This thesis aimed to investigate the perception of secondary school students regarding English teachers’ motivational strategies. The investigation focuses on evaluating the effectiveness of these strategies, the frequency of their implementation, and the disjunction between students’ preferred motivational approaches and their perception of teachers’ practices. A digital survey was distributed to 46 students from a suburban school near Stockholm. To analyze the data collection, descriptive statistics and, Wilcoxon matched the pair tests were conducted to determine whether there is a significant difference between paired students’ preferences of motivational strategies and their perception of English teachers’ use of these strategies. Results indicated that students assign positive ratings to most motivational strategies. Moreover, students consistently rated their English teachers’ motivational strategy use quite highly, with a low standard deviation, reflecting that student participants shared similar opinions. At times, the Wilcoxon matched-pair test exhibits a statistically significant difference between students’ preferred motivational strategies and their perception of teachers’ practices. Despite the teachers’ high utilization of motivational strategies, students’ expectations appear to be higher.

Tato práce se zabývá neformální výukou anglického jazyka dospělých. Pojednává o motivačních prvcích v jazykovém vzdělávání a jak je na motivační strukturu ve výuce anglického jazyka nahlíženo učiteli a jejich studenty. Cílem práce bylo prozkoumat motivační citlivost učitelů v tzv. one-to-one jazykových firemních kurzech a jaké motivační strategie v těchto kurzech učitelé využívají. Teoretická část této práce se zabývá pozadím tématiky vzdělávání dospělých a praktická čast práce se skládá ze dvou částí - dotazníkového šetření a pozorování výuky.

本研究之目的在探討台灣國中課室中英語教師動機策略應用的情形，此研究調查學生和老師雙方面對於在課堂中動機策略使用頻率的感知，比較其中差異。很少研究同時參考雙方面的意見，本研究透過問卷的方式詢問老師使用動機策略的頻率，也詢問學生對於相同教師策略使用頻率的感受，目的在找出何種動機策略最常被使用，也最常被學生體驗到。另一個目的是要收集學生對於課室內動機策略的觀點，以瞭解在學生的觀點中，哪些策略可以有效提升他們學習興趣。問卷收集樣本共有老師135人，學生216人。另外，研究者還進行了10堂課的課室觀察，期以觀察所得的資料與師生填寫的問卷資料做對照。 研究結果顯示，學生和老師大致上對使用頻率較高的策略有共識。在48個動機策略當中，老師和學生對各項的排序幾乎相同。前幾名分別是適當的教師行為、辨別出學生的努力、適當地呈現教學任務、提升學習者的自我信心、創造愉悅的教室氣氛等。但是程度上老師表示的和學生體認到的卻大不相同，以T檢定比較學生和教師問卷，發現大部分項目都達顯著性差異，教師表示使用的頻率高，但學生體驗到的頻率卻相對較低。在課室觀察的資料中，發現最常被觀察到教師使用的動機策略為：呈現教學工作、提供回饋、教師行為、提升學習者自主性，和提升與第二語言相關的價值，可能因為這些外顯行為的項目較其他容易被實際地觀察到。 此外，比較學生對不同策略重要性的看法問卷當中也指出，學生對於動機策略的想法的確和老師報導的使用頻率不相同。學生對重要性前幾項依序為：提升學習者的自主性、創造愉悅的教室氣氛、辨別學生的努力、適當的教師行為，和提升學習者的自信心。特別在提升學習者的自主性這個類別裡，老師和學生的看法就很不一樣。老師們最少使用這個類別的策略，但是學生卻認為這些是最有效於提升他們對學習語言動機的策略。 / The purpose of the present study is to find out the use of motivational strategies in secondary EFL settings in Taiwan. Questionnaires were sent to inquire teachers’ reported use and students’ perception of such use of motivational strategies. Few studies have included questionnaire results from both students and teachers. The present study elicited answers from both parties to find out which motivational strategies were frequently used by teachers and which were perceived by learners in the foreign language classroom. Another purpose is to collect data from students about their opinion on the importance of various motivational strategies used in the classroom. The number of teacher sample is 135, and the number of students is 216. Besides, ten classroom observations were conducted by the researcher in order to complement self-reported questionnaire data. The results of this study revealed that students and teachers generally agree on which motivational strategies were frequently used in class. The rank order of teachers and students were almost the same. The top ones, in the order of frequency, were proper teacher behavior, recognizing students’ effort, presenting tasks properly, promoting learners’ self-confidence, and creating a pleasant classroom climate. However, the frequency as reported by teachers and stated by students was very different. The data collected from teachers and students was examined by performing an independent sample t-test, and the result indicated that difference between them was statistically significant. Teachers reported that they frequently used the strategies, but students didn’t experience those strategies as frequently as teachers reported using. In the data collected from classroom observation, the most observable and frequently used strategies were: presenting tasks properly, providing feedback, teacher behavior, promoting learner autonomy, and promoting L2-related values. The fact that these domains appeared to be more prominent in the observation data may probably be associated with the nature of their being more observable. In addition, the result from the student questionnaire asking about students’ expectation toward the motivational strategies also indicated that students’ perceived importance of them was different from teachers’ reported frequency of use. The rank-order of the ten clusters of students’ expectation were: promoting learner autonomy, creating a pleasant classroom climate, recognizing students’ effort, proper teacher behavior, and promoting learners’ self-confidence. As to the conceptual domain of “promoting learning autonomy”, it is viewed very differently by teachers and students. Teachers put this one on the last place, but students regarded this domain as the most effective strategy in promoting their motivation toward language learning.

Syftet med denna studie var att belysa vilka motivationsstrategier som lärare som undervisar i engelska för årskurs 4-6 använder sig av, samt vilka aktiviteter som lärarna anser mest motiverande för eleverna. Studien baseras på intervjuer med sex lärare verksamma i år 4-6, som alla undervisar i engelska och materialet analyserades sedan med hjälp av en tematisk analys.  Resultatet visar att lärarna ansåg att nivåanpassade uppgifter är den strategin som de upplever motiverar alla elever. Detta eftersom nivåanpassade uppgifter får elever att känna sig kompetenta och att de kan lyckas i skolan. Känslan av att lyckas i skolan ansåg lärarna vara betydelsefull för alla elever och en viktig faktor för att de ska vara motiverade till att vilja lära sig ännu mer. Utöver nivåanpassade uppgifter ansåg lärarna att undervisning som utformas med hänsyn till elevernas intressen upplevs som motiverande. Resultaten visar även att det är viktigt att klassrumsklimatet är positivt och accepterande. Lärarna i denna studie menar att ett sådant klassrumsklimat främjar elevernas lärande och motivation. / The present study focuses on the motivational strategies used by primary school teachers in their English classes as well as the tasks they find the most motivational for the students.  This study is based on interviews with six primary school teachers who teach English in grade 4-6, and the data was processed with the help of thematic analysis.   The results show that teachers motivate students by adjusting the tasks according on the students’ proficiency level in order to make the students feel more competent. By doing so the teachers argue that the students will feel more confident knowing that they can be successful in school, which will result in increased motivation. The results also highlight the importance for teachers to get to know their students and their interests. When creating learning activities based on the students’ interests, the teachers have seen an increase in the student motivation. Another crucial factor regarding students’ motivation is the classroom environment. The results also indicate that a positive and accepting classroom environment is beneficial for the students’ learning processes and for their motivation.