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Motivational Practices in Foreign Language Teaching: From the Perspective of Self-Determination Theory

  • Mengxuan Wei

    Mengxuan WEI is a graduate student at the School of English and International Studies, Beijing Foreign Studies University. Her research efforts have focused on second language acquisition.

         and Yaping Chen

    Yaping CHEN is a professor at the School of English and International Studies, Beijing Foreign Studies University. Her research efforts have focused on second language acquisition and psycholinguistics.
Published/Copyright: August 21, 2022
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Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics
From the journal Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics Volume 45 Issue 3

Abstract

This quantitative-oriented study investigates junior middle school EFL teachers’ beliefs about motivational practices in the language teaching process. Grounded in self-determination theory, the study examined teachers’ beliefs in three basic psychological needs (relatedness, competence and autonomy) and the effect of their teaching experience on these beliefs. Data were obtained from 84 Chinese junior middle school English teachers through a questionnaire. Results suggested that teachers recognized motivational practices for relatedness and competence satisfaction while showing relatively low recognition of a few motivating practices for autonomy satisfaction. Teaching experience was found to have no influence on teachers’ conception of needs-related motivational practices. Findings reveal that traditional activities like collective lesson preparations may have a negative influence on teachers’ beliefs about motivational practices. They also present the necessity for adjustments on educational regulations, and for modern professional training to help teachers understand students’ basic psychological needs, and to encourage new ideas to bolster students’ intrinsic motivation for language learning.

Keywords: relatedness; competence; autonomy; intrinsic motivation; language teaching; motivational practices; self-determination theory

About the authors

Mengxuan Wei

Mengxuan WEI is a graduate student at the School of English and International Studies, Beijing Foreign Studies University. Her research efforts have focused on second language acquisition.

Yaping Chen

Yaping CHEN is a professor at the School of English and International Studies, Beijing Foreign Studies University. Her research efforts have focused on second language acquisition and psycholinguistics.

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Appendix. Items for Motivational Teaching Practices Related to Basic Psychological Needs

  1. Behaving naturally and showing your true self.

  2. Dedicated to teaching and being passionate.

  3. Respecting students.

  4. Taking care of students in the aspects of life, study and mind.

  5. Developing a warm, bidirectional relationship with students.

  6. Paying attention to the affect and mood of students in learning process.

  7. Acknowledging students’ feelings.

  8. Encouraging students to work out problems together.

  9. Facilitating interactions of peers.

  10. Unlimited group members.

  11. Letting some students remain silent in group discussion.

  12. Letting students decorate classroom.

  13. Creating a pleasant and comfortable atmosphere in class.

  14. Emphasizing classroom rules and regulations.

  15. Criticizing students in front of the class.

  16. Comparing learning achievement and ability with those of peers.

  17. Welcoming students’ suggestions for learning.

  18. Making sure that students experience success regularly.

  19. Giving clear instructions.

  20. Illustrating teaching objectives and requirements.

  21. Giving guidelines for learning tasks and activities.

  22. Evaluating students based on their learning ability.

  23. Giving praise for accomplishing any task.

  24. Keeping the difficulty of learning tasks consistent with students’ cognitive level.

  25. Designing challenging learning tasks.

  26. Designing teaching contents and learning tasks based on administration-designated textbooks.

  27. Providing hints or suggestions to prompt problem-solving in groups.

  28. Giving feedback regularly.

  29. Breaking a challenging task down into smaller, more manageable units for students to complete at different points in time.

  30. Explaining objectives and significance of English learning.

  31. Letting students choose class activities.

  32. Letting students decide on teaching methods.

  33. Letting students decide on the time and form of in-class tests.

  34. Including students in planning learning activities.

  35. Letting students set class rules.

  36. Learning tasks confined to textbooks.

  37. Teachers dominating class and group activities.

  38. Letting students participate in teaching through asking questions in class.

  39. Dividing the class into small groups by students’ academic performance.

  40. Letting students take the responsibility for organizing learning activities.

  41. Letting every student do presentations in class.

  42. Stressing test scores.

  43. Diversifying class activities and learning tasks.

  44. Selecting interesting tasks.

  45. Providing multiple learning materials for students.

  46. Giving students the answers of exercises without explanation.

Published Online: 2022-08-21
Published in Print: 2022-08-26

© 2022 BFSU, FLTRP, Walter de Gruyter, Cultural and Education Section British Embassy

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Early Bilingual Vocabulary Development Among Low-SES Ethnic Minority Learners in China: The Case of Uyghur and Kazak Children
  3. “Even I Can Do It”: Chinese Ethnolinguistic Minority Learners’ Investment in Creative Writing and Its Impact
  4. Research on the Students’ Attitudes Towards Multilingualism: Li Minority Students in Hainan
  5. Teaching Chinese to Ethnic Minority Students in Hong Kong: A Systematic Review
  6. Language Education for Ethnolinguistic Minority Students in China: A Review
  7. On Identity, Motivation, and Multilingual Education in Asian Contexts
  8. Teacher Development
  9. Motivational Practices in Foreign Language Teaching: From the Perspective of Self-Determination Theory
  10. English Teachers’ Beliefs About Multilingual Awareness in L3 Learning and Their Teaching Practice in Chinese EFL Context
  11. Cross-Cultural Communications
  12. Developing Students’ Intercultural Communicative Competence Through Threads of Personal Experiences: A Reflective Approach
  13. Second Language Writing
  14. Effects of Written Corrective Feedback on College EFL Students’ Writing Accuracy and Linguistic Knowledge Acquisition
  15. Discourse Analysis
  16. Exploring Generic Features in China-Africa Corporate Advertising: A Critical Genre Analysis
  17. Abstracts
  18. Chinese Abstracts
https://doi.org/10.1515/CJAL-2022-0307
Keywords for this article
relatedness; competence; autonomy; intrinsic motivation; language teaching; motivational practices; self-determination theory

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Early Bilingual Vocabulary Development Among Low-SES Ethnic Minority Learners in China: The Case of Uyghur and Kazak Children
  3. “Even I Can Do It”: Chinese Ethnolinguistic Minority Learners’ Investment in Creative Writing and Its Impact
  4. Research on the Students’ Attitudes Towards Multilingualism: Li Minority Students in Hainan
  5. Teaching Chinese to Ethnic Minority Students in Hong Kong: A Systematic Review
  6. Language Education for Ethnolinguistic Minority Students in China: A Review
  7. On Identity, Motivation, and Multilingual Education in Asian Contexts
  8. Teacher Development
  9. Motivational Practices in Foreign Language Teaching: From the Perspective of Self-Determination Theory
  10. English Teachers’ Beliefs About Multilingual Awareness in L3 Learning and Their Teaching Practice in Chinese EFL Context
  11. Cross-Cultural Communications
  12. Developing Students’ Intercultural Communicative Competence Through Threads of Personal Experiences: A Reflective Approach
  13. Second Language Writing
  14. Effects of Written Corrective Feedback on College EFL Students’ Writing Accuracy and Linguistic Knowledge Acquisition
  15. Discourse Analysis
  16. Exploring Generic Features in China-Africa Corporate Advertising: A Critical Genre Analysis
  17. Abstracts
  18. Chinese Abstracts
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