Abstract
This study investigated the interplay of second language (L2) teacher motivation and L2 learner motivation. In total, sixty male foreign language learners, including thirty-five English, nine Arabic, eight French, and eight Russian language learners from a military university in Tehran, Iran were selected using nonprobability purposeful sampling. Q methodology was used as a method for the systematic study of subjectivity and an interview with the most representative participants of each factorial group was conducted to explore the learners’ viewpoints toward the interplay of teacher motivation and learner motivation. Hybrid-type Q sampling was used to develop 60 statements related to the interplay of teacher motivation and learner motivation. Using PQMethod, a dedicated statistical program for Q methodology, the Q sorts were intercorrelated and factor-analyzed. Four factors were extracted and rotated by varimax rotation and hand adjustment. Factor arrays and qualitative analyses were used to identify and interpret four distinctive accounts of L2 motivation. The four factors suggested that the learners hold four different prototypical viewpoints regarding the interplay of teacher motivation and learner motivation: (a) Teachers’ Role (b) Students’ Role in Normal Contexts, (c) Student-Teacher Relationship, and (d) Students’ Self-Determined Motivation in Adverse Contexts. The results, furthermore, suggested that different learner prototypes are motivated differently, so teachers should look for alternative motivational strategies that consider learners motivation in the context of learning.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Atkinson, E. S. (2000). An investigation into the relationship between teacher motivation and pupil motivation. Educational Psychology, 20(1), 45–57. https://doi.org/10.1080/014434100110371.
Boo, Z., Dörnyei, Z., & Ryan, S. (2015). L2 motivation research 2005–2014: Understanding a publication surge and a changing landscape. System, 55, 145–157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2015.10.006.
Brown, S. R. (1980). Political subjectivity: Applications of Q methodology in political science. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Deci, E. L., Kasser, T., & Ryan, R. M. (1997). Self-determined teaching: Opportunities and obstacles. In J. L. Bess (Ed.), Teaching well and liking it: Motivating faculty to teach effectively (pp. 57–71). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Dörnyei, Z. (2001). Motivational strategies in the language classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dörnyei, Z. (2009). Individual differences: Interplay of learner characteristics and learning environment. Language Learning, 59(1), 230–248. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2009.00542.x.
Dörnyei, Z. (2014). Researching complex dynamic systems:‘Retrodictive qualitative modelling’ in the language classroom. Language Teaching, 47(01), 80–91. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444811000516.
Dörnyei, Z. (2018). Motivating students and teachers. In J. I. Liontas (Ed.), The TESOL encyclopedia of English language teaching (Vol. 7, pp. 4293–4299). Hoboken: Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118784235.eelt0128.
Dörnyei, Z., & Csizér, K. (1998). Ten commandments for motivating language learners: Results of an empirical study. Language Teaching Research, 2(3), 203–229. https://doi.org/10.1177/136216889800200303.
Dörnyei, Z., & Ushioda, E. (2013). Teaching and researching motivation (3rd ed.). New York: Routledge.
Dörnyei, Z., MacIntyre, P. D., & Henry, A. (2015). Motivational dynamics in language learning. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Dörnyei, Z., Henry, A., & Muir, C. (2016). Motivational currents in language learning: Frameworks for focused interventions. New York: Routledge.
du Plessis, C., Angelopulo, G., & du Plessis, D. (2006). A conceptual framework of corporate online communication: A marketing public relations (MPR) perspective. Communicatio, 32(2), 241–263. https://doi.org/10.1080/02500160608537972.
Ellis, R. (2008). The study of second language acquisition. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Gardner, R. C. (2010). Motivation and second language acquisition: The socio-educational model. New York: Peter Lang.
Gregersen, T., & MacIntyre, P. (2014). I can see a little bit of you on myself’: A dynamic system approach to the inner dialogue between teacher and learner selves. In Z. Dörnyei, P. D. Macintyre, & A. Henry (Eds.), Motivational dynamics in language learning (pp. 260–284). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Irie, K. (2014). Q methodology for post-social-turn research in SLA. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 4(1), 13–32. https://doi.org/10.14746/ssllt.2014.4.1.2.
Jodaei, H., Zareian, G., Amirian, S. M. R., & Adel, S. M. R. (2018). From the state of motivated to demotivated: Iranian military EFL learners’ motivation change. The Journal of Asia TEFL, 15(1), 32–50.
Karabenick, S. A., & Noda, P. A. C. (2004). Professional development implications of teachers' beliefs and attitudes toward English language learners. Bilingual Research Journal, 28(1), 55–75. https://doi.org/10.1080/15235882.2004.10162612.
Kikuchi, K. (2017). Reexamining demotivators and motivators: A longitudinal study of Japanese freshmen's dynamic system in an EFL context. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 11(2), 128–145. https://doi.org/10.1080/17501229.2015.1076427.
Kormos, J., & Csizer, K. (2014). The interaction of motivation, self-regulatory strategies, and autonomous learning behavior in different learner groups. TESOL Quarterly, 48(2), 275–299. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.129.
Larsen-Freeman, D. (2012). Complex, dynamic systems: A new transdisciplinary theme for applied linguistics? Language Teaching, 45(02), 202–214. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444811000061.
MacIntyre, P. D., MacKinnon, S. P., & Clément, R. (2009). The baby, the bathwater, and the future of language learning motivation research. In Z. Dornyei & E. Ushioda (Eds.), Motivation, language identity and the L2 self (pp. 43–65). Dublin, Ireland: Trinity College.
Martin, A. J. (2006). The relationship between teachers' perceptions of student motivation and engagement and teachers' enjoyment of and confidence in teaching. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 34(1), 73–93. https://doi.org/10.1080/13598660500480100.
Papi, M. (2010). The L2 motivational self system, L2 anxiety, and motivated behavior: A structural equation modeling approach. System, 38(3), 467–479. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2010.06.011.
Papi, M., & Abdollahzadeh, E. (2012). Teacher motivational practice, student motivation, and possible L2 selves: An examination in the Iranian EFL context. Language Learning, 62(2), 571–594. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2011.00632.x.
Pelletier, L. G., Séguin-Lévesque, C., & Legault, L. (2002). Pressure from above and pressure from below as determinants of teachers' motivation and teaching behaviors. Journal of Educational Psychology, 94(1), 186–196. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-0663.94.1.186.
Pintrich, P. R. (2003). A motivational science perspective on the role of student motivation in learning and teaching contexts. Journal of Educational Psychology, 95(4), 667–686. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.95.4.66.
Radel, R., Sarrazin, P., Legrain, P., & Wild, T. C. (2010). Social contagion of motivation between teacher and student: Analyzing underlying processes. Journal of Educational Psychology, 102(3), 577–587.
Rivers, D. J. (2012). Modelling the perceived value of compulsory English language education in undergraduate non-language majors of Japanese nationality. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 33(3), 251–267. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2012.661737.
Roth, G., Assor, A., Kanat-Maymon, Y., & Kaplan, H. (2007). Autonomous motivation for teaching: How self-determined teaching may lead to self-determined learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99(4), 761–774. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.99.4.761.
Ryan, S. (2009). Self and identity in L2 motivation in Japan: The ideal L2 self and Japanese learners of English. In Z. Dörnyei & E. Ushioda (Eds.), Motivation, language identity and the L2 self (pp. 120–143). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Ryan, S., & Irie, K. (2014). Imagined and possible selves: Stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. In S. Mercer & M. Williams (Eds.), Multiple perspectives on the self in SLA (pp. 109–126). UK: Multilingual Matters.
Schmolck, P. (2002). PQMethod (version 2.35). Retrieved from: http://schmolck.userweb.mwn.de/qmethod/.
Schunk, D. H., Meece, J. R., & Pintrich, P. R. (2012). Motivation in education: Theory, research, and applications. Upper Saddle River: Pearson higher Ed.
Stainton Rogers, R. (1995). Q methodology. In J. A. Smith, R. Harre, & L. V. Langenhove (Eds.), Rethinking methods in psychology (pp. 178–192). London: Sage.
Stephenson, W. (1935). Technique of factor analysis. Nature, 136, 297. https://doi.org/10.1038/136297b0.
Taguchi, T., Magid, M., & Papi, M. (2009). The L2 motivational self-system among Japanese, Chinese and Iranian learners of English: A comparative study. In Z. Dörnyei & E. Ushioda (Eds.), Motivation, language identity and the L2 self (Vol. 36, pp. 66–97). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Ushioda, E. (2009). A person-in-context relational view of emergent motivation, self and identity. In Z. Dörnyei & E. Ushioda (Eds.), Motivation, language identity and the L2 self (pp. 215–228). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Ushioda, E. (2014). Motivational perspectives on the self in SLA: a developmental view. In S. Mercer & M. Williams (Eds.), Multiple perspectives on the self in SLA. Second language acquisition (pp. 127–141). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Waninge, F., Dörnyei, Z., & De Bot, K. (2014). Motivational dynamics in language learning: Change, stability, and context. The Modern Language Journal, 98(3), 704–723. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12118.
Watt, M. G., & Richardson, P. W. (2008). Motivation for teaching. Guest editorial. Learning and Instruction, 18, 405–407. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2008.06.009.
Watts, S., & Stenner, P. (2003). Q methodology, quantum theory and psychology. Operant Subjectivity, 26, 155–173.
Watts, S., & Stenner, P. (2005). Doing Q methodology: Theory, method and interpretation. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 2(1), 67–91. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088705qp022oa.
Watts, S., & Stenner, P. (2012). Doing Q methodological research: Theory, method and interpretation. London: Sage.
Yaghoubinejad, H., Zarrinabadi, N., & Ketabi, S. (2017). Fluctuations in foreign language motivation: An investigation into Iranian learners’ motivational change over time. Current Psychology, 36(4), 781–790. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-016-9467-6.
You, C., & Dörnyei, Z. (2014). Language learning motivation in China: Results of a large-scale stratified survey. Applied Linguistics, 37(4), 495–519. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amu046.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Research Involving Human Participants and/or Animals
Ethical approval: All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed Consent
“Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the Study.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jodaei, H., Zareian, G., Amirian, S.M.R. et al. The interplay of teacher motivation and learner motivation: A Q method study. Curr Psychol 40, 1696–1710 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-018-0091-5
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-018-0091-5