Motivation Techniques Employed by EFL Teachers (Two Primary Schools in Focus)
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Date
2007-08
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to find out how English language teachers’ use motivation techniques in EFL classroom to motivate their students. Motivation is normally considered as important factors that contribute to initiate learners’ English language skills particularly in the primary level.
In order to gather data for the study, two instruments: questionnaires to students and teachers, and interview with English language teachers were used.
Ten grade seven sections from the two schools (Abober and Ediget Behibret) were taken as a sample. After the selection, the students and teachers were made to give their responses about the motivation techniques employed in the ELT classrooms. To get information about what motivation techniques employed by EFL teachers, 21 items of questionnaire were distributed to the students and 20 to the teachers. In addition to this, the four teachers in the selected schools were interviewed. Both quantitative and qualitative techniques were used to analyze the data.
The results of the study showed that there was a good relationship between the classroom teachers and the students. And teachers tried to motivate the learners to participate without fear during classroom interaction. The study, furthermore, revealed that praise words such as “excellent”, “good”, and “nice”, rewards, clapping hands, were the most frequently used motivation techniques by the English language teachers. Moreover, the study indicated that the students have different reactions to these motivation techniques of their teachers: students felt very happy and struggled to participate freely. They also raised their hands up to ask and answer questions. Nevertheless, there were some problems that affected the students’ motivations in the classroom and around the school compound.
Some of them were the huge number of the students and lack of teaching materials. That is, due to the immense number of students in a small classroom and inconvenience classroom conditions, it was found quite hard to manage and to motivate every students. These problems hindered the teacher from using different motivational techniques.
Based on these results, conclusions were drawn, and recommendations were made.
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Techniques Employed by EFL