Use of motivational strategies in English classrooms: perceptions of Bangladeshi secondary school English teachers and students

Abstract

i Abstract The current study concentrates on the practice of motivational teaching strategies in the secondary school English classrooms in Bangladesh. The study serves two main purposes: first, it investigates how English teachers identify and implement motivational teaching strategies in their classrooms and second, how their students perceive and observe specific teaching strategies. The study was carried out in twenty-five secondary schools involving fifty English teachers and ninety students from class eight to ten as participants. It followed a combination of mixed (qualitative and quantitative) methods research approach. For the quantitative phase of the study Likert-scale questionnaire measuring teachers’ and students’ ranking of teaching strategies encouraged by motivational strategy framework of Dörnyei and the qualitative phase pre- and post-observation teacher interviews and student interviews and classroom observations instruments were employed. The results, on the basis of the quantitative phase (teacher questionnaire data), indicate that the fifty English teachers considered, the fifty teachers considered the strategies ‘relevant curriculum’, ‘pleasant environment’, ‘diminishing language anxiety’, ‘increasing individual and class goals’, ‘presenting motivating tasks’, ‘providing positive information feedback’, ‘building learners’ confidence’, ‘providing encouragement’, ‘making learning more enjoyable’, ‘promoting cooperation’ and ‘taking students’ learning very seriously’ as the ten most important motivational teaching strategies among the thirty-five motivational strategies set in the teacher questionnaire. The results of the qualitative phase (teacher interviews and classroom observation data), indicate that the motivational strategies that the five English teachers claimed to use in the classroom aligned well with their actual classroom practices and what students reported as motivating. But the students differed from their teachers with regard to the ranking order of the questionnaire of the same ten strategies. During the post-observation interviews, teachers positively reflected on their observations. Similarities were found between the teachers’ previous claims about the use of motivational teaching strategies and actual classroom practice. Observation data also disclosed the overlapped themes about motivational teaching strategies among the five teachers. The findings of the study provide new insight into English teachers’ perceptions of motivational teaching strategy use as well as students’ perceptions of their teachers’ strategic choices in their classrooms. The study offers both a theoretically informed and an empirically grounded framework for future research on English language motivation and teaching strategies through a mixed methods data analysis for further classroom research.