THE IMPLICIT MOTIVATING ROLE OF EFL TEACHERS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN HUNGARY: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Anna Pálfy

Abstract


Since the teacher’s implicit motivating role is an under-researched area in L2 motivation (Kálmán, 2023), this comparative qualitative study aims to explore the perceptions and experiences of EFL learners and EFL teachers regarding teachers’ interactional, attitudinal, and behavioural patterns in the EFL classroom. This study draws upon qualitative data from two interview studies, which were previously conducted in order to compare EFL learners’ and teachers’ perspectives (Pálfy, 2024; Pálfy, in press). The comparative study involved twelve secondary school EFL learners and twelve secondary school EFL teachers. Data collected from the semi-structured interviews were analysed using thematic content analysis. The results revealed that both participant groups reported several implicit motivating aspects of EFL teachers. Comparing learners’ and teachers’ perspectives, several common themes emerged from the data analysis: EFL teachers’ encouragement, humour, kindness, support, patience, cheerfulness, enthusiasm, adaptability, empathy, and conscientiousness were identified as motivational aspects of EFL teachers by both groups of participants. However, differences were also found between the two perspectives: learners perceived teachers’ curiosity and open-mindedness, while teachers perceived their optimism, social behaviour and trustworthiness as motivating aspects in the EFL classroom.

 

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implicit motivation, EFL classroom, learner and teacher perspectives, secondary education, Hungarian context

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejel.v10i4.6422

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