Open AccessEnglish as a Foreign Language Teachers’ Motivation: An Activity Theory Perspective
Author(s) -
Teymour Rahmati,
Karim Sadeghi
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
the qualitative report
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.335
H-Index - 35
ISSN - 2160-3715
DOI - 10.46743/2160-3715/2021.4472
Subject(s) - timeline , psychology , descriptive statistics , perspective (graphical) , activity theory , english as a foreign language , mathematics education , social psychology , pedagogy , computer science , statistics , mathematics , archaeology , artificial intelligence , history
Drawing upon Activity Theory, this mixed-methods study explored L2 teachers’ (de)motivation factors, motivation change, and voice in adopting strategies that could motivate L2 teachers. Semi-structured interviews, a motivational timeline diagram, and a researcher-developed scale were used to collect data from 226 in-service L2 teachers. The interview data collected from 15 participants were analyzed through open, axial, and selective coding using MAXQDA Analytics Pro version 12.3. Individual participants’ motivational timelines were also carried over into a collective diagram to illustrate motivational trajectories. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the quantitative data collected from 211 teachers. The findings identified a number of (de)motivation factors and indicated that L2 teachers experienced changes in their motivation due to some primary and secondary level contradictions in their motivational activity systems. Moreover, L2 teachers’ commitment to their profession revealed the significant role of teachers’ beliefs and agency in resolving those contradictions. The theoretical and practical implications of the study were accordingly discussed.