CC BY
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ЛИНГВИСТИКА И ПЕРЕВОД
USING CONTEXTUAL FACTORS TO PROMOTE STUDENT MOTIVATION IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING
Anita Muho, Leonard Danglli
(Albania)
The aim of this study is to find out the effect of individual and contextualfactors in promoting motivation: socio cultural influences, teacher influences, classroom and school influences from a contextual perspective, in acquisition of English as a second language in the Albanian context.
First, it reviews the literature on contextual factors and gives the background to the evaluation of how they affect student motivation. Second, the findings of the questionnaires, observations and interviews indicate that contextual factors critically affect students’ motivation in learning a second language. The awareness and the ability of learners to direct it for their best increase the importance of the context in encouraging lifelong learning. Third, the findings of this study on contextual factors in promoting motivation will possibly provide additional insights in better identifying existing motivational challenges and taking realistic perspectives about the ELT (English Language Teaching) situation in the Albania. Finally, several suggestions for teachers and some recommendations regarding future researches in contextual factors that affect motivation in Albanian context have been highlighted.
Keywords: Acquisition, context, factors, motivation, influences, teacher, student.
Introduction
Nowadays, the acquisition of English is seen as a necessity of the time but educators, in Albania, are faced with the low motivation level of high school students. The most surprising fact is that the decline continues despite the entry of English as an obligatory state exam in the high school.
This study aims at analyzing contextual factors that affect student motivation, to identify the most dominating of these factors and to pro-
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vide additional insights in better identifying the existing motivational challenges and taking realistic perspectives about the ELT (English Language Teaching) situation in the country.
We will explore the cultural influences, teacher influences, classroom and school influences from a contextual perspective to the research questions:
1. How do the contextual factors affect student motivation?
2. Which are the contextual factors that affect student motivation?
3. How can we promote student motivation through contextual factors?
4. What are the strategies of using contextual factors in order to promote student motivation?
Literature review
Many scholars, who have studied motivation, stress the importance of contextual elements. According to Cook-Cottone (2014), learning
is, “An ongoing process involving the reciprocal interplay among the learner, other individuals, social systems, and culture...Individual learning is shaped by others, including peers, who function as mentors giving structure, order, and accessibility to knowledge.”
This highlights the importance of the roles of contextual elements as well as those of the significant others in an individual’s learning process.
Schunk (2000) puts similar arguments forward, “Delineate better the role of social processes in motivation.social processes typically has been investigated in contexts other than academic achievement; nonetheless, they are relevant to the latter.” This emphasizes the need to examine how contextual elements impact on student motivation rather than solely looking at the psychologically oriented motivation components at the level of the individual learner.
The contextual components
Following the Assessment Reform Group’s (2002a), conceptualization of motivation and assessment, there are six contextual elements affecting motivation to learn, which are curriculum, pedagogy, peer culture, assessment practices, home support and school ethos.
• Curriculum
According to Hickey and Zuiker (2005), “Motivation theories will more directly improve teaching and learning if they redirect their at-
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tention away from individuals, and toward the domain knowledge practices intended by school curricula.”This implies a shift from the notion that motivation resides within individual learners. Instead, emphasis is put on designing ‘good’ curricular routines.
• Peer culture
Peer culture is one of the most important contextual elements in understanding motivation to learn because peers are always regarded as significant others. In Williams and Burden’s framework of second language learning motivation, significant others including parents, teachers and peers, are seen to have an important impact on student motivation. Similarly, the roles of parents and peers are mentioned in Schunk’s (2000), study: “By adolescence, peers exert a stronger influence on academic achievement than do parents. Theories of academic motivation tend to focus on the self; however, self-processes are affected not only by individual achievements but also by observations of models and by collective achievements.” The above claim assures that peers play a more crucial role than parents do in academic achieve -ment. This may be explained in terms of the type of goal orientation individual learners have because learners with a performance goal tend to compare themselves with peers.
• Teachers’ influence
According to Alderson (2009), people who implement the policies in language education are the most influential factor that determines whether we can succeed or fail. He argues: “My experience convinced me that what seems to make the biggest difference to successes and failures in language education is not the theory or the policy, but the people who implement the policies, the teachers and trainers who have to interpret the theory, and the organizations and institutions within which those individuals work. “
• Assessment practices
The question is how such an examination culture affects students’ motivation to learn. Hamp-Lyons (1999) describes what an examination culture does to learners, with learners tending to rely on ‘model answers’ and ‘crib notes’ in an attempt to bridge the gap between their abilities and the examination demands. Hamp-Lyons (1999) also found that learners would become increasingly dependent on teachers and texts to direct them to learn only that which would be tested. For these reasons, many students give up activities, which do not form part of
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the essential tests, such as sports, music, and any normal adolescent relaxation activities.
• Parental influence
When adopting a contextual perspective to investigate student motivation, home support and parental influence are always crucial. Albanian family values emphasize the need to succeed educationally. Many children are educated to fulfill family and community expectations, whose needs prevail over individual desires.
• The learning environment
The school as a learning environment also needs to be taken into consideration in understanding student motivation. Dornyei (2001) defines that a learning environment is comprised of six elements, namely,
> Comfort
> resources
> time of day
> week, and year
> size of class and school
> Class and school ethos.
Comfort refers to feeling of students towards the school. The physical setting and the sense of belonging to the school can affect it. Resources are understood as how much the school can provide to the students. They can be in the form of work force, finance, space and materials. Time of day, week, year and size of class are all factual factors that cannot be changed by individual teachers in a school setting.
Methodological approach
A case study was adopted as the research methodology. There are three reasons for the use of case study in this research. Firstly, as the nature of realities is complicated and contextually constructed, a naturalistic case study provides room for more value-bound inquiry. Secondly, case study allows a variety of means of data collection, both quantitative and qualitative; it is not confined to any one particular source. Thirdly, this study aims at providing a source of evidences to support existing theory, in particular motivation theory and contextual factors in motivating students.
Setting and participants
This study was undertaken in five high public schools of Durres,
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Albania. There were 500 students and 20 English teachers part of this study, they were chosen randomly .The schools use Albanian as the medium of instruction and English as a second language.
Instruments for data collection
Instruments for data collection include interviews, questionnaires and teachers’ reflections. These different sources of data help to provide different perspectives on the investigation. They also enrich the depth of the data source, triangulating the findings while offering insight to the researcher. Interviews were one of the major sources of data in this study. Questionnaire was adopted because (2000), “It offers considerable advantages in administration - it presents an even stimulus, potentially to large numbers ofpeople simultaneously, and provides the investigator with an easy (relatively easy) accumulation of data”
Teachers’ reflections were all completed in a written form. First, teachers did some self-reflection on the students’ performance. They mainly focused on the students’ strengths as well as the areas for improvement. Second, they did some general reflection on their feedback-giving practice. Mills (2003) also supports teachers’ reflections, “Teachers have always reflected on their teaching before, during and after a particular teaching episode - it is part of our professional disposition. Action research is no different... Pausing to analyze and reflect during the action research process is essential. “
Data analysis
The first stage of data analysis consists in identifying the contextual factors that drive students to learn. First, data was extracted from the interviews conducted with students and teachers to explore how they perceived contextual factors in the learning process. Second, data extracted from questionnaires making use of Likert scale are analyzed using SPSS 16. Third, Teachers’ reflection was also an effective means to triangulate our interpretation of contextual factors to promote student motivation. From their perspective as teachers, they explained in what areas they had done well and when improvement was needed. Triangulated with the findings from student interviews and questionnaires, this information was useful in identifying the gap between teachers and students perceptions about the contextual factors.
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Findings
As discussed in the literature review, contextual factors critically affect students ‘motivation to learn. The findings of the questionnaires interviews and teachers reflections regarding the mode of teacher-student interactions embedded in the school culture. One of the students commented that there were many informal interactions between teachers and students: Actually, many teachers in our school are very close to us... like playing ball games with us, chatting with us; there must be some teachers like that. (Student/interview).
• Teachers’ influence
In the interviews, students also mentioned the teacher-student relationship, teacher experience and teachers’ personality. Some student respondents discussed the level of trust they had in their teachers. Below is an extract of a student commenting on his trust in his teacher: I... as long as it is suggestions for me from her, I will listen. It is because I am quite bad in several areas. (Student/interview).
The following extract shows that students thought teaching experience as a crucial factor in encouraging students to listen to a particular teacher, regardless of whether the teacher was a panel chair or a regular English teacher in the school. From the students’ point of view, teaching experience matters, but the position or rank does not. The teacher is important. For example, if you are close with the teacher, you will talk to her. There are some common topics to talk about. (Student/interview)
In addition to the teacher-student relationship and teaching experience, the teachers’ personality is also an important element to investigate, but the following extract illustrates how the students’ perceptions of their teachers were subjective:
Student: Of course, when she talks, as you can see, she is very nice...
• Peers’ influence
The literature review suggested that students have most interactions with their peers, who have a strong influence on the students’ level of motivation. Below are some findings from the student interviews, demonstrating this point: It is more pressurized if it is one-to-one... When you are asked (a question), the others will help you answer if it is a group. However, if it’s one to one, you must answer on your own.
Most students preferred having their peers’ company in the feedback-giving sessions and this was especially true for students who could not establish a close relationship with their teacher because they
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felt more comfortable with their peers around: Student: I think it will be more embarrassing doing it one-on-one.
Interviewer: Really? How does it come?
Student: It is because I am not familiar with her.
Interviewer: Oh, so maybe having some friends there...
Student: I do not know what I should say to her. (Student/interview).
• Parents’ influence
We have explored the influence of teachers and peers on students. The analysis of the interviews found that students had different views on family support. Below are some of the extracts from the interviews:
Student: It is bombarding and scolding.
Student: Care too much.
Student: Reminding.
Student: Care too much, (they are) (they are) very concerned about our future and thus pressing on us...
Student: But they are too anxious and there are negative outcomes...
Interviewer: Really? Let us talk about it...
Student: It is normal that they are annoying...
Student: I just cannot stand them...
Interviewer: Very annoying?
Student: Very annoying. That is why I will not listen to them at all. (Student/interview)
The extract above is an example demonstrating that some students found their parents very irritating and they revealed that they did not like their parents to annoy them. Another student commented in an interview that he did not feel the same: I am not saying they are annoying but... that moment is very annoying. Actually, I am quite close with my mom, sometimes I talk to her. Therefore, I do not think they are very annoying... (Student/interview).
Discussion
This study found that the motivation components drawn upon from different perspectives are all interrelated with each other and student motivation cannot be understood by looking at any one factor. Among all these factors, it was found in the study that the most influential contextual factor in students’ perceptions of motivational feedback was the ‘teachers as significant others’.
The findings revealed that teacher influence is the core motivation
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component that largely affects students’ psychological development of motivation at the individual level. This reinforces Dornyei’s (2001a) suggestion about the importance of teacher practices that are motivational to students. Dornyei (2001a) focuses on the importance of teaching strategies and teaching practices; this study found that teaching experience, teacher-student relationship and students’ perceptions of their teachers are also major areas of concern. As Salili (2001) has found, this study also revealed that a positive teacher-student relationship had a very strong impact on students’ motivation to learn.
The above findings support Hufton, Elliott and Illushin’s (2003) research findings, that is, that in classes where relationships generally were free of hostility, student motivation was higher.
Implications and Recommendations
This study found that motivation components are interdependent of one another, although teachers as significant others have relatively strong impact on student motivation to learn. Teacher influence includes attitudinal attributes such as teaching style, personality and relationship with students; there is also a professional aspect of teacher influence including their teaching experience, their background and training received.
Findings in this study implied that self- and peer-assessment are effective tools in motivating students to learn. The benefits are three-fold. First, self- and peer-assessment familiarize students with the success criteria so that they know better how they can close the gap between their current performance and the expected outcome. Second, they facilitate students taking up a more active role in the learning, teaching and assessment process. It helps the transition towards a more student-centered approach of teaching and learning. Self and peer assessment thus help students develop a stronger sense of themselves as learners. Third, peers as significant others can bring very positive impact on students’ motivation to learn. Data from the interviews have shown that students see the fear of potential loss of face and peers’ company as a driving force.
References
Alderson, C.(2009). The politics of language education: individuals and institutions. Bristol, UK; Buffalo: Multilingual Matters.
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Cook-Cottone, C. (2004). Constructivism in family literacy practices: parents as mentors. Reading Improvement, 41(4), 208-216.
Hamp-Lyons, L. (2007).The impact of testing practices on teaching: ideologies and alternatives. In J. Cummins and C. Davison (Eds.) International handbook of English language teaching. New York : Springer. 487-504.
Hickey, D. T. and Zuiker, S. J, (2005) Engaged participation: A sociocultural model of motivation with implications for educational assessment. Educational Assessment, 10 (3), 277-305.
Hufton, N. R., Elliott, J. G. and Illushin, L. (2003). Teachers’ beliefs about student motivation: similarities and differences across cultures. Comparative Education, 39 (3), 367-389.
Mills, G. (2003).E.Action research: A guide for the teacher researcher. Upper Saddle River, NJ; Columbus, Ohio: Merrill Prentice Hall.
Patton, M. Q. (1990). Qualitative evaluation and research methods. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage Publications.
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