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The Road to Inspiration: Teacher Motivation from a Pragmatic, Psychological, and
International Perspective
Douglas Cronyn
San Francisco State University
“Broadly speaking, if a teacher is motivated to teach, there is a good chance that his or
her students will be motivated to learn” (Hastings, 2012, p. 67)
While there has been considerable research around the motivation of L2 learners
and that of teachers in general, much less research has been dedicated to that of ESL/EFL
teacher motivation (Hastings, 2012), (Watt and Richardson, 2008), (Dornyei and Ushioda,
2011) . Yet, it seems critical that we have a better understanding of this issue so that we
may develop the theoretical and practical means to better combat teacher amotivation and
potential burnout that exists “at every level of education in most countries” (Dorneyi and
Ushioda, 2011, p. 169). This has been a significant challenge in traditional teacher settings,
to which ESL/EFL teachers are not immune. (Hastings, 2012, p. 66)
In analyzing teacher motivation, it is important to further understand the
constructs that encourage teacher and student performance. Many researchers agree about
the significance of these dual issues, the interplay of teacher and student motivation
(Dorneyi and Ushioda, 2009) (Hastings, 2012). This paper will be discussing this important
symbiotic relationship as well as some of the national and international perspectives on
teacher motivation in the ESL/EFL world , delving in to some of the affective and job
characteristic theories around teacher motivation, and the inherent and structural
problems affecting teacher motivation, as well as potential solutions and places of success..
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it is the hope that all of the stakeholders in the ESL/EFL community, including
teachers, students, managers, and policy makers, can greater understand the various facets
of ESL/EFL teaching which can motivate teachers to be more competent and engaged in
their profession, making the ESL/EFL classroom a place where teachers are excited to
teach and learners are excited to learn, but understanding the real but surmountable
obstacles to this ideal.
Motivation Defined in the Teacher Context
Dorneyi clearly defines motivation as “the choice of a particular action, the
persistence with it, and the effort expended on it…Motivation is responsible for why people
decide to do something, how long they are willing to sustain the activity, and how hard they
are going to pursue it” (Celce-Murcia, Brinton, & Snow, 2014, p. 519). There are significant
intersections of terms and behaviors for student and teacher motivation, including: an
interest of the others’ culture, the need for autonomy and feedback, a commitment to the
job at hand, goal orientation, relating in a relaxed manner, etc. (Dorneyi and Csizer, 1998).
Much has been written about student motivation (Dornyei, 1998, 2003, 2009, 2011) as well
as teachers in traditional settings, but not enough has been dedicated to teacher motivation
in the ESL/EFL setting (Hastings, 2012).
Teaching is a unique profession in the interactional and cultural elements inherently
present within it, perhaps especially so in ESL/EFL. “Teaching has long been a profession
noted more for its inherent satisfactions than for its satisfaction of material wants and
needs…for the satisfaction inherent in the importance of the task in teaching their
specialist subject and in the pleasure that working with pupils for the most part affords”
(Pennington, 1992, p. 199). But, in the international arena, these intrinsic motivations can
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be eclipsed by the adventure of teaching in a foreign country for ELT travelling to other
countries to teach, including “travel opportunities, interaction with people from other
cultures and teaching creatively” (Shoaib in Hastings, 2012, p. 66). It is this international
context which shall be most closely examined in this paper, the pitfalls and solutions
present in countries where English is not the native language, specifically in Slovakia, Saudi
Arabia, Poland and Japan. But, also, general guidelines for what constitutes a good job, and
specifically a good ESL job, profession, and career will be considered, including
professional development as a necessary and important part of teacher motivation and
professional identity.
Job Characteristics Theory
To understand teacher motivation, it is important to initially address some
commonalities that can lead to “job satisfaction” in ESL/EFL. This involves not only the
specific job sites, but also overarching controversies in the profession around who should
be allowed to teach, who is qualified to teacher, and ultimately, how this serves to motivate
teachers. Pennington begins to address this issue through constructing a Job
Characteristics Theory, which she applied to the ESL/EFL profession. Of central import in
this schema of a qualified and motivated work place are the types of relationships at the
ESL/EFL job site; job and tasks being interesting and significant; feedback in this process
being very important, but necessarily teacher managed and designed, two way, reflective,
collective in nature. “Self-feedback and lateral, two way feedback is high in motivational
potential” (Pennington, 1995, p. 150) Interestingly, Pennington sees feedback as most
significant when coming from students, stating “as feedback becomes less direct—that is,
comes from sources other than students—its influence on teacher motivation and
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commitment become less clear” (Pennington, 1992, p. 204) Also, Pennington sees
employee-centered, rather than employer-centered, work sites being more motivating for
teachers. Pennington published a useful chart of “Contrasting work characteristics” to
better understand the generalized characteristics of employer-centered versus employee-
centered job sites. This chart, which visually advocates for the “Employee-centered: high
motivation, commitment, achievement” ESL/EFL job site has been attached as Appendix E
of this paper. Teachers, directors, and theoreticians can use this chart to easily consider
some of the most important considerations for a highly motivated job site.
But, in addressing these central issues of job satisfaction and motivation,
Pennington importantly narrows the focus to ESL teaching within her discourse. Much of
this discourse centers upon the significant clarification of whether ESL can be considered a
career, a designation that Pennington places squarely at the center of her arguments on
teacher motivation, as do others studying teacher motivation (Johnston, 1997) (Tucker,
2011) (Hastings, 2012b). “Among the negative influences on teacher motivation that
systematically undermine and erode the intrinsic character of teacher motivation are
stress, a lack of autonomy in the classroom, a sense of efficacy, and a career structure
providing opportunities for professional development and advancement.” (Hastings,
2012a, p. 65) To these researchers, the commitment, respect, and status of the ESL/EFL
profession depends on seeing ESL/EFL as a lifelong career done full time, of central import
to the practitioner in their identity as competent ESL/EFL teachers
Unfortunately, there is a persistent lacking within and outside of the ESL/EFL world
of the perception of ESL/EFL being a profession, many seeing the teaching of English a
temporary vocation or a job, not a career (Johnston, 1997) (Kubaniyova, 2012). Without
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this identification as career, there is little motivation to improve one’s craft through such
activities as professional development. “Everyone who works in ESL can take a major step
towards improving the professional image of the field by insisting that those without the
proper qualification are not in fact properly qualified to teach ESL, nor to evaluate the
efforts of it practitioners” (Pennington, 1995, p. 160) But, the alternative situation is far
too prevalent in ESL and EFL settings, especially the latter. “Part-time positions must be the
exception, not the rule, if ESL is to lay claim to the title of profession…a real commitment to
a field, to building a profession, is shown by a long-term, full-time association with that
field as the primary focus of work…” (Pennington, 1995, p. 161).
Kubaniyova (2012) noted in her study of Slovakian EFL teachers the shared
characteristic of teachers either falling in to the profession, seeing it as a part-time
profession, and not identifying as an ESL teacher. Unfortunately, within much of ESL/EFL,
there seems to exist a vicious cycle of low pay and status leading to a lack of long term
commitment, encouraging a lack in Pennington’s definition of professional attitudes toward
the profession, each part of this cycle potentially feeding off of one another, though there
are notable exceptions to this as well. An interesting survey has been attached to this paper
at Appendix D with questions that Johnston asked to ELT and published in an article
entitled “Do ESL teachers have careers?” His study found that the Polish ELT surveyed ”in
describing their entry into the occupation of teaching, none of the teachers spoke in terms
of a vocation or claimed that it was their first choice of occupation” (Johnston, 1997, p. 694)
Psychology and Teacher Motivation
Another important consideration in ESL/ESL teacher motivation is that of the
psychological aspect of the job, the burdens and necessary repairs teachers carry with
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them from this profession that can be taxing to the psyche. “Affective factors play a
significant role in teacher growth (Golombek & Johnson, 2004). Yet, the attention that this
dimension of teacher development has received is far from systematic” (Kubaniyova, 2011,
p. 315).
Research indicates that there are dual psychological issues that most affect teacher
motivation. The first has to do with the unfortunate stress that goes with teaching. “Surveys
typically reveal chronic stress at every level of education in most countries, which in turn
results in frequent ‘teacher burnout’” (Dorneyi and Ushioda, 2011, p. 169). In Japan,
Kumaza reported, “one in three teachers quit because of mental health issues” (Kumazawa,
2013, p. 48) He elaborated that “one of the unique features of the Japanese culture of
teaching is the extensive range of teachers’ professional roles and responsibilities,”(3013,
p. 47) to an excessive degree in his opinion. From the United Kingdom, there is the equally
distressing assessment that, “the mental health profile of U.K. school teachers appears
more comparable to that of individuals suffering medically diagnosed psychological
disorders” (Hastings, 2012, p. 65)
To further understand the implication of stress in inhibiting teacher motivation,
beyond the usual demands of the job outlined above and other factors such as the
increasingly rigid need to “teach to the test” found in many countries, it is important to re-
visit earlier critiques in this paper around the necessity for feedback in teacher motivation,
especially that of students (Pennington, 1995). Kumazawa saw the amotivation that can
come from excess negative responses from students, the devastating consequences for
teachers when their “ambitious goals met with harsh reality of secondary school teaching”
(2013, p. 50) Dorneyi similarly saw the important interdependence of student and teacher
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motivation, each feeding one off the other, critically entwined. In Saudi Arabia, Shoaib also
saw that “teaching students who lack motivation is one of the main sources of stress facing
teachers today” (Hastings, 2012, p. 43). It would appear from these studies that student-
teacher relations are far from what they could and need to be in many contexts, a dire
situation in a profession that values such interaction so highly. Dorneyi addressed this
student-teacher relationship from a student motivation context, but it could just as easily
be applied to teacher motivation. “Learning an L2 is different in many ways from learning
other school subjects. While an L2 is a ‘’learnable’ school subject in that discrete elements
of the communication code (e.g., grammatical rules and lexical items) can be taught
explicitly, it is also socially and culturally bound, which makes language learning a deeply
social event” (Dorneyi, 2003, p. 4).
Another important psychological affective theory involving teacher motivation is
that of Possible Selves Theory, devised by Hazel Markus and Paula Nurius. “Possible selves
represent individuals ideas of what they might become, what they would like to become,
and what they are afraid of becoming, and thus provide a conceptual link between
cognition and motivation” (Markus & Nurius, 1986, p. 954). People are governed by their
hopes and “ideal selves” they can become, or, contrarily, by their fears of what they might
or ought to become. Possible Selves Theory is also present in discourse about ESL/EFL
student motivation, the idea that teachers need to encourage students to conceive of the
possible selves that students can become as a result of their learning a second language, the
possibility of their inclusion in the English speaking community and culture by learning
English, the opportunities that can come from learning English (Dorneyi, 2003). For both
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students and teachers alike, the ability to visualize and actuate what they could and want to
become is critical to advancement, motivation.
Kubanyiova, in her study of Slovakian ESL teachers, also saw the significance of
Possible Selves Theory in teacher willingness to embrace professional development
Teachers need to implicate themselves in the process of becoming more skilled teachers,
experience a “dissonance” between what they are and can be (Kubanyiova, 2012). If the
gap is either too large or small, this can be a source of amotivation.
Kumazawa also discovered negative implications of the possible selves theory in his
studies of Japanese EFL teachers. But, he saw the barrier between their current and
future/possible selves in an externally “imposed ought to” self (2013, p. 51). The teachers
he studied made the terrible realization that their schooling did little to prepare them for
their life as a teacher, leading to the “critical perception that their identity goals were
hardly achievable in their immediate environment… discrepancies in their relational views
of current, ought-to, and ideal selves often acted as a serious demotivator, not a motivator.”
(2013, p. 51) He saw the pedagogical technique of Communicative Language Teaching
(CLT) as a central culprit in one of the Japanese teachers he studied. This non-traditional
approach to teaching where students are encouraged to talk more with one another was
not received well by their students, one of the teachers being studied stating, distressingly,
that “they (students) said they wanted to have the translations and copy them down in
their notebooks. They asked me to write English sentences on the board and add their
translations below. When I did it, they were so happy and said to me, just keep this style
forever” (ibid.). This realization came after the teacher was excited through her studies to
teach in this new and interesting manner, a departure from her own unsatisfying English
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education fueling her “strong determination not to reproduce another ‘legacy of the
negative past’ among her students” (ibid.) The disappointment of these beginning teachers
in Kuazawa’s study is palpable, though Kurazawa does suggest that the situation could have
been somewhat ameliorated by the teachers not being so affected by the approval of their
students or getting placed in an easier initial assignment, as well as his call for a “principle
of compassionate treatment of teachers” (Kumazawa, p.54)
While the possible selves theory has been the psychological idea most covered in
this paper relating to teacher motivation, another interesting competing theory, worthy of
future research, is that of self-determination theory. This theory primarily is interested in
the autonomy of the teacher. “Self-determination theory's account of human nature begins
with the assumption that humans are growth oriented, proactive, and inherently desirous
of autonomous, or self-determined…Goal theory, in contrast, is relatively mute on the issue
of human nature” (Deci, 1992, p. 170) The motivation in this theory is “sustained by
individuals’ need for competence, autonomy, and relatedness” (Hastings, 2012b, p. 71) This
theory could hold particular interest and import for ESL teachers, especially when
considering Pennington’s table in Appendix A of this paper comparing ESL practitioners,
elementary teachers, and laborers, where it is illuminated that supervision ranks relatively
lower for ESL than the other professions, while “moral values” hold the highest ranking for
them. (Pennington, 1995, p. 199)
Broadening the Context: An International and Traditional Teacher Perspective on
Teacher Motivation
A final context within which to examine teacher motivation, at least in this paper, is
that of the international context, both in ESL/EFL settings and traditional teacher settings.
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Specifically, how various countries around the world have proven successful at improving
teacher motivation, the national as well as international contexts that have allowed
teachers to thrive. Of particular note are how the United States compares unfavorably with
other countries internationally in incentivizing teaching by not having a career structure
for teachers and underpaying teachers (Tucker, 2011),; interesting ideas and conundrums
in identifying national structural ideas for ESL teachers in Saudi Arabia (Hastings, 2012a
and 2012b0); and, finally, understanding conflicting “outsider” qualitative and “insider”
quantitative studies in Japan (Kumazawa, 2013) (Tucker, 2011).
In broadening the context of ESL/EFL teacher motivation, an important place to
begin is in studying recent scholarship around teacher motivation in the non-EFL/ESL
setting, in traditional schools and subject matters, especially studies that internationalize
this critique. From these studies, it is possible to better appreciate how other countries are
professionalizing teaching, increasing motivation and results, and providing a career path
in teaching. One obvious way found in many countries to increase teacher motivation was
increasing teacher salaries, attracting the best practitioners who will be motivated not just
to enter, but also stay in, the profession, a departure from the destructive “permeability”
that is endemic to the EFL profession, where entry and exit to the profession are easy and
constant (Johnston, 1997).
When comparing the United States to other countries, attempting to understand the
drop in academic standards of the United States on the world stage, it was noted that the
United States pays more per pupil than other countries they were compared to in the
world, but this money was going toward buildings, not teacher salaries. The study also
found that “countries that prioritize teachers salaries over class size get better results. The
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United States has done just the opposite, prioritizing reduction of class size over teacher
salaries” (Tucker, 2011, p. 11) While this study did not look solely at ESL, this sort of
analysis must be heeded in that many ESL programs at the beginning stages are through
primary schools, which are implicated in this study. The study also allowed for an
international perspective perhaps lacking in debates around quality education in the
United States and how to attract and retain capable teachers. A close examination of similar
struggles in primary and ESL education on many fronts could illuminate possible areas for
improvement in the profession, including the recent moves to standardize outcomes.
Similarly, gazing abroad, it is useful to consider some of the recommendations for
specifically improving EFL and teacher motivation, from the job . In Saudi Arabia, Shoaib
made a useful chart for increasing teacher motivation on teacher, managerial, and
ministerial levels (Hastings, 2012a). From this chart, located in Appendix E of this paper, it
is possible to examine how these differing levels may interact with one another, the
responsibilities of each. It is also useful to see how these recommendations compare with
Pennington’s Job Characteristic model, the way that the localized may be actuated at
national levels. Shoaib’s chart can also be useful in visually illustrating possible career
paths for teachers becoming managers becoming ministers that has worked well in other
international settings (Tucker, 2011). As previously stated, this lack of a career path has
negatively impacted ESL/EFL motivation for teachers to stay in the profession.
But, Hastings’s work also is illuminating in its shedding light on the way that
national context and culture can play a significant role in teacher motivation, especially for
foreign teachers drawn to teach in Saudi Arabia for the number of jobs and reputation for
higher pay. Hastings painted an interesting yet bleak picture of the life that the foreigners
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usually have in Saudi Arabia, cut off from the foreign and restrictive Islamic culture, living
in compounds that “are essentially cultural enclaves, designed to provide foreigners with a
place where the rules of traditional Muslim culture do not have to be followed” (Hastings,
2012b, p. 1). The earlier referenced teacher motivation to visit, learn, and interact with
faraway cultures is replaced in this setting by primarily sheer monetary incentives. Few of
the subjects Hastings studied wished to or attempted to integrate in to the local culture,
including learning Arabic. His qualitative study documented how EFL teachers in Saudi
Arabia struggled to remain motivated when situated in a culture where they maintained a
significant distance from the locals. He came to conclude that “while many are in Saudi
Arabia for financial reasons, it does not provide them with job satisfaction” (Hastings, p.
65) The mutual distance between the cultures, commonly seen as important in student and
teacher motivation in ESL/EFL, was found to be lacking. Cultural connection, with its
strong connection to language learning, was absent from the teachers, resulting in low job
satisfaction and motivation, none of the teachers looking to stay in Saudi Arabia after their
short term financial goals had been met.
A final important feature to note in some of the international analysis of EFL is the
discrepancy that can occur between outsiders collecting quantitative data and insiders
collecting information qualitatively. This difference is perhaps most stark between the
studies of Tucker (2011) and Kumazawa (2013) in Japan. While Tucker, in his surveying of
best teacher practices internationally, paints a high regard for the teacher quality and high
pay of Japanese teachers, high regard for colleagues, and a cultural belief in the necessity
and importance of education, to go with high international test scores, there is no mention
of Kumazawa’s figures of the one in three teachers quitting due to mental health issues nor
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excessive demands on teachers. These studies point toward the need for a balance in grand
studies looking at government polices and test scores contrasted against insider qualitative
studies portraying a fair and accurate portrayal of the profession as it is.
Conclusions and Future Study
While the scope of this paper does not lead to any easy summation of teacher
motivation, a few principles can be gleaned from the various perspectives presented,
especially the need to address teacher motivation as an under researched theme. But,
ESL/EFL teacher motivation is a complex issue, especially when surveying the reach of
English, and thus ESL/EFL, in the world. But, this also affords the opportunity for
practitioners of ESL in the United States, as well as content area teachers, to look outward
to see best practices currently practiced in the world, as well as gazing thoughtfully inward
to survey the way that affect and psychology can influence teacher motivation, or,
regretfully, amotivation.
Because there is a current theoretical scarcity around teacher motivation research,
there are numerous possible areas for future study, including:
Studying if some of the studies from the past continue to be correct.
Further investigating not just how affect and psychology influence teacher
motivation, but what kinds of possibilities there are for utilizing psychological
practices to improve motivation and affective quality.
Comparing some of the issues around teaching and teacher motivation, job
satisfaction, and professionalization in ESL/EFL to that of the primary school
context in the United States, with the similar struggles for societal respect and the
push towards standardization of curriculum, standards, and best practices.
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Further analysis around increasing the professionalizing of ESL and EFL across the
globe, including whether this certification and codification will discourage,
discriminate against, or inhibit non-native English teachers. Issues around
careerism in the field could similarly use addressing, de-motivating factors in this.
Whether people who practice ESL/EFL without any training, or with limited
training, are hurting the profession, lowering the standards, or merely filling an
unfilled need or temporary life calling. Or, as some say, is the push to
professionalize EFL rooted in historical colonial ideas and business incentives by
such groups as the British Council (Phillipson, 1992)?
Utilizing the survey form, attached in Appendix D, in determining current ESL/EFL
teacher trends on their own professional attitudes. This survey could be given to
teachers as well as those interested in teaching, or progressing from seeing
ESL/EFL as a job to a career.
Meanwhile, it is important in this writer’s opinion, in closing, to re-visit ideas put
forth earlier in this paper surrounding Job Characteristic Theory as propounded by
Pennington. These defined characteristics, found in Appendices B and C of this paper, could
go well in providing the vision of what ESL/EFL can and should become. As previously
elaborated upon, this sort of vision is a necessary one in formulating the ideal teacher self
that can be an important initiator of both motivations “for” and “to” teach, drawing
professionals to the field, defining what adequate progress looks like, and clarifying
necessary qualifications. The career steps outlined are significant in elaborating ways
that ESL can evolve from a voluntary or part time commitment to one of apprentice, to
practitioner, researcher, manager, and ministerial positions found in some other countries
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(Tucker, 2011) It addresses some of the critiques of teaching in general not having a career
path and structure found in other professions. Similarly, there must be a tactical theoretical
approach to combat the idea that “ESL teaching is generally perceived as entirely
transparent and ordinary, as a type of work that virtually any native speaker can perform
or claim to perform” (Pennington, 1995, p. 195) To do this, Pennington recommends:
Whether or not everyone would agree in detail with these specification of the
attitudes, skills, and areas of knowledge associated with ESL work, the important
thing is that teachers, researcher, and administrator begin to codify what it is that
they know and what it is that they do in ESL, and put all of that information into a
clear and comprehensive statement of qualifications. (1995, p. 159)
While the chart in Appendix B of this paper is not necessarily complete and contains
some points that need to be addressed, unpacked, or questioned, such as whether or not
the teacher needs to have a positive attitude toward the language and culture being taught,
there is plenty of room afforded by this list for an engaging and fruitful discussion. A recent
TESOL graduate student seminar which this author participated in discussed this issue of
the necessity of ELT having “positive attitudes about the language and culture being
taught.” Interesting views on the necessity of positive teaching practices and knowledge of
the culture being taught about were raised, leaving me to consider the breadth and depth of
culture beyond the caricatures of pop culture or partisan politics, the numerous and every
day ways that people are the same and different, the uniqueness and similarities of people
in this world.. This was just one of the possible points of discourse from Pennington’s List
which could be useful in addressing teacher qualification and motivation on the long road
to inspiration in teaching.
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References
Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D., & Marguerite Ann, S. (Eds.). (2013). Teaching English as a
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Dornyei, Z. & Csizer, K. (1998). Ten commandments for motivating language
learners: results of an empirical study. Language Teaching Research, 2,3, (pp. 203-
209).
Dornyei, Z. (2003). Attitudes, orientations, and motivations in language learning:
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Dornyei, Z., & Ushioda, E. (Eds.) (2009) Motivation, language identity and the L2 self.
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Dornyei, Z. & Ushioda, E. (2011). Teaching and researching motivation. (pp. 158-191,
265-283) Harlow, England: Longman.
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teachers in Saudi Arabia (Doctoral Dissertation). Retrieved from Academia.edu.
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Kubanyiova, M. (2012). Teacher development in action. Birmingham, England:
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Kumazawa, M. (2013). Gaps too large: Four novice EFL teachers’ self-concept and
motivation. Teaching and Teacher Education, 33, 45-55.
Markus, H. & Nurius, P. (1986). Possible Selves. American Psychologist, 41 (9), 954-
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Masgoret, A.-M., & Gardner, R.C. (2003). Attitudes, motivation, and second language
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McDonough, S. (1986). Psychology in foreign language teaching. London: Allen &
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Unwin.
Menlo, A. & Poppleton, P. (1990) A five country study of the work perceptions of
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Germany. Comparative Education, 26 (2/3), 173-182.
Ortega, L. (2009). Understanding Second Language Acquisition. New York, NY:
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Pennington, M. C. (1992). Motivating English language teachers through job
enrichment. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 5, 199–218.
Pennington, M.C. (1995) Work Satisfaction, Motivation and Commitment in Teaching
English as a Second Language. ERIC Document ED 404850.
Phillipson, R. (1992). Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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Appendix B
Qualification for ESL Teachers
AttitudesA belief in the importance of language teaching.An attitude towards students of empathy and interest.Confidence in one’s own knowledge and classroom skills.Positive attitudes about the language and culture being taught.Positive attitudes about the language and culture of the students.Openness to new ideas about language, learning, teaching approach.
KnowledgeKnowledge of individual students’ strengths, weaknesses, attitudes.Self-knowledge: strengths, weaknesses, attitudes, how others see usThe language being taught: phonology, syntax, lexicon, pragmatics.The culture of the language being taught.The language and culture of the students.Language learning theory.
SkillsLanguage teaching skills.Classroom management skills.Communication and interpersonal skills.Skills for assessing students’ progress.The ability to self-evaluate.The ability to adapt teaching approach to circumstances.A comfortable, consistent teaching approach emphasizing personal teaching strengths and preferences, and de-emphasizing or compensating for individual weaknesses.
From Pennington,1995, p. 204
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Appendix D Possible Survey Questions
The Life Story*Tell the story of your life as a teacher so far.*How did you get into teaching?*Why did you move to each new job?*Why did you leave that job?*What qualifications do you have?Why did you choose to get those qualifications and not others?*Do you plan to take other qualifications?*What have been the most important turning points in your life as a teacher?*What ambitions and plans do you have for the future?Looking at your life overall, does it seem to have coherence?*What personal or family factors have affected your working life (e.g., marriage, divorce,children, bereavement)?*What other paths might you have followed in life?Have you ever been tempted to leave English language teaching (ELT)?Why did you stay?Do you have, or have you had, other jobs beside your main one (translating, private lessons,etc.)?How do you feel about this?*What interests and plans do you have outside ELT?Career and Profession*Is ELT a profession?*Are you a professional?*What, in your opinion, is a professional?*Do you see yourself as having a career?*What does this mean to you (career and having a career)?*To what degree are you committed to teaching/ELT?Relationships and Social StatusHow do you feel about your students?What kind of relationships do you have with your colleagues?Do you tend to socialize with other ELT people or with people not connected to the field?How do you feel about your work when you tell others what you do?Are you proud, embarrassed, indifferent?The Polish Context*How do you feel about the changes that have taken place in Poland over the past 5 years or so?*What are the major changes in Polish life?
From Johnston (1997, p.711) “Do ESL Teachers have careers?
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Appendix E
Table 1
Shoaib’s Motivational Strategies
Teacher Level Managerial Level Ministerial / Institutional Level
! Applying self-
regulatory strategies
! Attending
formal/professional activities! Aiming for a further degree
Developing a system for collaboration and team work between language teachers
Providing appropriate specialised in-service training for language teachers
Recognizing and appreciating languageteachers’ efforts and hard work
1. Allocating more funds to the educational system
2. Restricting the regulative nature of the system3. Allowing the
participation of teachers in curriculum design
From Hastings, 2012, p. 68
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