

1.      Background research (abstract)

Motivated language teachers play a crucial role in building and developing student’s motivation in the classroom. This study aims to investigate teacher’s motivational strategies in relation to their characteristics and preferences in Indonesian context of EFL instruction, which is an area that receives scant attention with regard to empirical research. The empirical data were collected through survey questionnaires and interviews. Twenty-eight active teachers volunteered to participate in the present study. Findings show that most of these English teachers perceive themselves as enthusiastic facilitators as they explore a variety of ways to motivate students in the classroom. The majority of participants prefer assigning various learning activities or tasks in order to energize a learning environment. By doing so, teachers can draw student’s attention and get them engaged in the classroom. The teachers also integrate teaching materials with engaging pedagogical techniques that involve student interaction and movement.

2.      Keywords

Motivation, language learning, motivational strategies, teacher’s preferences.

B.     DISCUSSION

There is a dearth of empirical evidence showing how teachers perceive themselves as motivated individuals as well as type(s) of motivational strategies preferred regarding the way to create an engaging learning environment. This awaits further investigation. To fill this need the present study seeks to:

1.      Examine how teachers perceive themselves regarding their efforts to motivate students in the language classroom.

2.      Investigate teacher’s preference of motivational strategies used.

Renandya (2013) proposes 5 Ts of motivation comprising teacher and four types of motivational strategies as aspects to work on in order to give impact on learner’s motivation in class, including:

1.      Teaching methods

A teacher who uses a variety of teaching methods, customized to the individuals needs of the learners will be more successful in engaging them towards achieving the L2 learning targets.

2.      Tasks

Spaulding (in Wu, 2003) proposed a balance between challenging tasks and easy tasks which is one effective way to improve learner’s self confidence.

3.      Texts

      Both oral and written instructional texts or materials used as classroom materials should be interesting and relevant to the learners. These texts should build student’s interests in learning English, and make use of these materials as a starting point for learning more materials. Also, the materials should create real-life situations where the students engage in their daily social encounters.

4.      Tests

Tests that serve as a learning tool help learners to see their progress in a non-threatening manner. Such tests can drive learners to work harder to achieve their learning goals by focusing more on assessment for learning than assessment of learning. The former is more informative and learning friendly than the latter.

            The second part and concept to be discussed in here is about motivated teachers and their perceptions. Some characteristics of motivated teachers are: enthusiastic, resourceful, creative, and strict.

1.      Teacher enthusiasm

A strong excitement of feeling. Enthusiastic teachers as the ones who love their subject matter and who show their dedication and their passion that there is nothing else on earth they would rather be doing

2.      Resourceful

The state of being available for everything needed, being able to meet any situations.

3.      Creative

The ability to change something usual into unusual or innovative. A creative teacher is able to manipulate common or usual teaching materials, techniques, or methods into innovative one which are interesting for learners.

4.      Strict

Strict seems to give negative perceptions of motivation. Strict teachers will set up clear classroom rules and structure. They will make sure their learners stay intact with the lesson by giving regular tests, review, or (home) assessments.

C.    METHOD

The participants for this study were recruited based on two main criteria:

a.       They are active instructors both part-time and full-time.

b.      They have maintained the minimal score of 4000 for the TQQ during the past 1,5 years.

The instruments used in this study were:

1.      Teaching Quality Questionnaire (TQQ)

An institutional measure of monitoring and evaluating teacher’s teaching quality based on student’s perceptions.

There are 15 teaching variables measured:

·         Using easy-to-understand English

·         Conveying the objective of the lesson

·         Assessing student’s achievement on the lesson taught

·         Giving students sufficient time to answer oral questions

·         Conducting at least four different classroom activities

·         Explaining new lessons in a way which is easy to understand

·         Providing activities to facilitate student interaction

·         Providing activities for real-life use

·         Giving student feedback, such as comments, corrections, etc

·         Grading the activities systematically

·         Reviewing the previous lesson

·         Motivating students to be active during the class

·         Using teaching aids, such as pictures, cue cards, reality, etc

·         Promoting student’s use of English

·         Applying Bloom’s taxonomy when asking students questions

2.      Teacher’s Characteristic and Preference Questionnaire (TCPQ)

A tool to see a teacher’s perceived characteristics regarding motivating behaviors and practices as well as their preferences for using particular motivational strategies.

There are two variables measured:

·         Teacher’s perception of him/herself: enthusiastic, resourceful, creative, and strict

·         Teacher’s motivational strategies that include teaching methods, tasks, texts (materials), and tests

D.    CONCLUSION

There is no doubt that motivation is an essential psychological aspect in learning generally, and specially in language learning (SL or FL). Teachers as the key agents in classroom have the power to demonstrate motivational behaviors as well as to apply motivational strategies to create an engaging learning environment. This study gives further supporting evidence that motivated teachers associate themselves differently with personal characteristics of being motivating. They also show how preferences for the type of motivational strategies used. Finding of the present study provide some implications for teacher’s second and foreign language instruction. Despite the limitation of the present study for not measuring learner’s motivated behavior and that this is developed in a context-specific fashion (LIA teachers), these limitations of the study call for follow-up studies. Future studies can be situated within a broader context (e.g., recruiting formal school teachers as participants, or using more comprehensive methods either or both quantitative and qualitative approaches). Ethnographic observation studies may be used to explore the actual practices of both student’s and teacher’s motivational strategies in language classrooms.