Motivation Strategies of ESL Teachers From The Perspective of Their Students

MOTIVATION STRATEGIES OF ENGLISH TEACHERS FROM THE
PERSPECTIVE OF THEIR STUDENTS
Abstract
This paper was conducted to investigate the motivation strategies students prefer and consider
effective. Adapting Dornyei’s (2001) questionnaire to determine the strategies students prefer and
consider effective, the research surveyed 75 third year students from three programs, namely:
Bachelor of Arts in Development Communication, Bachelor of Secondary Education and Bachelor of
Science in Garment Technology in state university taking English courses. Data were analyzed and
interpreted using quantitative-descriptive design. To confirm the results of the survey data, focus
group discussions (FGD), which were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim, were conducted. Four
(4) students from each program were interviewed. Using phenomenological analysis, the study
formulated from the FGD data different themes reflecting students’ suggested ways of implementing
the motivation strategies. The results of the study reveal that students prefer that their English
teachers demonstrate and talk about their own enthusiasm for the course material and how it affects
them personally and that they enable them to attribute success and failure to effort rather than to
innate talent. Their program and level of motivation do not affect their perception about the
motivation strategies they favor and consider effective. As to the level of effectiveness of their
teachers’ motivation strategies, all students regardless of program and level of motivation perceive it
to be average or effective. English teachers can then heighten their students’ success as language
learners by creating a learning atmosphere that disarms students of their emotional defences, such as
fear and anxiety, so that they can take risks in negotiating their personal and academic affairs in
English.
Keywords: Aspects of Motivation, Motivation Strategies, Second Language Learning, Second

Language Motivation
INTRODUCTION
One of the major problems plaguing many students today is the lack of motivation
toward learning activities (Legault, Green-Demers & Pelletier, 2006; Hardre, et al, 2007).
This may be due to their inability to perceive a relationship between their behavior and that
behavior’s subsequent outcome (Deci & Ryan, 2002) and their inability to predict the
consequences of their behavior and the reasons for behaving the way they do (Seligman &
Tensdale, 1974, cited in Lucas & Rojo-Laurilla, 2010). As a result, they avoid taking
necessary action to attain certain goals and spend little time and effort in doing tasks. Others
find themselves having no desire to carry out the learning tasks required of them, which can
develop feelings of frustration and discontentment and encumber productivity and well-being
Irene Calaunan/ Motivation Strategies of ESL Teachers | 2
(Legault, Green-Demers & Pelletier, 2006). Margolis and McCabe (2006) also argued that
students’ lack of ability to succeed results in a decline in academic motivation.
Other research findings reveal that students often become less intrinsically motivated
as they progress through the school years (Harter, 1992). Learning goals may go by the
wayside as performance goals become more prevalent and as a result, students will begin to
exhibit preferences for easy rather than challenging tasks (Harter 1992; Egoe & Sullivan,
1991). Increasingly, students tend to value activities that have usefulness and subjects that
are not directly applicable will likely decrease in popularity (Wigfield, 1994). By
adolescence, students’ motivation or lack of it tends to be greatly affected by the perception
that effort becomes a sign of low ability. They tend to attribute success and failure more to a
factor that is outside and beyond their control (Nicholls, 1990; Paris & Cunningham, 1996
quoted by Ormrod, 2004).
Motivation is believed to stimulate, arouse, express and maintain effort toward the
achievement of desired learning goals (Tella, Ayeni & Popoola, 2007). It serves as an inner
drive that energizes learners to do what they are expected to do, to persevere in it whether
they like doing it or not, and to successfully accomplish it according to set standards (Lucas
& Corpuz, 2007). Dornyei (2001) defines motivation as the direction and magnitude of
human behavior which includes the choice of a particular action, the persistence with it and
the effort expended on it. Additionally, Gardner (2010) describes motivated individuals as
those who express effort in attaining a goal, show persistence, attend to the tasks that are
necessary to achieve the goal, have strong desire to attain the goal, enjoy the activities
necessary to achieve their goal, are assured in seeking their goals, and have expectations
about their successes and failures. Moreover, he states that when these individuals attain a
certain degree of success in what they are doing they become confident about their
achievement and have reasons for the way they behave.
Second language motivation, in particular, is the combined effort and desire to

achieve the learning goal plus the favorable attitude towards learning the target language
(Gardner, 1985). According to him, motivation is related to attitude because it is linked to
striving to learn the target language. In other words, motivation drives and directs effort to
achieve the desired learning goals.
Research studies showed that the affective factors, attitudes and motivation, have
significant relationship with second language achievement (Gardner & Lambert, 1972 cited
in Asongwe, 2008). These studies confirm that students who are highly motivated and have
positive attitudes towards learning a second language (L2) are more likely to perform better
in language learning than students who are less motivated and have negative attitudes
towards learning it. Such studies even go to the extent of asserting that highly motivated
Master of Arts in Education (Language)

students are able to learn a language successfully regardless of their ability, aptitude and
intelligence (Dornyei, 2001).
Lucas and Corpuz (2007) differentiated the two types of learners, the intrinsically
motivated and the extrinsically motivated. The former has an inner drive to do something
because he wants to do it or he finds it interesting or enjoyable. He still finds pleasure in
what he is doing even if he does not receive any reward. Conversely, the latter is influenced
by another person or something outside him. If his source of motivation is gone, he is more
likely to lose interest in doing his task. Hence, teachers need to maintain and preserve the
learners’ intrinsic motivation because it has more a permanent effect on the learners than
extrinsic motivation.
In turn there are several studies about motivation and the factors affecting it. In the
classroom, motivation can be influenced by students’ perceptions and other factors that
emerge from their direct and indirect interaction with their teachers and peer groups (Hardre
et al., 2003). This view is corroborated by Reeve (1996) who states that teachers can directly
and indirectly affect students’ motivation for learning and achievement. Some teachers’
practices decrease students’ interest especially when the process of learning engagement is
prolonged, but if teachers put premium on the learning motivation of students, they can
initiate motivating learning activities and get them involved in learning all throughout. This
would result in the students’ sustained commitment to learning. Thus, it is a challenge for
teachers to develop in their students the goals, beliefs and attitudes that rouse their quality
involvement in learning.
Other investigations point to the language teacher as the primary source of motivation
(Bernaus, et al, 2009, Williams & Burden, 1997; Atkinson, 2000). Accordingly, effective
instructors act as inspiration and resource, encouraging and supporting students’ intrinsic
motivation to explore, learn and experiment (Csikszentmihalyi, 1997). Likewise, Brown
(2007) states that teachers need to use pedagogical tools that can exploit the power of
intrinsic motivation of learners who are striving for excellence, autonomy and self-
actualization. On the same note, Stransfield and Winke (2008) assert that high motivation
may lead to more strategies and time on task, interplay with the learner’s existing aptitude,
and maximize the learner’s potential.
Self-efficacy is yet another factor thought to bear on language learning motivation. It

is referred to as a construct similar to confidence and a person’s judgment about his
capability to perform a task at a specified level of performance (Seifert, 2004). This means
that students who have strong self-efficacy believe in their ability to perform and are likely to
be driven to achieve. These students think that they fail not because they lack the ability to
pass a test but for some other reasons such as insufficient time given to prepare for the test.

In contrast, those who have low self-efficacy easily lose hope and are likely to give up when
faced with difficult tasks.
Finally, social support is believed to be a factor that strongly influences the level of
motivation of learners. Significant others such as teachers, parents and friends can influence
academic attitudes and behaviors and facilitate intrinsic motivation (Legault, et al, 2006;
Deci & Ryan, 2002). Following are the three dimensions of social support according to
Legault, et al, (2006). The first dimension is Autonomy Support which pertains to the
situations and environments related to adopting purposeful behavior and involves respecting,
valuing, and developing students’ intrinsic motivation. This stresses giving learners the
freedom and responsibility for themselves and recognizes the importance of moderate
structure and guidance. Several studies support the conclusion that motivation is increased
when teachers support their learner autonomy (e.g., Hamm & Reeve, 2002; Reeve, 2002;
Reeve, Bolt & Cai, 1999). Another dimension of social support is Competence Support. It is
important that learner’s social network support his feelings of competence and mastery.
Effective learning takes place when teachers communicate useful information to him so that
he could apply the lessons learned. Also teachers should provide positive feedback to
students on the progress of their learning and provide it in a way that meets their competence
needs. This information exchange is very important in defining teacher-student relationship.
However, the effects of knowledge and competence and support from teachers, parents and
friends are cumulative (Green-Demers, 2006). The last dimension of social support is
Interpersonal Affiliation or Relatedness. This need is met when students are given
opportunities to socialize with others especially key social figures who show a deep concern
for them. Children and adolescents require close, stable, and nurturing associations with
significant authority figures (Shahar, Henrich, Blatt, Ryan & Little, 2003). In education, this
need can be met if students and teachers take pleasure in forming relationships and
interacting. Parents and friends also play a large part in students’ feelings of affiliation,
fostering academic engagement and well-being when relations in the scholastic context are
warm, supportive, and constructive (Green-Demers & Pelletier, 2003). Research studies
support the role of social support in academic motivation and success (Hardre & Reeve,
2003; Reeve, 2002).
According to Dornyei (2001), the motivation strategies employed by teachers may be

classified into four. The first category is creating appropriate atmosphere to motivate
students. It involves teachers’ demonstration of their enthusiasm for the course and sharing it
with their students. They also show interest in their students’ activities and take learning very
seriously. To create a pleasant and supportive environment, teachers show good relationship
with their students and make them realize that mistakes are inevitable in the learning process.
Teachers also create a sense of group in which peer role models help their less able mates

and maintain an anxiety-free environment as peer share the same activities and commit the
same mistakes as their struggling mates do.
Generating initial motivation is the second category. One of its subcategories is

increasing students’ second language (L2) related values. For example, students are made to
use the target language as they engage in interactive activities in which a motivated student
conveys his enthusiasm towards the subject. Another is raising students’ intrinsic interest by
focusing on the aspects of the lesson that students may enjoy. Teachers could find topics that
are interesting to talk about and explore in order to promote a positive disposition towards
the L2 including its speakers and culture. Still another is increasing students’ expectancy of
success. In this regard, teachers may give enough preparation for the tasks the students will
be doing and provide support when difficulties arise. Students may also help each other to
solve possible problems they may encounter. Teachers themselves can direct students to
achieve their goals by making them outline their goals and showing their accomplishments
when those goals are met. The next subcategory is making the teaching materials attractive to
their students. If they see the importance of what they are doing in their daily experiences,
they would be made to believe that learning is enjoyable. It is also important that they have
realistic beliefs about learning. Teachers need to direct their students to attribute success to
their effort and not on their innate talent.
After generating initial motivation, motivation has to be maintained and preserved.

This involves making the learning environment friendly and pleasant by breaking the
classroom monotony; that is, doing unexpected things. Learners’ curiosity and class
involvement need to be increased. This can be done by giving them specific roles in the
different parts of the lesson or joining them in games so that they may take part in the
activities and feel relaxed. Teachers also need to present tasks in a motivating way by
explaining the purpose of doing those tasks and by enabling students to use various strategies
to accomplish the tasks. To increase learners’ confidence, teachers can focus on things
learners can do and give them regular experiences of success.
The last category involves promoting effort attribution in students. They need to
realize that to be successful at learning an L2, they should put effort into their work and use
appropriate strategies. To increase learner satisfaction, teachers must observe their students
and provide feedback on their students’ progress and achievement. Another is offering
reward which should be done unsparingly so that students do not become anxious about the
reward. Finally, grades must be used in a motivating way and used to reflect effort and
improvement. It is assumed that through these suggestions, teachers’ practices can have
direct impact on students’ motivation.
One of the theories on teachers’ motivation strategies which underpin this research is
the Self-Determination Theory (Ryan & Deci, 2001). According to this model, the perception
of students about themselves and others can affect to a great extent the presence or absence
of their motivation to learn. Students can learn best when their motivations reveal three
factors, namely: autonomy (perceived free choice); competence (perceived capability in
school-based tasks), and relatedness (perceived interpersonal support of others). These
factors are basic motivational needs and are equally important to every individual student.
Thus, a classroom environment that supports these basic motivational needs can promote
high motivation and performance (Ryan & Deci, 2002).
Krashen (1987) also asserts this in his Affective Filter Hypothesis. Allegedly, second
language acquisition is strongly affected by a learner’s affective state resulting from the
interaction of anxiety, motivation, and self-confidence. When a learner is emotionally
weighed down by high anxiety, low motivation and low self-confidence, a learner’s affective
filter is heightened. This high affective filter limits or obstructs the assimilation of language
input; hence, the failure of a learner to acquire the target language (TL). On the contrary,
when a learner experiences low anxiety, high motivation and high self-confidence, this
lowers his/her affective filter resulting in successful language acquisition. Indeed, teachers
may not be aware that the atmosphere they create in the classroom is so threatening that it
hampers rather than facilitates the success of students in learning English.
Furthermore, Dornyei (2001) reports on self-efficacy as the individuals’ thinking

about their ability to carry out activities. He avers that self-efficacy is influenced by previous
performance and learning, as well as encouragement from other people. Additionally, he
states those reactions such as anxiety and a low sense of self-efficacy in a demanding task
means that those who easily lose their belief in their ability to perform the task give up. In
contrast, according to Dornyei (2001), a strong sense of self-efficacy builds confidence and
increases effort to avoid failure. Students think that they fail due to some reasons such as lack
of time given to prepare for a test not because they lack the ability to pass the test.
Related to Dornyei’s self-efficacy is social support which is the extent to which

significant others encourage the students to learn, facilitate their access to educational
resources, and teach them self-regulatory strategies such as goal setting, self-monitoring,
self-evaluation and the use of learning strategies (Schunk & Pajares, 2002). Once students
are engaging with the task, personal factors (e.g., information processing) and situational
factors (e.g., teacher’s feedback) provide them with cues about their performance and skills.
If the evaluation they receive is positive, their motivation and self-efficacy will be enhanced.
Conversely, if they receive a negative evaluation, they may still possess motivation or self-
efficacy but they need to exert more effort or use other learning strategies so that they can
perform better. Teachers may find evaluating students' work very laborious; however they
can be of help in improving self-efficacy of students if they give students important
feedback. They will work harder to learn English because their work is being given attention.

Likewise, Qashoa (2006) suggests that second language learners should have
motivation and a reason for action, and should be offered to be motivated and fulfill their
learning orientations. Without motivation, success will be hard to come by (Ushioda, 2008).
Being motivated, students can determine the extent of their engagement in learning the
second language. They make a way to satisfy their desire to learn as they explore and engage
in various learning activities.
Teachers, however, have their own beliefs on the motivating strategies that can be
implemented in their classes, yet students may find them ineffective. Ironically, few studies
had been done on motivation strategies considered effective in accordance with the
perception of students in the ESL context. Therefore, to determine the teachers’ strategies
that make students interested in learning English, this study elicited views on their teachers’
strategies which they prefer and consider effective. It aimed at examining teachers’
motivational strategies from the perspective of the students themselves; thus, providing a
better understanding of what really motivates them. The task of the L2 teacher then becomes
easier if students are motivated to learn.
Research studies have been made on motivation strategies employed in

second/foreign language learning. These studies reveal how teachers influence students’
motivation within different learning contexts by showing appreciation of effort (Kassing,
2011; Cheng & Dornyei, 2007), creating and monitoring relationships with students (He,
2009; Kassing, 2011), presenting tasks properly (He, 2009; Cheng & Dornyei, 2007; Dornyei
& Csizer, 2002), using communication and creative/gamelike activities (Guilloteaux &
Dornyei, 2008; Cheng &Dornyei, 2007; Dornyei & Csizer, 2002); creating a pleasant and
relaxed atmosphere in the classroom (Cheng & Dornyei, 2007; Dornyei & Csizer, 2002; Al-
Mahrooqi, et. al., 2012). According to He (2009), providing students with familiarity of L2
related values such as encouraging students to use English as much as possible is an
important strategy for increasing students’ motivation. It was also found that displaying
teacher behavior and promoting learners’ confidence are believed to be convenient to use
(Cheng & Dornyei, 2007; Dornyei & Csizer, 2002). The use of motivation strategies depends
much on culture. In Cheng & Dornyei’s (2007) study promoting learner autonomy is
considered very effective motivation strategy among Hungarian English teachers; however, it
did not have much significance according to Taiwanese English teachers.
From the aforesaid studies, it can be surmised that research on motivation strategies
has focused more on what motivation strategies are employed by teachers in the classroom,
as well as on the centrality of the role of the teacher in fostering motivation in learners. An
inquiry into the perspective of language learners particularly on what motivation strategies
work for them has yet to be explored; hence this study.

This was chosen as direction of the study because of the conviction that any
provision, to be meaningful and useful, should address existing and actual needs. And to
determine what is needful, recipients of intended provision should be consulted. The same is
true with teachers’ motivation strategies. Should teachers want to know and to provide what
exactly works with their students, then they should solicit their students’ views.
Specifically, this study sought to identify the motivation strategies used by ESL
teachers in their language classroom which the students prefer and consider effective;
determine the degree of effectiveness of the ESL teachers’ motivation strategies from the
perspective of their ESL students, and to gather from ESL students specific suggestions they
think and believe would enhance their motivation to learn English as a second language.
Dornyei and Csizer (2002) stress that a particular motivational strategy has no
absolute and general value. Accordingly, such strategy has to be implemented in dynamically
changing and very diverse learning contexts in which the personality of the individual learner
and of the teacher, as well as the composition and structure of the learner group, will always
interplay with the effectiveness of the strategy. In other words, a particular strategy may
work well on some teaching-learning contexts, but this may not apply in other cases. There
is, therefore, a need for further study to strengthen the assertions in previous studies and to
develop valuable framework of motivation strategies applicable to each unique group of
students.
Likewise, this research can help heighten students’ awareness that they are agents in
the processes that shape their own motivation, that is, motivation emanates from them.
Teachers are there to help them develop their skills to direct their own learning, but they
should see themselves as the “captain of their own ships” and take active role in the language
learning process.
This study can also influence the ESL teachers’ methods and the means they employ
in the classroom to motivate students to learn English. It can also help teachers understand
that they deal with learners who have complex backgrounds and personalities with a variety
of conflicting goals and motives. Theories in SLA may be known to the teacher but unless
these theories are actualized in the classroom and suited to students’ motivation, learning
English as a second language will be difficult to achieve.
Further, this study may encourage school heads to ensure that their teachers are given
adequate training to apply research-based motivation strategies and ultimately discover
innovative motivation strategies that they can apply in their language instruction.
Moreover, this can be useful to future researchers who may want to conduct similar
studies on motivation, say, to determine if the strategies work in contexts they may choose,
or in future contexts particularly different from these which are prevalent today.
The conduct of this study was guided by the following questions: (1) What
motivational strategies are preferred by students according to the following variables: a.
academic program and, b. level of motivation? (2) How effective are the motivation
strategies employed by English teachers as perceived by their students?, and (3) What are the
suggested ways of implementing the perceived effective motivation strategies?

METHODS AND PROCEDURES
Research Design
This study made use of the qualitative-descriptive research design to determine the
motivation practices of teachers that students prefer and consider effective. As such, it
sought to provide an understanding of the students’ perception on the motivation strategies
employed by their English teachers and how these strategies should be implemented in their
classes.
Respondents and Locale

This study was conducted at the Central Luzon State University, Science City of
Muñoz, Nueva Ecija from January 3 to February 14, 2013 and August 2013.
All third year students in three different academic programs, namely: Bachelor of
Science in Food Technology (BSFT), Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education (BSED),
and Bachelor of Arts in Development Communication (ABDC), were the participants to the
study. This study used purposive sampling to identify the actual participants from each
program. All the students were made to answer the Motivation Level Survey adapted from
the University of Bradford. Eighteen (18) students from the BSFT, twenty three (23) from
BSED, and thirty-four (34) from ABDC participated in the survey (See Appendix A).
Students in the three programs were chosen for the reason that they have had more exposure
to the English language than lower level classes and have had more opportunities to be
handled by teachers who employ motivation strategies in the ESL classroom.
Instrumentation and Data Collection

The study made use of two survey questionnaires and focus group discussion (FGD)
to collect the data needed in the study.
The first survey was adapted from the University of Bradford (See Appendix B) and
was intended to determine the respondents’ levels of motivation, namely: 1) Always
Motivated, 2) Slightly Motivated, and 3) Not Motivated. Through self-assessment, the
respondents rated themselves along eight good motivation criteria from a scale of 1 to 10.
Those who scored 55-80 were categorized as Always Motivated, while those with 35-50
were considered Slightly Motivated, and those with 30 and below as Not Motivated. None
among the participants was Not Motivated.
The students who are Always Motivated (AM) exert more effort to find reason for
doing their L2 tasks than the Slightly Motivated (SM) students do. Though they find their
work uninteresting, the AM students still do their work their work because they believe they
can benefit from it in the future. Unlike the AM students, the SM students do not always
clarify about the teachers’ expectations and standards they need to meet. The AM can always
focus and do not allow their minds to wander when engaged in their tasks. Also, they always
seek others’ assistance so that they can improve their L2 skills when facing learning
complexities. The SM students do not always give themselves regular breaks from work nor
do they always reward themselves when they work unlike the AM students do.
Another set of survey questionnaire taken from Dornyei (2001) was used to determine
the motivation strategies the students preferred and considered effective. This questionnaire
consisted of the four (4) stages of motivation, namely: creating initial motivation (7 items),
generating initial motivation (8 items), maintaining and protecting motivation (13 items), and
encouraging positive self-evaluation (5 items). Using this set of questionnaire as benchmark,
the respondents assessed the motivation strategies employed by their teachers in order to
identify those that they prefer most, as well as those strategies they find most effective. To
indicate their preference, they ranked the items in each category, and to determine the level
of effectiveness, they rated the items from 1 to 4 with 1 to mean Not Effective, 2 as Slightly
Effective, 3 as Effective, and 4 as Very Effective (See Appendix C).
To shed more light on the results of the survey, and to answer the third question, a
focus group discussion was conducted among the participants. The students were asked to
share their views about their preferences as well as perceived effectiveness of their teachers’
motivation strategies. Moreover, FGD was conducted to elicit the students’ suggested ways
of implementing the motivation strategies employed by the teacher. A set of questions was
prepared and used to facilitate the discussions (See Appendix D.). During the discussions,
deviations from the topic were tolerated so that highly relevant topics that spontaneously
came up during the discussion could be given appropriate attention or the need for
clarification could be addressed.
As a data gathering tool, FGD is an organized discussion of 4-12 participants and

usually lasts 45 minutes to 90 minutes. It provides the opportunity for the respondents to
participate and to give their perceptions on a certain topic. The interviewer utilizes a list of
open-ended questions which are arranged in a natural and logical order. It aims to gain
understanding of the subject being researched, formulate interventions, test new ideas or
programs and improve existing programs. It gives the opportunity for researchers to identify
the similarities and differences of understandings held by the participants and to investigate
the reasons for certain observable fact. Recent researchers (Kitzinger, 2005; Kroll, et al,
2007; Conradson, 2005) discussed and recommended FGD to obtain the interviewees’ views
about the topics under consideration.
Data Gathering
Letters were given to the college deans and to the Dean of the Office of Student Affairs
requesting permission to administer the two survey questionnaires to the third year students,
and to conduct focus group discussion with the student respondents. Upon the approval of the
request, the first survey questionnaire was administered to determine the respondents’ levels
of motivation. As soon as the respondents were identified and classified according to their
levels of motivation, the administration of the second survey followed to determine their
motivation strategy preferences as well as the motivation strategies they think to be effective.
After the survey results were tallied to answer the first two research questions, the researcher
went back to facilitate the focus group discussion with the respondents who were willing to
do so. Prior to the conduct of the FGD, the researcher guided the student participants by
explaining its purpose and by giving clear directions on how the discussion will proceed.
Unfamiliar words were explained or translated in Filipino to be able to get the desired results.
The FGD lasted for 45 minutes. Proceedings of the FGD were audio-recorded and
transcribed verbatim for analysis. Using phenomenological analysis, the study formulated
from the interview data different themes that reflect students’ suggested ways of
implementing the motivation strategies in the ESL classroom. Researches in psychology
support this method to produce a comprehensive list of respondents’ statements expressing
feelings or thoughts relevant to the target experience (Davidson, Stayner, Lambert, Smith &
Sledge, 2001; Pollio, Henley & Thompson, 1997).
Treatment of Data
The researcher made use of nominal scale for Tables 1 and 2 to determine the
frequency of the motivation strategies the participants prefer and these strategies were ranked
from highest to lowest. To find out the strategies’ level of effectiveness, she employed a 4-
Point Likert Scale in which the items were rated from Not Effective to Very Effective. For
Table 3, the weighted mean was taken to describe the strategies’ level of effectiveness.
Moreover, she obtained the themes from the FGD data using phenomenological approach
which focused on the suggested ways of implementing the motivation strategies in the L2
class.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter presents the results of the survey questionnaire, together with their
analysis and interpretation. Responses to the survey were analyzed to determine the
motivation strategies the students prefer and consider effective.
Motivation Strategy Preferences of ESL Students according to Program
The four aspects of motivation strategies (MS) employed by English teachers as well
as the MS preferred by the students in their respective programs, namely: the BSFT, BSED,
and ABDC are shown in Table 1.
Table 1. ESL students’ motivation strategy preferences according to program

MOTIVATION STRATEGIES (MS) PROGRAMS
BSFT BSED ABDC
Creating initial motivation Freq Rank Freq Rank Freq Rank
1.Demonstrates and talks about his/her own enthusiasm for the course material, and
6 1 11 1 7 2.5
how it affects him/her personally
2.Takes the students’ learning very seriously 3 3 4 2.5 12 1
3.Develops personal relationship with students 1 6 3 4 2 5
4.Creates a pleasant and supportive atmosphere in the classroom 4 2 4 2.5 7 2.5
5.Promotes the development of group cohesiveness 2 4.5 0 6.5 5 4
6.Formulates group norms explicitly, and have them discussed and accepted by the
2 4.5 1 5 1 6
learner
7.Has the group norms consistently observed 0 7 0 6.5 0 7
N= 18 N= 23 N=34
II. Generating initial motivation
1.Promotes the learner’s language-related values by presenting peer role models 4 1 0 7.5 4 5.5
2.Raises the learner’s intrinsic interest in the English learning process 3 3 6 1 5 3
3.Promotes “integrative” values by encouraging a positive and open-minded disposition
towards the L2 and its speakers, and towards foreignness in general 3 3 4 4 7 1
4.Promotes the students’ awareness of the instrumental values associated with the
2 5.5 5 2.5 5 3
knowledge of English
5.Increases the students’ expectancy of success in particular tasks and in learning in
1 6 1 6 1 8
general
6.Increases students’ goal orientedness by formulating explicit class goals accepted by
2 5.5 0 7.5 3 7
them
7.Makes the curriculum and the teaching materials relevant to the students 3 3 5 2.5 4 5.5
8.Helps to create realistic learner beliefs 0 7 2 5 5 3
N= 18 N=23 N=34
III. Maintaining and protecting motivation
1.Makes learning more stimulating and enjoyable by breaking the monotony of
1 7 7 1 5 2
classroom events
2.Makes learning stimulating and enjoyable for the learner by increasing the
2 4.5 2 5 5 2
attractiveness of the tasks
3.Makes learning stimulating and enjoyable for the learner by enlisting them as active
0 10 3 3 0 12
task participants
4.Presents and administers tasks in a motivating way 5 1 2 5 2 8.5
5.Uses goal-setting methods in your classroom 1 7 1 8 2 8.5
6.Uses contracting methods with your students to formalize their goal commitment 0 10 0 11.5 1 10
7.Provides learners with regular experiences of success 3 2.5 4 2 4 4.5
8.Builds learners’ confidence by providing regular encouragement 1 7 0 11.5 0 12
9.Builds learners’ confidence in their learning ability by teaching them various learner
0 7 2 5 3 6.5
strategies
10. Allows learners to maintain a positive image while engaged in the learning tasks 2 4.5 0 11.5 4 4.5
11. Increases student motivation by promoting cooperation among the learners 0 7 1 8 3 6.5
12. Increases student motivation by actively promoting learner autonomy 0 7 0 11.5 0 12
13. Increases the students’ self-motivating capacity 3 2.5 1 8 5 2
N= 18 N= 23 N=34
IV. Encouraging positive self-evaluation
1.Promotes effort attributions in students 7 1 5 2.5 12 1
2.Provide students with positive information feedback 3 3.5 9 1 8 2
3.Increases learner satisfaction 3 3.5 5 2.5 4 4.5
4.Offers rewards in a motivational manner 4 2 2 4.5 4 4.5
5.Use grades in a motivating manner, reducing as much as possible their demotivating
1 5 2 4.5 6 3
impact
N=18 N=23 N=34

Bachelor of Science in Food Technology (BSFT). In the first aspect, Creating initial
motivation, the strategy most preferred by students in the BSFT program is “Demonstrates
and talks about his/her own enthusiasm for the course material, and how it affects him/her
personally.” This implies that the teachers in the BSFT program are able to inspire their
students with their own interest in and passion for what they do or teach.
This finding is expected of teachers in the BSFT program in which the main thrust is
to graduate food technologists who are globally competitive (BSFT Dept. VMO).
Undoubtedly, this vision requires graduates who are communicatively competent in English
as this is now the language of the world. The immediate need, therefore, is for English
teachers to rouse the motivation of their BSFT student sand to ascertain their proficiency in
English. These teachers of English as a Second Language (ESL), however, can achieve this
goal only if they themselves are equipped with the required competence, have conviction in
the value of what they do, and propelled by the passion to teach their matter.
The second most preferred strategy is “Creates a pleasant and supportive atmosphere
in the classroom”. This clearly shows that to the perception of BSFT students, their teachers,
in general, make students feel comfortable and motivated by providing an atmosphere that
stimulates learning. Consequently, learning is catalysed and facilitated. Again, this was
confirmed during the FGD when one of the respondents said,
“The ambiance inside the classroom is one of the most important factors to be considered in
teaching. If students are not mentally, physically and emotionally activated they are not able to
learn or express what they want.”
Still another respondent quipped,
“Having a pleasant atmosphere in the classroom makes the students at ease. It makes us
comfortable to interact with the teacher. We can express our ideas to him/her without hesitating
about our response…”
This finding is strongly corroborated by Salem (2006) and Krashen (1987) who
claimed that second language learning and/or acquisition takes place more successfully when
second language teachers make sure that students’ affective filter is reduced by creating a
pleasant and supportive atmosphere where students feel anxious- free or secure. This was
also somehow asserted by Smith and Spurling (2001) saying that when students feel the
sense of belongingness, value and respect in a caring and supportive classroom, they will
tend to undertake more fully the process of learning. Moreover, humour, appropriate
teachers’ actions, and a norm of tolerance for mistakes can greatly reduce anxiety. This norm
assures students that they will not be embarrassed or criticized if they make mistakes because
mistakes are seen and welcomed as a natural part of learning (Dornyei, 2007).
The next most preferred MS is “Takes the students’ learning seriously.” Obviously,
the motivation of students is easily won when they feel that their teachers sincerely do what
they do because of the honest and strong intent to make or help them learn. This finding was
also reinforced by the respondents during the FGD in the following
“If the teacher is showing that she wants the students to learn, then I guess the students will also
try their best to learn”.
Of all the MS in the first aspect of motivation, “Has the group norms consistently
observed” is the least preferred. While this is a strategy much desired for creating a strong
motivation to learn/acquire successfully a language, the result indicates that BSFT students
do not favour the way their teachers are applying it, just as one respondent verbalized:
“..malilimitahan po iyong pag-express ng estudyante sa sarili niya kasi po may sinusunod siyang
standard..hindi naman po lahat ng estudyante pantay-pantay...” (“... standards that should be met
hinder students to express themselves..not all students are of the same level...”)
According to Fraenkel and Wallen (1994), observing group norms in the language
classroom can indeed be a motivating strategy when the nature of the group to which an
individual is compared is extremely important; however, care should be taken so that
reference of an individual’s performance with that of the group does make sense. Or else, as
the student respondent said, it defeats the purpose of the comparison making students feel
intimidated and feel pressured instead. This happens when the group norm or level to which
an individual is compared is either beyond his/her ability to reach or when the aspect of
group norm expected of one is inappropriate. In these cases, the Self Efficacy Theory (Ryan
and Deci, 2002) asserts that it is pedagogically better that teachers promote self-comparison
rather than comparison with others in order to foster intrinsic motivation.
In the second aspect, Generating initial motivation, the BSFT respondents prefer
most the MS, “Promotes the learner’s language-related values by presenting peer role
models”. This clearly shows that the respondents approve of the way their teachers employ
peer role modelling to stimulate their language learning motivation. Bandura’s Social
Learning Theory (1954) strongly endorses this motivation strategy saying that the behaviour
of someone looked upon with high regard- who may be a parent, teacher, or peer- can be a
powerful influence attracting imitation or copying. Indeed, when learners are exposed to
models of their age and of the same cultural and socioeconomic background, they are likely
to be attracted to do what they do or to believe that they can do the same tasks as well. In
fact, students develop greater efficacy for a task when they see others like themselves
performing the same tasks successfully (Omrod, 2004, cited in Lucas & Corpuz, 2007).
The second most preferred MS is “Raises the learner’s intrinsic interest in the English
learning process”. This reveals the adequacy of their teacher’s implementation of this
motivation strategy. Intrinsic interest/motivation as defined by Nunan (2007) refers to the
combination of effort, the desire to achieve the goal of learning the language and favourable
attitudes towards the language. Apparently, the language teachers in the BSFT are able to
make learning pleasurable and beneficial. This is supported by the statements that surfaced
during the FGD. One respondent said:
“... the teacher would implant something in our mind…extend our learning beyond what the
teacher is teaching. That is the result if the teacher inculcates something in your heart, the
interest in the subject.” Another student similarly said, “I think if the teacher motivates the
students intrinsically then all virtues will flow out. It will make us love the subject like when that
teacher will make you excited to go there – to go to that class every day.”
Al-Kaboody (2013) said that students with intrinsic interest perform an action for the
feelings associated with exploring new ideas and developing knowledge as they attempt to
master the tasks or achieve a goal. Deci and Ryan’s Self-Determination Theory (2000),
likewise, explained that individuals reach their optimal level of motivation when their
psychological needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness or social connectedness are
provided for by their immediate environment. This means that needs that are fully satisfied
result in an individual’s attainment of the optimum level of motivation and well-being;
however, needs that are neglected result in deficit in motivation and well-being.
Another strategy that ranks second is “Promotes integrative values by encouraging a

positive and open-minded disposition towards the L2 and its speakers, and towards
foreignness in general”. This is definitely a motivation strategy that entices language learners
to master their target language imbuing them with positivity and open-mindedness towards
the TL itself and the TL native speakers will increase and enhance their contact and
interaction with TL speakers; thus, catapulting their acquisition of the TL (Schumann, 1976).
And this is the perception of the BSFT respondents: their language teachers provide them
opportunities, not only to acquire the English language but to maintain a positive attitude
towards the native speakers of English.
Still another MS that ranks second is “Makes the curriculum and teaching materials
relevant to the students”. This means that the teachers are perceived by their students to be
able to provide meaningful learning to their students. This survey result was confirmed when,
during the FGD, a respondent said,
“Dahil ginawa niyang relevant yong curriculum and teaching materials iyong estudyante
nakakarelate … sasabihin niya,’ kailangan ko ito,’ para sa kanyang daily living… mas madali
siyang matuto ng English…” (Students could relate because the teacher made the curriculum
and teaching materials relevant... a student would say, “I need this,” for his daily living... it
will be easier for him to learn English.)
Nunan (2007) corroborated this finding also when he said that motivation is said to be
effective only when students can relate curricular content and activities to their own
experience.
The third most preferred MS is “Promotes the students’ awareness of the instrumental
values associated with the knowledge of English”. This reveals that learners become
motivated to learn English or any language for that matter when they get something in return
out of the learning. Indeed, extrinsic rewards such a high-paying job, promotion, social
advancement, etc. can be so compelling that a learner will do whatever it takes to learn
whatever it requires. Tileston (2010, cited in Zangar, 2012) corroborates this finding when
she said that learners tend to hold on to the promise of or hope for the tangible result (of their
effort at learning) so that this drives them to pursue any course of action just to obtain it.
Result is supported by the following FGD statements:
“...ini-aim ng bawat estudyante na maging professional. Being professional is being proficient in
English...bilang kagagraduate malalaman mo na magaling ka kung magaling kang magsalita ng English.
Iisipin ng employer na magaling ka.” (…every college student aims to become professional…Being
professional is being proficient in English... you will know when you graduate that you are good if you have the
facility in the English language. Your employer would think that you are excellent.)
“Increases students’ goal orientedness by formulating explicit class goals accepted by
them” is the least preferred strategy in this aspect. This result suggests that the teachers either
do not employ this strategy at all, or if they do, their students find the implementation
unsatisfactory. It may also be that their students do not understand the goals they set, nor do
they know how to achieve them. Given clear directions and worthwhile incentives, learners
cooperate in order to achieve set goals and become even more eager to learn because they
fully understand what to do with the learned information and where they will be able to use it
(Gagne, 1985, cited in Senemoglu, 2003). Deniz’s study (2010) showed that short term goal
appears to be more meaningful when set with long term goals, and Brown (2001) stressed the
possibility of reducing the stress resulting from assessment tools such as quiz when short
term goals are set.
The third and least preferred MS in the second aspect is “Helps to create realistic
learner beliefs”. The realistic beliefs of learners about their abilities and weaknesses enable
them to manage and direct their efforts towards successful learning (Lucas & Corpuz, 2007).
Otherwise, they go about floundering what and how to learn. This, however, calls for the
help and guidance of teachers so that learners will be able to develop a balanced and realistic
sense of self (Owens, 2005).
In this study, the student respondents claim that they are not satisfied with the way
their teachers helped them to create realistic beliefs about themselves. When this is the case,
Al-Kaboody (2013) said that students may get disappointed and lose their desire to learn
because they hardly achieve their expectations as a result. Additionally, they need to be
helped to understand that in learning language, some complexities definitely do arise;
therefore, they need to develop diverse strategies to be able to achieve success in learning the
target language. On the other hand, teachers need to provide students with sufficient
feedback that set aright faulty beliefs about or expectations from themselves, the target
language, and their learning environment.
As to the third aspect of MS, Maintaining and protecting motivation, the motivation
strategy the BSFT students prefer most is “Presents and administers tasks in a motivating
way”. This result implies adequacy in the way the teachers maintain and protect the
motivation of their students. Presenting tasks includes clarifying the aim of the task, arousing
learners’ anticipation towards the task, and offering suitable strategies for doing the task (Al-
Kaboody, 2013). The tasks may be difficult but through varied techniques and interesting
materials, students can achieve them.
The second most preferred MS is “Provides learners with regular experiences of

success”. This indicates that the language teachers in the BSFT program help their students
to experience success regularly and to have a sense of achievement in learning English.
When learners experience regular success and enjoyment in learning, this fosters a sense of
confidence and resilience which become sources of inner strength to the learner during
difficult times such as learning failure, frustration, and/or pain. Instead of giving up,
difficulty propels their motivation to even try harder, to take risks and to create novel
learning strategies, all because of an inner strength that earlier successes have fostered in
them (Osborn, 1951, cited in Hermosa, 2002). Labrador (2007) offered added insight
regarding this by saying that students are able to feel that they are successful at what they are

doing when they know that their teachers are at their side and that they help prepare them to
do the task. In L2 learning, the students should understand that they may encounter potential
problems, but they can find distinct strategies they can use to solve those problems with the
assistance of their teachers.
“Increases the students’ self-motivating capacity” is the second most preferred MS.
This suggests that the teachers are able to develop their students’ ability to regulate and
maintain their own self-motivation, especially in times when the pull of external realities is
very demotivating. With their teachers’ assistance, they mature to a point where their drive to
get their work done comes from within and not attributed to anyone or anything external.
Just as the Attribution Theory (Weiner, 1992, cited in Lucas & Corpuz, 2007) explains,
learners are likely to be more motivated and are likely to succeed if they attribute their failure
or success to something within their control. On the contrary, when they attribute their
performance to something or someone outside, then they will likely be less motivated and
will likely fail because to them the constraints are beyond their power to control.
The third most preferred strategy in the third aspect is “Allows learners to maintain a
positive image while engaged in the learning tasks”. This strategy recognizes that the
motivation of students to learn is preserved when they are made to feel good about
themselves, especially while they are engaged in some learning tasks. To maintain this,
teachers may show trust by letting their students contribute to the learning process, be
tolerant when learners commit errors or mistakes, or create a learning environment that is
relaxed, accepting, and non-threatening (Al-Kaboody, 2013).
“Makes learning stimulating and enjoyable for the learner by enlisting them as active
task participants” is the least preferred MS. This is a glaring indicator of deficiency in the
motivation strategies of the ESL teachers in the BSFT program. Apparently, the students do
not find the language learning activities pleasurable, nor do they take active part.
For the last aspect of motivation, Encouraging positive self-evaluation, the MS most
preferred by the BSFT is “Promotes effort attributions in students”. Result reveals that
students are motivated to learn when their teachers make them realize that their success
should be attributed to their effort. It is important to note that the effort students expend on
their learning tasks depends much on their level of motivation. According to Header (1958,
cited in CAUCE 2002), strongly motivated learners attribute success more to their ability and
considerable effort than to externalities. They also tend to persevere when facing failure due
to lack of effort. On the other hand, poorly motivated individuals tend to exert less effort as
they do not consider it has anything to do with the final result and give up tasks when facing
failures due to lack of capacity. Teachers then can help their students set their minds right by
attributing their success to factors they themselves can control.
The second most preferred MS is “Offers rewards in a motivating way”. This MS is

perceived to have a positive impact on students’ motivation. The following FGD exchange
confirms this:

“..iyong pagbibigay po ng reward tumutulong po sa pagiging competitive ng mga estudyante

kasi po parang gusto mong kunin iyong reward lahat gagawin mo.”(“...giving rewards helps
students become competitive; they do everything to get it. ”)
As Dörnyei (2001, cited in Alshehri, 2012) confirmed, most teachers feel that
rewarding their students' praiseworthy efforts and accomplishments is just a right thing to do.
However, there is a need for teachers to relate successful task performance to a learner’s
access to valued rewards because if they do students will have the joy of achieving their
learning goals and aspire to be given rewards in whatever form (Brophy, 1987).
“Provides students with positive information feedback” is the third most preferred
strategy. This result indicates that students do not only expect their teachers to teach but also
to provide feedback on their work and on their progress in general. According to Good and
Brophy (1994, cited by Dornyei, 2001) positive information feedback involves positive
descriptive feedback on students’ strengths, achievements, progress and attitudes. With
positive motivational feedback a student can find out the areas where he did well and those
he should focus on to improve his performance. This is confirmed in the following
statements taken from the FGD:
“. . .iyong pagprepraise. Kung yon po’ng pinagaralan mo tapos nagtanong po iyong teacher
kinabukasan din at tama po yong sinagot mo... iprepraise ka po iyon pong masarap pakinggan
na sabihin na parang natuto kayong maeencourage po iyong studyante na mag- aral pa.”
Another MS that ranks third is “Increases learner satisfaction”. Teachers who employ
this motivation strategy are cognizant of the significant role of the affective domain in
learning. When this domain is tapped, achieving learning goals is greatly enhanced (Owens,
2005). Indeed, learner satisfaction often results from successful achievement of goals through
effort. According to Brophy (1987), this can be done by “encouraging students to make sense
of what they are learning by processing it actively, paraphrasing it and relating it to their
prior knowledge and experience.” He also stressed that students should be challenged to
engage in activities that include divergent thinking such as giving opinions, giving
suggestions, predicting outcomes, or offering solutions to problems. These activities are
those that students are likely to get involved in because these give them opportunities to
share their personal and creative responses and in the end find joy and satisfaction in what
they do.
The BSFT students prefer least the MS, “Uses grades in a motivating manner,
reducing as much as possible their demotivating impact”. The following statements taken
during the FGD attest to this:
May mga teacher nasa recitation 0 lang po at tsaka 10 wala man lang 5. Basta po maliit lang
po iyong interval para eager pa rin po na makuha iyong pinakamataas..pag may computation
hindi naman po ganon kasama sa loob ng iba. (During recitation, some teachers assign only 0
and 10; they don’t give 5 for students’ scores. Interval should be small so that students will still
be eager to get the highest score).
Grades are supposed indicators of actual performance, and as such, can have both
motivating and demotivating effects. It will help if teachers make their grading system very
clear at the start of the term, give students the freedom to express their perceptions about it
and allow them to negotiate and agree on what to carry out.
Bachelor of Secondary Education (BSED). For the BSED students, the MS they
prefer in the first aspect, Creating initial motivation, is “Demonstrates and talks about his/her
own enthusiasm for the course material, and how it affects him/her personally”. Like the
BSFT students, those from the BSED program highly approve of the way their teachers
create initial motivation. Apparently, their teachers demonstrate enthusiasm for the course
material and even talk openly about their interest and passion for teaching. When asked
during the FGD why this is preferred, the respondents gave the following reasons:
“It sets the mood for the class to engage in the teaching- learning process. Another
respondent said, “…it’s very important that the teacher speaks with enthusiasm because
once the students are mesmerized by his knowledge or wisdom of that subject he is teaching,
students will become very attentive. The willingness they have is very high. They really want to
learn what the teacher is talking about.”
This sharing of the BSED students during the FGD strongly implies that their
teachers’ own interest and drive in what they do has magnetic influence in that it draws the
students’ curiosity to learn more about the subject matter their teachers teach. Davis (1999)
attests to this finding when she said that instructors’ enthusiasm comes from confidence,
excitement about the content and genuine pleasure in teaching. If they become bored or
apathetic, their students will, too.
This finding is even more highly expected of professional teachers, especially those
teachers who train students to become future teachers. Teaching as a profession is founded
on principles that underscore the values of conviction, enthusiasm, commitment, dedication
and many other related values. This means that these values are not only discussed as matters
to be cognitively grasped by teachers-in-training during classroom discussion, seminars, and
forums, but the very nature and actual practice of teaching itself requires that all these values
have to be ingrained within for one to be and remain a teacher for life.
The second most preferred strategy is “Takes the students’ learning very seriously”.
This shows that the teachers impress in their students their effort and determination to help
students learn. However the teachers do it, the students are aware and that they like the
serious intent of their teachers to make learning happen. This is confirmed in the following
statement from the FGD:
“When the teacher competently imparts important knowledge to the learners, the learners will
recognize their teacher as authority and if the teacher takes teaching-learning process seriously, the
learners will recognize the efforts of the teacher.”
This is supported by Dornyei (2001) who stated that teachers who take their jobs seriously
increase students’ interest in the lesson. It is evident through the statement that there are
teachers who do not take students’ learning seriously. As a result, students do not show
confidence in what the teacher is saying:
“When the teacher gives an assignment, the teacher should check it. Sometimes teachers say,
“You research on this.” When students find out that the teaching did not check it, the students
will not do the next assignment.”

Another motivation strategy that ranks second in this cluster is “Creates a pleasant
and supportive atmosphere”. This result shows that students are encouraged to learn when the
learning atmosphere is less tense. The following statement taken from the FGD reveals why:
”He sets the mood and then the relationship of the teacher with the students is good and then
he’s saying that it is okay to commit errors. Errors are inevitable.”
Krashen in his Affective Filter Hypothesis also corroborated this result when he
claimed that a learning atmosphere with low affective filter- that is, motivation and self-
confidence are high, while anxiety is low- makes learners acquire the L2 more effectively.
“Develops personal relationship with students” is the third most preferred MS.
Results revealed that teachers find time to establish personal relationship with their students
which positively impacts on their learning motivation. He (2009) and Kassing (2011) support
this finding saying that creating and monitoring relationships with students within the
learning context can influence students’ motivation and eventually their learning
performance. Indeed, students and teachers can take pleasure in forming relationships with
each other because when relations in the scholastic context are warm, supportive, and
constructive, students’ feelings of affiliation, academic engagement and well-being are
strongly fostered (Green-Demers & Pelletier, 2003). Indeed, research studies support the role
of social support in academic motivation and success (Hardre & Reeve, 2003; Reeve, 2002).
One of the least preferred MS is “Promotes the development of group cohesiveness”.
Survey results reflect that English teachers do not often use this strategy of building group
cohesiveness to create basic motivational conditions. Consequently, their students expressed
disfavour as can be seen in the following FGD data:
“The teachers group the students not according to their interests but... by number… that would
be difficult since the teacher couldn’t recognize who benefits in the activity.”
While it is true that it is difficult for teachers to achieve group cohesiveness due to
students’ different backgrounds, learning styles, behaviours, etc., it is important to note
Dörnyei and Murphey’s (2003) statement that a language class should be dealt with as a
social group and that success depends more on what goes on inside and between the people
in the classroom in a language class and less on materials, techniques and linguistic analyses
(Stevick1980 cited in Wijaya, 2008). According to Dornyei and Murphey (2004, cited in
Hamada, 2008), students can achieve more if these components are present: interpersonal
attraction, commitment to task, and group pride. Hamada (2008), however, claims that if the
group becomes too cohesive, students are likely to focus more on their relationship than on
their task.
The second least preferred MS is “Has the group norms consistently observed”.
Results reveal that teachers do not employ this MS often that is why students do not find a
common purpose and direction in group activities. If they do, the group would be able to
understand what to do and to help keep everyone on the task and assist one another. Teachers
themselves can create shared values within groups (Deniz, 2010) and make students accept
group norms and get rid of negative attitudes and values. It is very important that teachers
observe created group norms consistently in order for students to control their own behaviour
and submit themselves to these norms. In line with this, Cohen (1994, cited in Dörnyei &
Malderez, 1999) stated that much of the usual work of teachers is taken by the students
themselves such as assuring that everyone understands what to do, helping to keep everyone
on task and assisting one another in the group. Students can take charge of themselves and
their mates even without the teacher to control their behavior.
In the second aspect, Generating initial motivation, the most preferred MS is “Raises
the learner’s intrinsic interest in the English learning process”. Creating and then raising a
learner’s interest in the English language learning process is a challenge to every teacher.
When they have helped their learners to understand that the process of language learning is
both complex and developmentally sequential, their motivation to learn it will not win and
their attitude to error becomes tolerant (Larsen-Freeman & Long, 1991). This can be gleaned
from the FGD comments of one of the respondents:
“I think if the teacher motivates the students intrinsically it will make us love the subject… like
when that teacher will make you excited to go there – to go to that class every day.”
Manning, et al., (2012) supports this finding saying that students value efforts that develop
intrinsic motivation. Likewise, Al Kaboody’s study (2013) corroborates this finding saying
that students with intrinsic interest perform an action for the feelings, associated with
exploring new ideas and developing knowledge, as they attempt to master the tasks or
achieve a goal.
“Promotes the students’ awareness of the instrumental values associated with the
knowledge of English” is the second most preferred strategy. This result reveals that the ESL
teachers in the BSED program are able to make their students understand and appreciate the
practical value and benefits of mastering English, the global language. Because this MS has
been employed by the ESL teachers and because their students have come to recognize the
instrumental benefits of learning English, the students’ interest to learn English has surely
been heightened. This can be noted in the following excerpt from the FGD:
“Telling her experiences about her travel abroad…about the importance of English really
boosts us to improve our English…”
With the explosion of knowledge and development worldwide, communication with
the world is now a basic necessity for global survival. Since English is the language for
global communication, particularly in Science and technology, motivation to learn it for its
instrumental value is a must (Al-Hag & Smadi, 1996; Al-Issa, 2002; Zughoul, 2003, cited in
Al-Tamimi & Shuib, 2009).
Another MS that ranks second is “Makes the curriculum and the teaching materials
relevant to the students”. Clearly, this shows that students are activated by their teachers to
learn content and materials useful and meaningful to them. The following FGD excerpt
confirms this result:
“…the curriculum is planned well and the teacher knows what and how to utilize it and the
subject matter is student-centered; thus, the students gain from it.”
When teachers guide their students not only in achieving concrete results to catch up
with deadlines but being more concerned with the process, students learn. Likewise, the
degree of their involvement increases (Dornyei, 2001).
The third most preferred strategy is “Promotes “integrative” values by encouraging a

positive and open-minded disposition towards the L2 and its speakers, and towards
foreignness in general”. Results reveal that the students want their teachers to draw them
closer to the target culture by helping them become fluent in English, their target language.
Schumann’s Acculturation Model advocates this direction in second language acquisition
(SLA). This model asserts that a learner’s motivation towards integration with the target
culture is a very powerful drive that can expedite SLA. He (2009), likewise, supports this
finding in his statement that providing opportunities for frequent social contact between
students and the target language and its speakers increase students’ motivation. In this
regard, use of authentic materials is strongly encouraged.
One of the least preferred MS is “Promotes the learner’s language-related values by

presenting peer role models”. Bandura’s Social Learning Theory advocates this motivation
strategy. In fact, it extols the significant role that peer role models play in making learning
happen. Accordingly, peer role models are ideals whom learners copy through emulation. If
not, they facilitate the acquisition of desired behaviour through vicarious reinforcement
(Owens, 2005). The finding in this aspect, however, reveals that the BSED respondents
(taking English as their major) do not favour the implementation of this strategy. It may be
that to the respondents, no one in the BSED-ESL classes has the English proficiency good
enough to be used as peer model.
Another least preferred MS is “Increases students’ goal orientedness by formulating

explicit class goals accepted by them”. This result shows that teachers do not often employ
this strategy in their classes. It may be that they do not find it necessary to do so. Even
Dornyei and Cheng’s (2007) study revealed that this strategy is seldom used by many
teachers because oftentimes school curricula have set institutional goals and thrusts that are
imposed as priority; as a result, teachers would rather adopt these as learning goals instead of
the students formulating specific goals for their respective groups.
In the third aspect of motivation, Maintaining and protecting motivation, the most
preferred strategy is” Makes learning more stimulating and enjoyable by breaking the
monotony of classroom events”. Implied in this finding is an effort on the part of ESL
teachers in the BSED program to be flexible in terms of scope and coverage of content, so
that they can accommodate unforeseen but relevant matter. Thus, they do not hesitate to
break classroom routines in order to address/teach the unexpected. The students perceive this
favourably as expressed in the following FGD excerpt:
“It is very important that every meeting, the students learn something new or experience
something new. If the events in the classroom are the usual thing that is happening in the
classroom then they will not be able to enjoy learning and they will get bored.”
Dornyei (2001) adds by reiterating that teachers personalize the classroom enabling
students to exercise control over their environment by taking charge of their seating
arrangement, music or physical exercise before and/or after class and the like. Learning that
is stimulating and enjoyable from the beginning to the end of the semester can be sustained

when teachers know how to address boredom and vary their teaching styles from time to
time.
“Provides learners with regular experiences of success” is the second most preferred
strategy. This reveals that from the perspective of the BSED student respondents, their ESL
teachers are able to help them experience success from time to time. These regular
experiences of success soon develop in them competence in confronting failures so that they
do not easily give up or demoralized when weighed down by difficult learning
circumstances. According to Hermosa (2002), these learners are able to maintain and protect
their learning motivation feeling successful at doing their tasks because their teachers
prepared and supported them to succeed.
The third most preferred MS is “Makes learning stimulating and enjoyable for the
learner by enlisting them as active task participants”. Students enjoy doing activities that call
for their active response by means of interaction with their teachers or with other students
(Brophy, 1987). They can also be offered activities in which they manipulate materials and
do other things than reading and listening. Involving them in simulations, projects and
creative applications of lessons being learned motivate students to learn just as they
expressed during the FGD:
“Enjoyable activities such as role playing makes students learn the language. They get to
practice the language thru communication…Students will exert more effort in performing the
tasks in English if the teacher makes them realize that the tasks are important and are
applicable in life.”
The least preferred MS is “Uses contracting methods with students to formalize their
goal commitment”. This finding indicates that the BSED –ESL majors are not in favour of
this strategy. It could be that their teachers fail to observe the standards or schedules agreed
upon by the class so students lose energy to work as expected. According to Dornyei and
Ushioda (2012, cited by Al-Kaboody, 2013), there is a natural tendency for students to lose
sight of a goal and give way to attractive discussions that result in initial motivation slowly
decreasing.
Another least preferred MS is “Allows learners to maintain a positive image while

engaged in the learning tasks”. This result obviously indicates that the BSED-ESL teachers
are not quite keen about fostering and maintaining the positivity of their students’ image
while they undertake some learning tasks, especially difficult ones. When students’ good
sense of self is fostered and strengthened, they tend to dare and take risks by engaging into
the strange and the unknown. On the other hand, too much external pressure and control in
the form of threats and punishments can cause the self-image of students to break. Creating
classroom situations in which learners experience trusting and being trusted, engaging them
in game-like activities and group competitions, and having them monitor the extent to which
they are approaching their individual and group goals are some of the many ways help them
maintain positive outlook about themselves (Dornyei, 1994).
“Increases student motivation by actively promoting learner autonomy” is also least
preferred. This finding is not only true to this study. In fact, this motivation strategy is not

very popular in the Asian context where learners tend to be field dependent rather than field
independent or autonomous. Normally, the teacher acts as presenter of knowledge not as
facilitator of learning (Warden & Lin, 2000). Classroom practitioners tend to give students
less opportunities to learn and take control of their own learning. Benson (2000) affirmed this
saying that learner autonomy is accepted as an educational goal but actual education practice
does little to promote it.
Still another MS that is least preferred is “Builds learners’ confidence by providing
regular encouragement”. This result is quite surprising. According to Dornyei (1994)
teachers develop self-confidence among students by trusting them and projecting the belief
that they will achieve their goals, regularly providing praise, encouragement and
reinforcement. He also added that when they feel uncertain about their competence and self-
efficacy, teachers can involve them in more favourable, easier activities. Their motivation is
likely to increase if teachers create favourable beliefs about students’ competence.
In the last aspect, Encouraging positive evaluation, the most preferred strategy is
“Provides students with positive information feedback”. According to Good and Brophy
(1994, cited by Dornyei, 2001) positive information feedback involves positive descriptive
feedback on students’ strengths, achievements, progress and attitudes. In addition, it provides
students with information rather than judgments against external standards and peer
achievement. With positive motivational feedback, students can compare their current
performance with that of their past achievement and find out the areas where they did well
and those they should focus on to improve their performance. Proper use of this motivation
strategy on students can build and foster amotivated and healthy sense of self as expressed by
the respondents during the FGD:
“. . . providing students with positive information is an effective form of self-evaluation for us
students because we will be able to know whether we are doing good or bad. We will be able to
keep track of our performance and that we can check . . . if we are getting the right information
that the teacher has conveyed …”
The second most preferred strategy is “Promotes effort attributions in students”.

Result indicates that students like the way their teachers employed this strategy. Their
teachers must have helped them to have the right mind set about to which and to whom
should they attribute their failures and successes. Since failure is a common experience
among language learners (Dornyei, 200, cited in Haslemi & Habishi, 2011) and that students’
perceptions about the source of failure have a strong impact on their future performance
(Haslemi & Habishi, 2011), their teachers should not lose time in helping their students to
stop attributing their successes and failures to anything or anyone outside them because these
are within their control. Realizing this can help them increase the possibility of developing
their proficiency in English.
Another most preferred motivation strategy is “Increases learner satisfaction”.
Learner satisfaction is undeniably motivating. Lucas and Corpuz (2007) said that when
students find satisfaction in an undertaking, they would like to do it over and over again. The
source of such satisfaction may be internal or external. External sources such as material
rewards, verbal praises and commendations are often sought by immature learners while

internal satisfaction such as sense of meaning and fulfilment are sought by the more mature.
Employment of this motivation strategy in the ESL classroom cannot be carelessly
overlooked. Its benefits are obvious and following are confirmations from the FGD:
“The teacher should tell how far students have gone in their learning. The students should feel
that they themselves are doing well not just the teacher telling them.” Similarly, another
respondent reiterated this: “There should be evidences of learning. Before we were just taking
the lessons from the teacher, but now we are applying what we have learned.”
These statements clearly express the need for teachers to be more concerned about the
affective part of learning.
One of the least preferred MS is “Offers rewards in a motivational manner”. The
respondents feel that they are not very keen about rewards. Accordingly, what matters to
them is the learning taking place in every encounter. They claim that learning is the best
reward, and that this in itself is what keeps them well motivated. It makes them willing to
expend effort in all learning tasks, if only to learn and/or attain mastery of skills or
competence at something useful in actual life.
Another least preferred is “Uses grades in a motivating manner, reducing as much as
possible their demotivating impact”. This finding again shows that however teachers
motivate them with grades for their effort, the student respondents regard learning as more
important than grades. The following statements from the FGD confirm this result:
“…what the teacher has left, what the teacher shared to us, this is what we remember from the
teacher, what important lesson we have from him”.
Another respondent said:

“Grade is just a number. What is important is the application in real life.”
According to Brophy (1998, cited in Dornyei, 2001), students may be concerned

about meeting demands successfully rather than focusing on the personal benefits derived
from learning experience; the BSED students think otherwise.
“Increases learner satisfaction” is also least preferred. This result is consistent with
the earlier responses. The respondents think and believe that their satisfaction increases with
the quality of learning afforded them. However and whatever the teacher does, as long as
they learn, their satisfaction increases and their motivation as well.
Bachelor of Arts in Development Communication (ABDC). In the first aspect,
Creating initial motivation, the ABDC students prefer most the MS, “Takes the students’
learning seriously” is their most preferred motivation strategy. This finding presupposes that
the ESL teachers in the ABDC program have convinced their students of their
unquestionable commitment and dedication to their task as facilitators of language learning.
This is easily notable in the following excerpts from the FGD with them:
“… the teacher takes the students seriously…students also take her seriously. She delivers the
lessons seriously, comes to school prepared, explains the lessons very well, provides
appropriate and enough handouts…if the teacher is showing that she wants the students to
learn, then I guess the students will also try their best to learn…”.
This finding is in place because the ABDC program aims to promote information
dissemination and education for economic growth especially in the countryside. Specifically,
it hopes to develop the communication skills of graduates who perform well in call centers,
the mass media and in research for purposes of national development. Obviously, the nature
of the course needs to uphold uncompromising standards of proficiency, both in English and
Filipino. To this goal, ESL teachers take the learning of their students very seriously.
“Demonstrates and talks about his/her own enthusiasm for the course material, and
how it affects him/her personally” is their second most preferred motivation strategy. This
finding confirms those in the other programs, that is, rousing the motivation of learners for a
course material is the automatic and natural result of the enthusiasm of the teacher
him/herself. Teachers do not have to follow a deliberately planned procedure for rousing
their students’ motivation to learn what is being presented them if they themselves are totally
committed to the value and meaning of what they teach. Everything about them will naturally
ooze the enthusiasm infecting students as a result. This is notable in the following FGD
excerpt:
“If a student can see that the teacher is really enthusiastic and she is really knowledgeable of
what she is imparting to the students for me there is a better impact and I’ll be learning a lot of
things from her.”
This affirms that teachers who display enthusiasm in the course encourage student’s
motivation to learn. As Czikszentmihalyi (1997) puts it, teachers’ passion for teaching is
shown in their enthusiasm for the language being learned, competence in the language
content to a sufficient extent, acceptance of students’ personality and respect for their values
and opinions, high expectations the teachers have for students’ success which they
communicate with them.
Another motivation strategy which ranked second is “Creates a pleasant and

supportive atmosphere in the classroom”. This finding clearly reveals that the quality of the
classroom atmosphere created by the ESL teachers in the ABDC program is favourable to the
students. They make it learner-friendly in that anxiety is low, confidence and motivation is
high, and interaction dwells on material just right in difficulty. A respondent in the FGD
somehow affirmed this saying:
“Having a pleasant atmosphere in the classroom makes the students at ease. It makes us
comfortable to interact with the teacher. We can express our ideas to him/her without hesitating
about our response.”
Smith and Spurling (2001) also stressed the motivating effect of a caring and supportive
classroom where there is sense of belongingness, value and respect temper. Mistakes are
regarded as natural part of learning, and students with limited language code are given
support in accomplishing difficult work so that they feel relaxed learning the target language
(Dornyei, 2007).
The third most preferred motivation strategy is “Promotes the development of group
cohesiveness”. Results reveal that students can become strongly motivated when they work
with groups. This is especially true when they feel comfortable and accepted so that they can

rely on their mates for support or provide them support. It is important, however, that group
compositions are changed when needed to avoid overfamiliarity and to see to it that
cohesiveness among learners is facilitative not a drawback to learning. Moreover, these
components should be present in the group: interpersonal attraction, commitment to task and
group pride (Dornyei & Murphey, 2004, cited in Hamada, 2008) so that they can perform
better as a group. Hamada (2008) cautioned that too much group cohesiveness will make
students focus more on their relationship rather on their task.
“Has group norms consistently observed” is the least preferred strategy. Norms or
standards for all sorts of performance cannot be done away with. People living in groups
have to abide with norms to maintain order. It is often the manner of creating and
implementing norms that creates problems. This reality surfaced during the FGD exchange
where some students said that a number of teachers do set norms to which students agree but
these are not observed consistently in class. In this regard, Olpustilova (2008) stressed the
importance of discussing and clarifying the results of violating norms with people concerned.
He further advised that these norms should be seen as valuable in the achievement of
learning goals, thus, must be consistently observed. Inconsistency of implementation can lead
to the thinking that these are not important and may be taken for granted.
In the second aspect, Generating initial motivation, the most preferred motivation
strategy is “Promotes “integrative” values by encouraging a positive and open-minded
disposition towards the L2 and its speakers, and towards foreignness in general”. This
reveals that the students have been motivated enough to desire, not only to learn English, but
to be drawn closer to the native speakers through actual exposure to their culture. He (2009)
confirms this result saying that when students are given opportunities to use English with its
native speakers as much as possible, they are likely to assimilate L2 related values. Because
of technology such as the internet, this has become very possible. Students nowadays can
communicate with native speakers and somehow have access to their culture.
The second most preferred MS is “Raises the learner’s intrinsic interest in the English
learning process”. This finding puts the ESL teachers in good light because they have been
able to awaken the intrinsic interest of their students to learn how to learn English. One of the
respondents had this to say:
“…since she is an English teacher, it can help if she shares with us her experience (about how
she learned and gained proficiency) in English. I think the students will be motivated if they can
see themselves in the situation of the teacher.”
The student respondent here has the intrinsic interest to learn how to learn English from the
first-hand experience of her teacher as English language learner. An intrinsic interest in
“learning how to learn” language (or language learning process) is a 21st Century skill that
has been preached and advocated as one of the pillars of education for some time now. It is
good to know that students nowadays have internalized the importance of this skill.
“Promotes the students’ awareness of the instrumental values associated with the
knowledge of English” is another second most preferred MS. This finding is indicative of a
positive perception on the motivation strategies of the ESL teachers in the ABDC program.
They are able to provide for the human nature of acquiring knowledge or skill primarily for
its practical usefulness. Before considering the “finer and higher things in life” Maslow
(1954) said that it is human nature to think about satisfying basic needs first. Students are
motivated to learn English because of expected utilitarian benefits such as job assurance,
social advancement, and others more. The study of Tileston (2010, cited in Zangar, 2012)
corroborates this finding asserting that what drives individuals to pursue any course of action
and/or hold on to a promise and/ or hope are the tangible results or rewards with practical
use.
Another most preferred MS is “Helps to create realistic learner beliefs”. Students are
likely to take challenges or contend with learning complexities when they have the right
beliefs about language learning. Teachers can correct faulty expectations so that they learn to
put effort into their work rather than to rely on their talent to achieve success. It is because
faulty beliefs and expectations may lead to frustrations and loss of interest when these are not
met (Al-Kaboody, 2013). According to Dornyei (2001), providing learners with
opportunities to realize that they can use different strategies and allowing them to discover
unique ways to deal with problems helps to better impact their learning.
One of the third most preferred MS is “Promotes the learner’s language-related values
by presenting peer role models”. Every teacher is aware that some learners in every group of
learners display language-related values such as eloquence, good pronunciation, a wide range
of vocabulary, and the like. Consequently, these learners rise above the others and are often
looked upon as models by their peers. In the classroom, teachers often choose them to act as
leaders to their peers. To some students, this seems to work as is noted in the following FGD
excerpt:
“I would be inspired… that model can inspire because for me as a person I look up to those at a
higher position to get what I want.... I can generate that confidence or inspiration for myself to
do the things that that person did.”
Julkunen (1991, cited in Dornyei, 1994) affirmed this saying that cohesive relationship
created among peer groups (including the peer model) helps lessen their anxiety and put great
effort in their tasks.
It is quite interesting to note, however, that the practice of choosing peer models has some
drawbacks. During the FGD, another respondent had this idea:
“... presenting role model brings some kind of frustration on the part of the students who are
seldom or never chosen as models/leaders of the tasks…”
This proves that some students do not like being compared with others and feel intimidated
in the presence of peer models. On this regard, it would be more considerate if teachers give
learners options on roles suitable for their individual interests if only to encourage creativity
and to avoid feelings of being compared with better others.
Another third most preferred MS is “Makes the curriculum and the teaching materials
relevant to the students”. Relevance of curriculum and learning material by itself is truly
motivating. Guilloteaux and Dornyei, (2008, cited in Babaee, 2012) recommended this to
teachers saying that they should focus more on making the learning content motivating by
seeing to it that students find meaning and enjoyment in the materials and textbooks they use.
One way to do this would be for teachers to look into the level of difficulty of material sand
their suitability to the needs and interests of the learners (Babaee, 2012). Students engage in
activities with sustained motivation if these are challenging but doable (Krashen, 1985).
The least preferred motivation strategy is “Increases the students’ expectancy of

success in particular tasks and in learning in general”. This finding is a wake-up call to all
ESL teachers in general. While this may be thought of as just a perception, language teachers
need to re-assess their approach, particularly on imbuing expectancy of success in their
learners. Witkowski, (1997, cited in Owens, 2005) warned about ‘learned helplessness’, a
feeling of inability to handle certain tasks with perception of oneself as unable to surmount
failures. Accordingly, this is the domino effect of repeated exposure to failure such that one
in this predicament often puts him/herself down when s/he fails, yet when s/he succeeds, s/he
is likely to say it is just luck. To imbue expectancy of success and to counter learned
helplessness, Brophy (1987) suggests that teachers can influence students’ success by
beginning at their level, moving in small steps, and preparing them sufficiently for each new
step so that they can adjust to it without too much confusion or frustration. In addition, they
should give reasonable tasks so that students can master a target skill one at a time.
In the third aspect of motivation, Maintaining and protecting motivation, the most
preferred MS are “Makes learning more stimulating and enjoyable by breaking the monotony
of classroom events,” and “Makes learning stimulating and enjoyable for the learner by
increasing the attractiveness of the tasks” are the most preferred MS. This result is a
commendation to the ESL teachers who find a way to arrest monotony when teaching. These
teachers make language learning a joy as confirmed by a participant during the FGD:
“Our teacher presented a lesson and asked us to present our understanding of the lesson in
different ways: it may be a song, a poem, a drama…in order to make us interested in the
lessons”
As Dornyei (2001) stated, increased student involvement heightens their motivation. This is
easily achieved in small groups or pairs of students with each member taking active role.
This breaks the monotony of classroom routines and maintains student motivation (Sillanpaa,
2012); therefore, the ESL teacher should create exciting language activities and employ
multisensory approach using visual, auditory and tactile teaching aids to arouse students’
curiosity and interest in language learning.
“Increases the students’ self-motivating capacity” is also most preferred. Dornyei

(2001, cited in Sillanpaa, 2012) claims that this motivation strategy benefits the learners as it
enhances their goal commitment, helps them monitor their own learning through
metacognition, promotes self-awareness, and trains the learner to control distracting
emotions. With the teachers’ instruction and guidance, they are directed towards the intended
behaviour and achievement of the desired outcome. Students just need some guided freedom
from the teacher to develop this motivational tool.

A second most preferred MS is “Provides learners with regular experiences of

success”. Students tend to be better motivated and more confident when they experience
multiple opportunities to succeed. According to Dornyei (2001), the difficulty level of tasks
should be adjusted to the students’ abilities, that is, allowing students to perform tasks that
they can manage. He added that teachers need to design tasks that focus on what learners can
do rather than what they cannot and include improvement options. When the task is very
difficult, students will think that they are incompetent and eventually will not spend effort in
it. Before giving them challenging tasks, teachers should give them support in areas students
are uncertain about.
“Allows learners to maintain a positive image while engaged in the learning tasks” is
another second most preferred MS. This result highlights the obvious and glaring negative
effects humiliation and criticisms have on students’ learning. As Labrador (2007) stated, it
will be difficult for students to forget and it will hurt them if teachers criticize students in
front of their peers. Moreover, Al-Kaboody (2013) stressed that teachers can help students
have a positive image when they choose activities containing good and positive roles. He
added that students can work in groups so that the norms of tolerance and acceptance are
developed. In short, students’ motivation is likely to be enhanced in a learning atmosphere
where students can feel respect and acceptance of their teachers and peers as well. Also,
teachers should see to it that students willingly accept the roles assigned to them as they
engage in learning.
One of the third most preferred MS in the third aspect is “Builds learners’ confidence
in their learning ability by teaching them various learner strategies”. This result suggests that
this strategy is not very favourably employed. It may be that the student respondents have
been aware of some language learning strategies (LLS) but their current teachers neither gave
much emphasis on the importance of these strategies nor gave them opportunities to hone
these so that the students’ confidence in the effectiveness of their LLS was not fostered. Or
this may probably be so because their teachers in the first and second year English courses
were expected to have taught them these so that by this time that they are in third year, they
are expected to have already acquired them fully so that they are able to apply them in their
English classes. Unfortunately, this is not the case, as the finding indicates. According to
CSU (2011), once students are aware of the advantages of learning strategies in their
language learning, they will be willing to appropriately employ these strategies to facilitate
learning. It is very important that teachers increase this awareness of language learning
strategies to raise students’ confidence in learning.
Another third most preferred MS in the third aspect is “Increases student motivation
by promoting cooperation among the learners”. Some students tend to let more able members
of the class do the work because they do not realize that they can contribute to the attainment
of a particular learning goal. To this, Labrador (2007) suggested that teachers can design
activities where students work as team players to achieve the same goal. He added that this
often works when they are made to understand that their output will be evaluated based on
the concerted effort of all team members, mastery of their roles, and how well they work as a
team.

task participants” is one of the least preferred MS in the third aspect. This finding projects a
kind of teachers and/or students who are contented with the passive teaching-learning mode.
Motivated language learning, however, cannot take place successfully in such type of
pedagogy (Celce-Murcia, 2001). Students learn through active task participation: by doing,
making, writing, designing, creating, and solving (Davies, 1999). To make learning
stimulating and enjoyable, Musslewhite’s (2005) recommends the use of technology such as
email exchanges. This makes learners active as it engages them to manipulate data, learn by
doing and involved in their own learning. When teachers realize the importance of student
involvement, students’ enthusiasm increases and communicative competence improves as
well.
“Builds learners’ confidence by providing regular encouragement” is another least

preferred motivation strategy. This reveals that the ESL teachers seldom point out the
students’ strengths as well as their skills. Labrador (2007) stressed that teachers need to tell
their students that they believe in their effort to learn and in their capacity to work well on
provided learning exercises (Labrador, 2007). Constant encouragement and positive feedback
are likely to increase students’ motivation to learn and confidence in themselves. This is
supported by a student’s statements during the FGD:
“...the teacher can increase our confidence if s/he allows us to speak in front and then accept
our answers and then encourage us to speak more. S/He will not let us like naiwanan sa ere
(does not leave us alone) something like that. S/he gives us some more guide to learn guide to
improve our skills in English and give some tips also for the improvement of ourselves for
example in speaking in English and to be alert in speaking in English.”
Still another least preferred MS in this cluster is “Increases student motivation by

actively promoting learner autonomy”. Results reveal that a number of teachers do not
employ this strategy very often in their classes. From the data gathered during the FGD, very
few students ask questions during and at the end of every lesson, and the classroom
atmosphere teachers create needs more provision for autonomous learning. Questions about
what learner autonomy is can be gleaned from Nunan’s (1996) comparison of non-
autonomous with autonomous learning. In the former, students are exposed to activities
where they are expected to perform. However, in the latter, the teacher introduces content
and classroom norms by taking students’ needs and interests into consideration. Accordingly,
students need to be given opportunities to engage in decision making and negotiation in order
to increase their motivation and learning autonomy experiences. All decisions must not come
from the teacher but must be shared with students to make them independent learners.
In the last aspect, Encouraging positive evaluation, the most preferred MS is

“Promotes effort attribution in students”. The ESL teachers, in this study, are aware and are
able to impress in their students that successful language learning is the result of effort rather
than talent. Lei and Quin (2009) stated that without effort, innate learning capacities achieve
nothing. Students may attribute their success or failure to task ease/difficulty, but they should
understand that this is an external factor which is uncontrollable (Hashemi & Zabihi, 2011).
Teachers then should help them to believe that there is an internal factor within them very
much within their reach and control- effort. When such learners have the realistic belief that
they can achieve success brought about by factors they can control and those that are stable,
there is a very good chance that their motivation to learn is sustained, and their learning
success ensured (Owens, 2005).
The second most preferred strategy is “Provides positive information feedback.” This
finding strongly indicates that the ESL teachers in this study have employed this motivation
strategy favourably well as can be noted in a respondent’s comment.
“....providing students with positive information feedback is an encouraging form of

evaluation ...we are able to keep track of our performance and we can check whether we are on
the right way or if we really are getting the right information the teacher has really
conveyed...”
When students get positive feedback, they are able to direct their learning because they are
made to know how well they are currently doing and what more they need yet to do in order
to reach desirable learning goals. Positive information feedback is therefore a kind of support
that every learner needs. Karaoglu (2008) corroborates this saying that teachers’ praise for
the good points in their students’ work is a form of feedback and reinforcement that
encourages positive self-evaluation and increases their sense of satisfaction increases. He
warns, however, that it is important for teachers to care enough to explain their students’
mistakes clearly. Accordingly, this proves to the students that their teachers are really taking
their learning seriously.
“Uses grades in a motivating manner, reducing as much as possible their

demotivating impact” is the third most preferred strategy in the last aspect of motivation.
From the respondents’ perspective, using grade to motivate is not very favourable as the
following FGD data confirms:
“...actually I do not care about my grade; what is important for me is I learned from the
subject, I understand it very well and I can use it when I graduate…aiming for 1.25 is not
important for me..”.Similarly, another student said: “I don’t mind the grade. We go to school to
explore, to learn, to enjoy…use grades for motivation …Some students forget to enjoy or to
explore.”
It is heartening to hear of students who view learning as having a more permanent value than
grades. To reduce the demotivating effect of grades and build a stronger intrinsic motivation
in students, emphasis and value may be put on incentives that recognize quality of students’
work, achievement of learning goals, pride for completing difficult tasks, and satisfaction
from jobs well done (Jones, 2008). Constantly examining current practices and changes in
grading systems with increasing student participation is another way to use grades in a
motivating manner. Giving students the freedom to suggest how they should be graded
and/or the teacher having a consultative discussion of the grading system at the beginning of
the semester is another motivating strategy because students are made aware of how they will
be evaluated. As a student stated in the FGD:
“...for example, if we know that the percentage of the exam is 50%, then it will motivate us to
review well or to study well to get good grades.”
The least preferred MS is “Increases learner satisfaction”. This should be a highly

desirable motivation strategy. Ironically, however, it is apparently not preferred. Implied then
in this finding is that most likely, the ESL teachers fail to employ this strategy successfully
and/or appropriately in their language classes. Data gathered during the FGD indicate that the
respondents are not regularly informed about their progress, so their interest in learning tends
to decrease. According to Dornyei (2001, cited in Sillanpaa, 2012) teachers can increase
their students’ satisfaction through a regular display of their learners’ performance and
achievements making tangible the learners’ progress. This can be done through visual display
of records and conduct of regular events that celebrate their successes. Another strategy that
can increase learner satisfaction can be deduced from Krashen (1987, cited in Orillos, 2001)
in his Comprehensible Input Hypothesis. He advocated that learning material or input should
follow the i+1 principle; that is, a learning material or input should be challenging enough in
that it is just a step higher in level of difficulty compared to the learner’s current level.
Learning material, in this case, offers the potential of successful learning because it is not too
difficult to pose the possibility of frustration; neither is it too easy to just lead to boredom.
Learning motivation, as a result, is sustained and increased learning satisfaction is assured.
Another least preferred MS is “Offers rewards in a motivational manner”. It is likely

that the students do not like being bribed with rewards or given rewards as incentives. Jones
(2008) affirms this finding saying that giving rewards tend to make students work for the
reward itself and not for the purpose of learning. Worse, it makes students mechanically
compliant- doing things that are meaningless just to comply.
In the fourth aspect, “Encouraging positive evaluation, “the BSFT prefer most the
strategy “promotes effort attributions in students, “but they prefer least the strategy of “using
grades in a motivating manner.”

Table 2 shows the preferred motivation strategies of students according to their level
of motivation which are Always Motivated and Slightly Motivated. It also presents the
frequency and ranking of these strategies.
Table 2. Preferred motivation strategies according level of motivation
MOTIVATION STRATEGIES (MS) LEVEL OF MOTIVATON

Always Motivated Slightly Motivated
Creating initial motivation Frequency Ranking Frequency Ranking
1 Demonstrates and talks about his/her own enthusiasm for the course material, and how it affects
15 1 9 2
him/her personally
2 Takes the students’ learning very seriously 5 3 14 1
3 Develops personal relationship with students 4 4 2 5.5
4 Creates a pleasant and supportive atmosphere in the classroom 8 2 7 3
5 Promotes the development of group cohesiveness 2 5.5 5 4
6 Formulates group norms explicitly, and have them discussed and accepted by the learner 2 5.5 2 5.5
7 Has the group norms consistently observed 0 6 0 6
Generating initial motivation
1 Promotes the learner’s language-related values by presenting peer role models 1 3.5 7 3.5
2 Raises the learner’s intrinsic interest in the English learning process 7 1 7 3.5
3 Promotes “integrative” values by encouraging a positive and open-minded disposition towards
the L2 and its speakers, and towards foreignness in general 2 2.25 12 1
4 Promotes the students’ awareness of the instrumental values associated with the knowledge of
2 2.25 10 2.5
English
5 Increases the students’ expectancy of success in particular tasks and in learning in general 1 3.5 2 5
6 Increases students’ goal orientedness by formulating explicit class goals accepted by them 0 4 0 6
7 Makes the curriculum and the teaching materials relevant to the students 2 2.25 10 2.5
8 Helps to create realistic learner beliefs 2 2.25 5 4
Maintaining and protecting motivation
1 Makes learning more stimulating and enjoyable by breaking the monotony of classroom events 8 1 5 1.25
2 Makes learning stimulating and enjoyable for the learner by increasing the attractiveness of the
4 4.5 5 1.25
tasks
3 Makes learning stimulating and enjoyable for the learner by enlisting them as active task
3 5 0 5.5
participants
4 Presents and administers tasks in a motivating way 5 3 4 2.5
5 Uses goal-setting methods in your classroom 2 6.5 2 4
6 Uses contracting methods with your students to formalize their goal commitment -
7 Provides learners with regular experiences of success 7 2 4 2.5
8 Builds learners’ confidence by providing regular encouragement 1 7.3 0 5.5
9 Builds learners’ confidence in their learning ability by teaching them various learner strategies 2 6.5 3 3.5
10 Allows learners to maintain a positive image while engaged in the learning tasks 1 7.3 5 1.25
11 ncreases student motivation by promoting cooperation among the learners 1 7.3 3 3.5
12 ncreases student motivation by actively promoting learner autonomy 0 8
13 Increases the students’ self-motivating capacity 4 4.5 5 1.25
Encouraging positive self-evaluation
1 Promotes effort attributions in students 10 2 14 1
2 Provide students with positive information feedback 12 1 8 2
3 Increases learner satisfaction 7 3 5 4.5
4 Offers rewards in a motivational manner 5 4 5 4.5
5 Use grades in a motivating manner, reducing as much as possible their demotivating impact 2 5 7 3

Motivation Strategy Preference of ESL Students according to Level of Motivation
The Always Motivated group (AMG). In the first aspect of motivation, Creating
initial motivation, the motivation strategy (MS) preferred most by the AMG is
“Demonstrates and talks about his/her own enthusiasm for the course material, and how it
affects him/her personally”. Accordingly, the students can feel their teachers’ deep
conviction in the value and meaning of the material they teach. This is shown in their
enthusiasm for the language they teach, their admirable competence and proficiency in
English, their acceptance of students’ personality and respect for their values and opinions,
their high but reasonable expectations of their students’ success which they demonstrate and
communicate with them (Czikszentmihalyi,1997). All these affirm that teachers’ enthusiasm
encourage student’s motivation to learn.
The second most preferred MS is “Creates a pleasant and supportive atmosphere in
the classroom”. This is attested to in a respondent’s statements during the FGD:
“She can build an atmosphere that makes it easy for the students and the teacher to interact…
when s/he teaches us she uses English in a way easy for us to understand. She does not use too
technical words.”
This finding is in consonance with the Socio-cultural Interaction Theory of Vygotsky
(1962, cited in Owens, 2005) where he asserted that if the gap between the learning
content and the learner’s present state of development in a specific area is too large,
learning does not take place no matter what the child does to learn it. However, with
support and interaction between the learner and a more knowledgeable other (MKO),
which Vygotsky calls scaffolding, learners can progress beyond their current level. It is
important therefore, that teachers have background information about their students so
that they can provide the assistance needed by every learner.
“Takes the students’ learning very seriously” is the third most preferred MS. This
shows that students are motivated to learn when they feel that their teachers sincerely and
actively do their part to help their students to learn. This honest interest to make students
learn what they are supposed to learn becomes evident in the way they teach the learning
content, in the way they show care about their students’ learning, and the way they monitor
their learning progress (Al-Mahrooqi, et al., 2012).
The least preferred MS is “Has group norms consistently observed”. This reveals that
teachers either did not orient the students on the importance of standards and norms. If they
did, it may be that they were not consistent in observing them or in requiring their students to
‘toe the line’. A student confirmed this during the FGD saying,
“I think the teacher is....responsible in dividing the tasks to be done so that the students have their
own tasks and it’s their responsibility whether they do it or not.”
It is obvious that the students were not given a clear group norm to guide their group work.
The teacher, in this scenario, tried to designate the tasks to the members, but she did not
require a standard or norm as checking point whether members of every group are doing their
tasks as expected. According to Dornyei (2003), teachers should build group norms early by
involving students. First, they should explain the purpose of establishing norms; second, have
them come up with some rules/norms by groups, present; third, let the students agree on
which of the presented norms/ rules to include, and finally, let the teacher together with the
whole class agree on sanctions for breaking the set norm/rules.
In generating initial motivation, the most preferred MS is “Raises the learner’s

intrinsic interest in the English learning process”. Statements taken from the FGD clearly
reveal that one way by which teachers uplift the intrinsic interest of their students is sharing
practical ways to learn and master English. Mastering English includes many interrelated
factors such as socio-cultural factors, affective factors, cognitive factors, motivation factors,
and many more. To the students, their motivation to become proficient in English is
strengthened when they hear their teachers share how they had to personally contend with all
the interrelated factors. As Dornyei (1994) stressed, tasks that are presented with interest and
enthusiasm and backed up by true-to-life experience are valued learning opportunities rather
than imposed demands that tend to be resisted.
“Promoting integrative values by encouraging positive and open-minded disposition
towards the L2 and its speakers, and towards foreignness in general” is one of the second
most preferred MS. This finding reveals that the ESL teachers of the highly motivated
students do recognize the value of exposure to the native speakers of English and to their
culture as a motivation strategy; thus, they were able to infuse in their students a high
preference for it as a motivation strategy. John Schumann in his Acculturation Model asserts
that between the integrative and the instrumental motivation to learn a language, the
integrative motivation has stronger power in effecting successful language learning. Others
however simply enjoy it (intrinsic) while others may be instrumentally motivated to learn
because of the utilitarian benefits such as high salary, power or career they can gain
(Johnson, 2001).
Another second most preferred MS is “Promotes the students’ awareness of the
instrumental values associated with the knowledge of English” in the second aspect. This
result, combined with earlier findings, reveals that the effort of the ESL teachers to inculcate
in their students a balanced motivation for learning English is highly preferred, that is, they
are integrative and instrumental in their motivation to learn English. This is commendable in
that their interest in learning English is enhanced both ways.
Still another most preferred strategy is “Makes the curriculum and the teaching
materials relevant to the students”. This finding shows that like the ESL teachers in the BSFT
and BSED, AM students have teachers who employ this strategy in ways favourable to them.
Crookes and Schmidt (1991, as cited in Deniz, 2010) shed light on this saying that language
activities, materials and textbooks should meet the needs of the students to increase language
motivation. Moreover, they find relevance in class activities that produce some benefits or
learning satisfaction (Dornyei, 2001). Hence, enhancing learner motivation is closely linked
with meaningfulness and relevance of material and topic under study.
The last motivation strategy in this aspect which is second most preferred is “Helps to
create realistic learner beliefs”. Survey result reveals that students favour this motivation
strategy because they are directed to think right about their learning. Al-Kaboody (2013)
comments on this saying that some students have unrealistic beliefs about their progress or
learning ability; they tend to believe that they can or cannot achieve by relying on their
aptitude rather than on effort put into their work- which should be outright corrected.
According to Dornyei(2001), if these false learning beliefs and expectations are not met,
students may get frustrated or lose interest in the course. Thus, teacher must provide
opportunities for students to realize that they can use various learning strategies and allow
them to discover unique ways to better impact their learning.
“Promotes the learner’s language-related values by presenting role models ranked
third most preferred. This survey result shows that highly motivated students are perked up
when teachers present actual people who possess desirable language-related skills as role
models in class. Dornyei and Murphey (2004) affirm this result saying that student role
models do promote learning motivation. However, based on a students’ statement during the
FGD, this result is contradicted:
“….that can only be a point of comparison. You will always compare yourself to him because
he is doing well in English and then you are not that good.”
Clearly, a counter value of using role models as a motivation strategy is the possibility of
some harmful effects such as feelings of intimidation in the presence of peer models. An
implication of this is the need for teachers to be more perceptive and sensitive, to find time
exploring their background and to encourage them to take roles suitable for their individual
interests.
Another MS that ranked third in the second aspect is “Increases the students’
expectancy of success in particular tasks and in learning in general”. This reveals that making
students experience success from time to time can increase their expectancy for more
successful learning. Atkinson and Raynor’s (1974) Achievement Motivation Model claims
that students will most likely be motivated to do an activity if they feel that they will succeed
doing it. However, an individual who knows that he/she will fail in the end is unlikely to put
any effort at all. Making students experience success from time to time can increase their
expectancy for more successful learning. Teachers can also prepare them for more
challenging tasks by starting with those they can easily manage and then increase the
complexity of tasks gradually. Dornyei (2011, cited in Al-Kaboody, 2013) emphasized the
need to explain the success involved in the task and the process on how they can achieve it
and to assist them to overcome any complications along the way. As Dornyei (2001) puts it,
the teacher can increase the students' expectancy of success by making sure they receive
adequate preparation and assistance by ensuring that students realize what the criteria are for
success and by removing unnecessary obstacles and distractions so that students do not get
excessively disturbed.
“Increases the learners’ goal-orientedness” is the least preferred in this cluster. This
finding is quite strange at the outset, but this only indicates that the respondents either did not
experience it as a motivation strategy. Statements from the FGD confirm this survey result:
“I think it’s important to have this goal setting so that the students will know where they are
leading. They know what they want before learning the subject… because if the student doesn’t

know why s/he is studying this lesson. He will not be able to use it and give importance to it
because he really doesn’t understand why he is studying this subject.”
Good things will follow if learners understand why they need to do a learning task at hand. If
they are directed on what to do with given information and where they will be able to use it,
they will be more eager to learn (Gagne, 1985; cited in Senemoglu, 2003). They will also
learn to cooperate so that the set goals will be achieved.
In maintaining and protecting motivation, “Makes learning more stimulating and
enjoyable by breaking the monotony of classroom events” is the most preferred strategy. This
is indicative of the favorable ability of the ESL teachers of the highly motivated students to
sustain their motivation long after the lesson has been introduced. How their teachers do it
can be gleaned from the following statements during the FGD:
“…every meeting the students will be able to learn something new or they will experience
something new… For example, if the events in the classroom are the usual thing that is
happening in the classroom, then they will not be able to enjoy learning and they will get
bored…”
An implication of this is for teachers to enliven once in a while their language teaching with
varied and unexpected learning tasks and presentations in order to sustain their students’
motivation to learn.
“Provides learners with regular experiences of success” is the second most preferred
motivation strategy. This result shows that highly motivated students are endowed with
teachers who regularly provide them opportunities to experiences success. According to
Cansfield’s Poker-chip Theory (1975, cited in Hermosa, 2002) teachers like this are able to
raise their learners’ self-concept and risk-taking behaviour. Like players in poker with
several poker chips, learners who have experienced regular success can take risks, and even
when they fail, they have a very positive self-concept to fall back on; therefore, they are not
easily discouraged. It takes time for students to be able to master a particular skill and adjust
to challenging or new tasks. Their chances of proceeding on and attaining this desired level
of mastery is fostered gradually along the way by teachers who gift them with experiences of
step-by-step success made possible by constant feedback (Davies, 1999).
The third most preferred strategy is “Presents and administers tasks properly. This
survey result suggests that the highly motivated respondents are somehow content with the
way their teachers implement this motivation strategy in their L2 classes. According to
Nunan (2009), proper presentation and administration of pedagogical tasks in second
language teaching and learning is guided by three principles: 1) The authenticity principle.
This provides that learners should be fed as rich a diet of authentic data in that learners are
made to encounter target language items in the kind of context where they naturally occur,
rather than in contexts that have been concocted by a textbook writer. 2) The form/function
principle. When presenting tasks, make form and function relationships transparent. Require
learners to use inductive and deductive reasoning to develop their own understanding of the
form-function relationship; 3) The task dependency principle. Each succeeding task in the
instructional sequence flows out of, and is dependent on, the one that precedes it.

Both the slightly motivated and highly motivated students prefer least the strategy
“Increases student motivation by actively promoting learner autonomy. This implies non-use
or misuse of the strategy by their ESL teachers. Apparently, learner autonomy is a crucial
factor of learning motivation. This is attested to by Stipek (1988, cited in Hermosa, 2002) in
his summary of researches done on intrinsic motivation where he mentioned that learner
autonomy is one of several human inclinations that make tasks intrinsically motivating. To
him autonomy refers to the human need to feel self-determining, i.e. doing something
because one wants to. An example of this would be students paying more attention and doing
their best on a project that they choose, but not on those forced on them by the teacher. Thus,
a teacher’s role is not to impose, but to act as a facilitator helping students to understand and
direct themselves until they are responsible for their own learning. If teachers inspire students
to take charge of their own learning, they are likely to be motivated to learn.
In the last aspect, Encouraging positive evaluation, the most preferred strategy is
“Provides students with positive information feedback”. Indeed, when feedbacks are genuine,
clear, informative, and direct-to-the-point but tempered with positivity, these are likely to
heighten learner motivation (Matsumoto, 2009).This can be noted in the following comments
from the FGD respondents:
When the teacher recognizes you…it’s just like the teacher giving you something to hold on to…
he already has given you support… What he just needs to do is monitor effort...”
In the same note, Nunan (2009) cites 6 reasons that explain why language learners are
unmotivated, and one out of the six is “lack of appropriate feedback.”This implicates that it
would do well for language teachers to be more careful and sensitive with learners’ feelings
when providing feedback about their language performance whether oral or written.
“Promotes effort attributions in students” is the second most preferred strategy among
the highly motivated. This finding reveals that the ESL teachers of the highly motivated
respondents employ motivation strategies that encourage positive evaluation in them.
Specifically, they are able to encourage their student respondents to attribute their
failures/successes to factors over which they have some control, such as effort, before self-
defeating attributions occur; thus, this result. This implicates that teachers should give
explanations that attribute their students’ task failures to lack of effort rather than ability as
this has been found to increase students’ levels of achievement (Heckhausen & Dweck, 1998
as cited in Owens, 2005).
The third most preferred strategy in the last aspect of motivation is “Increases learner
satisfaction”. The respondents’ preference for this motivation strategy indicates that it is
favourably implemented by their teachers. Learner satisfaction tends to increase with success
in difficult learning material/tasks. To afford such learner satisfaction, however, the level of
difficulty of a learning task/material should be just a step higher than the learner’s current
level of competence. When the difficulty is way high above the learner’s current level, or
when it is lower, dissatisfaction due to failure/boredom occurs (Krashen, 1985 as cited in
Orillos, 2001).
“Offers rewards in a motivating way” is the least preferred motivation strategy.
Highly motivated students do not seem to favour the practice of motivating them through
rewards. Hermosa (2002) confirmed this saying that while conventional rewards such as
praise, good grades, and public recognition are effective for many learners, many motivation
theorists claim that these external reinforcements are not needed for learning to take place. In
fact, Deci and Ryan (1985, cited in Sillanpaa, 2012) claim that external rewards can diminish
intrinsic motivation. An implication of this is for teachers to give rewards sparingly and
unexpectedly, and the best time to give such would be after students have satisfactorily
accomplished a task. This motivation strategy, therefore, can have a positive effect on
language learning only if teachers are discriminate in giving rewards to their students.
Motivation strategy preferences of the slightly motivated (SM) students. In the
first aspect, the strategy most preferred by the SM group is “Takes students’ learning very
seriously”. As has been reiterated earlier, this finding indicates that the ESL teachers employ
this strategy in ways that the respondents prefer. This was confirmed by a respondent during
the FGD:
“… we learn more if the teacher is serious in imparting her knowledge about the subject and
not just to teach because...’ that is my job but I am teaching because I am serious in educating
you in what I do'.”
Clearly this reveals that students become interested to learn when teachers show interest in
their learning. Research has consistently found superior performance among students in
classrooms where teachers provide students with psychological as well as academic support
(Hermosa, 2002). Even if students bring low levels of motivation to the classroom, teachers
can help substantially improve their motivation levels through communication behaviour
(Christophe, 1990 in Dwyer & Dwyer, 1993 in Hermosa, 2002).
The second most preferred strategy is “Demonstrates and talks about his/her own
enthusiasm for the course material, and how it affects him/her personally”. Just like the other
respondents, the SM group like the way their ESL teachers employ this strategy. Dwyer and
Dwyer (1993, in Hermosa, 2002) confirm this finding by citing five teacher attitudes that
play a crucial role in influencing learner motivation: 1) high expectations of students; 2)
warm and caring attitude demonstrated to the students; 3) teaching focused on needs of
students rather than on specific content; 4) highly flexible, enthusiastic, and imaginative
instruction; 5) high level of personal comfort during interactions with students. A student
respondent confirmed this finding also during the interview:
“If a student can see that the teacher is really enthusiastic and she is really knowledgeable of
what she is imparting to the students for me there is a better impact and I’ll be learning a lot of
things from her.”
This result confirms with Csikzentmihalyi’s (1997, cited in Deniz, 2010) idea of an effective
teacher as one who enjoys teaching and shares this pleasure with students, who become more
willing to learn. Moreover, Deniz’s (2010) study revealed that a teacher who has a desire to
make learning fun exhibits teaching behaviors demonstrating that he/she is enthusiastic and
eager to teach. Obviously, teachers who show excitement in what they teach are likely to
encourage student motivation and learning as well.
“Creates a pleasant and supportive atmosphere in the classroom” is the third most
preferred strategy. A comment during the FGD confirms this result:
“...having a pleasant atmosphere in the classroom makes the students at ease. It makes us
comfortable to interact with the teacher. We can express our ideas to her without hesitating
about the response.”
This finding is consistent with the results of Kassing’s (2011) study which revealed that a
non-threatening and positive learning environment in which the student-teacher relationship
is well-maintained improves the students’ learning motivation and their sense of belonging in
the classroom. Teachers can show positive behaviours as they welcome students to ask
questions, share their opinions or clarify areas in the context of the course under study. Their
approachability is likely to encourage student motivation. When teachers have heavy
workloads, they can ask the students to use technology such as the internet to seek help.
“Has the group norms consistently observed” is the least preferred motivation strategy.
This result shows that teachers enforce some norms but do not observe them consistently.
Olpustilova (2008) stated the importance of discussing and clarifying the consequences of
violating established norms to the students. He added that norms can be valuable when they
are established, discussed and agreed on by both students and teachers. If they find that these
norms are not consistently observed, students are likely to think that these are not important.
“Promotes integrative values by encouraging a positive and open-minded disposition
towards the L2 and its speakers, and towards foreignness in general” is the most preferred
MS in the second aspect. This means that students are strongly motivated when their teachers
provide activities that draw them closer to the native speakers of their target language and
target culture. Students may be integrative in their motivation to learn English because of the
desire to assimilate or be assimilated in the target culture (Johnson, 2001).
One of the second most preferred strategies is “Promotes the students’ awareness of
the instrumental values associated with the knowledge of English.” This clearly shows that
students can be motivated to learn a language due to the utilitarian benefits it offers such as
high salary, social position/ influence and career (Johnson, 2001). This is confirmed in the
following statements during the interview:
“I believe that people respond to incentives. If at the start of the learning process the teacher is
be able to instil in their students’ minds that there are many possibilities or opportunities where
they can use English in their future works or job...”
Another second most preferred MS is “Makes the curriculum and the teaching
materials relevant to the students.” Students’ needs, goals and interest must be identified by
means of needs analysis and then built into the curriculum (Sole, 2009). Students will find
that learning comes easy if the teacher uses vocabulary students can relate to and if students
find the topics and material interesting and valuable to them. This is confirmed in the
following statements during the interview:
“Mabilis pong matuto yong mga estudyante kung alam nila na relevant sa kanila. Makakarelate
siya kaagad eh. At tsaka mas magiging interesado ka kapag may benefits o may maitutulong po
iyon sa iyo.” (Students will learn easily if their activity is relevant to them. It is because they
can easily relate to it. They will become interested if they find benefits or there is something it
can do to help them).

A third most preferred MS is “Promotes the learner’s language-related values by

presenting peer role models.” This implies that the respondents, in general, favour their
teachers’ implementation of this strategy as can be noted in the following FGD excerpt:
“I would be inspired to know that that model… for me as a person, I look up to those in higher
position to get what I want to get....I can generate that confidence or inspiration for myself to
do the things that that person did.”.
For what it is, research like that of Bandura (1977) has found peer modelling highly
effective, especially in its ability to inspire learning by imitation. In this study, however, one
finding during the FGD revealed that peer modelling has some setbacks as can be noted in
the following FGD excerpt:
“...presenting the role models brings some kind of frustration on the part of the students who
are seldom or never chosen to model a language skill in focus.”
Accordingly, use of this strategy imposes some expectations especially on struggling students
who feel pressured to keep up with set role models. In like manner students who are never
chosen as models get intimidated and feel discouraged instead of getting inspired. Implicated
in this finding is the need for teachers to use this strategy with utmost care and sensitivity.
The least preferred MS in the first aspect is “Increases students’ goal orientedness by
formulating explicit class goals accepted by them”. This finding suggests the lack of or
inadequacy in the teachers’ implementation of this strategy; thus, this result. Gagne (1985,
cited in Senemoglu, 2003) explained that students become more eager to learn when they get
to know and understand the goal and practical use of what is taught them. Accordingly, the
involvement of learners in formulating their learning goals will even develop their
cooperation to help achieve these goals. Deniz (2007) added learning goals can be made
more meaningful when short term goals are set within the long term goals. By embedding
short term goals in the long term goals, students will likely feel a sense of achievement as
they as they realize the short term goals they have set for themselves.
One of the most preferred MS in the third aspect is “Raises the learner’s intrinsic
interest in the English learning process”. This shows that the students favour this strategy as
it activates their intrinsic motivation to learn how learn English. One FGD sharing justifies
this result:
“Using motivating words, they show how intrinsic motivation to learn how to learn English can
help us do the work of learning by ourselves and for ourselves.” Another respondent said:
“it’s advantageous when the teacher encourages us or makes us aware about how to learn
English more…to interact with people and understand technical terms…”
Brant (1995) and Chance’s (1992) cited in Hackney (2010) claimed that teachers are
responsible and capable of setting up teaching and learning opportunities that evoke students’
motivation to learn how to learn. According to them, this motivation is created when learners
see and feel that rewards and goals are meaningful and that their lesson promotes their
awareness of how they can learn English on their own.
“Allows learners to maintain a positive image while engaged in the learning tasks” is
another most preferred MS. The result here indicates that the student respondents are

motivated to learn English because of their teachers’ way of creating classroom activities in
which they experience positive social image. Hermosa (2002) corroborates this in her
presentation of the self-concept theory with her assertion that learners with feelings of
adequacy, self-confidence, and self-reliance tend to be good learners, and that
underachieving learners, on the other hand, tend to be immature and to have negative feelings
about themselves, particularly in relation to school success. With a similar note, Labrador
(2007) says that students dislike being put into shame, criticized and given roles and
activities that mar their sense of self. Thus, teachers who respect their students and enhance
their self-concept, especially in the presence of their peers, are investing on their students’
success now and later in life.
Still another motivation strategy most preferred by the slightly motivated students is
“Increases the students’ self-motivating capacity”. This indicates that the student respondents
are cognizant and appreciative of their teachers’ efforts to maintain their motivation by
appealing to their capacity to accomplish learning tasks with motivations that come from
within instead of motivations roused by external factors. To increase students’ self-
motivating capacity, Owens (2007) recommends that a key task is to help students achieve a
sense of separateness by encouraging and helping them to assume responsibility for their
own behaviour and allowing them to play an active role in decision-making. When learners
are given guided freedom to learn on their own, to reap and savour the fruits of their hard
work as well as to face the consequences of their decisions, they are more likely to foster
self-motivating capacity in increasing proportion.
As to the third aspect, “Presents and administers tasks in a motivating way” is highly
preferred. This reveals that the way the teachers present and administer learning tasks
impacts on the language learning motivation of their students. Walsh (2002, cited in
Kubanyiova, 2006) expressed support for this finding with the insight that the extent of
learner motivation and consequent engagement in certain tasks are either constructed or
obstructed, depending not only on what the teacher does in the classroom, but also on how
classroom discourse is used. Obviously, teachers’ presentation and/or administration of tasks
can become motivating when classroom discourse is so negotiated that it draws learners to
interact and to be fully engaged.
Another highly preferred strategy in the third aspect is “Provides learners with regular
experiences of success.” Quite replete in the results of this study is the high preference of
students for this strategy. As Hermosa (2002) quips, “Nothing succeeds like success.”
Opportunities afforded for students to succeed does nothing but beget success. The delightful
flavour of success pushes learners to estimate how much to cover, how fast to go, and how
soon to move to a higher level of difficulty without being coaxed.
“Increases student motivation by promoting cooperation among the learners” is another
third most preferred MS. Just like the first aspect of motivation which concerns working in
groups, this finding shows how teamwork is avoided by students because of the pressure or
expectations placed on them by other people. An adequate plan which helps the students
know their individual role into the team and the activities that promote cooperation and
mutual assistance among learners are very important (Pazos, et al, 2010). Their study
revealed that with the use of technical research group in particular and cooperative learning
in general, students developed their communication skills in the research proposals because
they were made to work as a team in order to answer questions, explain terminologies, etc.
Hence, with well-planned cooperative learning activities students can increase their learning
motivation in the subject.
task participants” is the least preferred motivation strategy. This indicates that the teacher
does not usually employ active task involvement of students. According to Dörnyei (2001),
people usually enjoy a task if they play an essential part in it. Learning activities such as
games, songs, videos, documentary films help in making students actively involved.
Teachers’ role is to ensure that all students including the less active members are
participating in the activities (Opluštilová, 2008). A particular exercise can be more exciting
if the students get involved in it as teachers discuss the use of a new matter in language.
“Builds learners’ confidence by providing regular encouragement” is another least
preferred MS. It is likely that the respondents lack exposure to this strategy because of their
teachers’ focus on other aspects such as learning content, learning evaluation, learning
procedure, etc. Through encouragement and reinforcement on a regular basis, students are
likely to develop the much needed self-confidence. Involving them in more favourable,
easier learning activities in order to ensure success can also foster in them the belief and
confidence that they need to achieve bigger and more challenging learning goals (Dornyei,
1994). Because of the increasing demands in and out of school, feelings of uncertainty about
their competence and self-efficacy will surely arise, but teachers can always build or restore
their motivation by expressing positive persuasion to make students believe that they can
achieve their goals. Sometimes a simple word of encouragement can make a difference, oral
or written.
Survey results show that “Promotes effort attributions in students” is the most
preferred strategy in the last aspect of motivation. This high preference of the students for
this motivation strategy of their ESL teachers means that the respondents have been made to
realize the value of expending effort in order to learn English successfully. Teachers can
raise their students’ language learning motivation through effort attribution as they harness
their students’ power from within to learn the L2. Svinicki (2005) confirmed this in his
advice that teachers can strengthen the effort attribution of students by: 1) referring them
back to past experiences of success due to hard work and effort exerted; 2) persuasiveness in
encouraging students to pursue goals through effort; giving initial feedback on success that
highlights the effort expended, and by demanding for skill and excellence requiring effort.
Accordingly, students are likely to engage in any learning task with success if their effort
attribution training has more than one of these characteristics.
The second most preferred motivation strategy is “Provide students with positive
information feedback” This was confirmed during the FGD when a respondent said:
“... Students want to get positive feedback from their teacher. If the feedback is positive I think
that next time the other students will also be motivated….” Another student said: “Para sa
akin po yong positive feedback, sasabihin sa iyo na pagbutihin iyong pag-aaral para mas
namomotivate pa yong mind mo parang mas nagiging positive thinker ... Mas mamomotivate
ka para mas gagaling ka at magbibigay ng effort.( Positive feedback, for me, is being told to
study harder, to do your best in your studies and you will be motivated to be a positive thinker
and to exert more effort).
These statements reveal how students value what their teachers say about their work. To this,
Karaoglu (2008) points out how teachers’ feedback in the form of appreciation and
reinforcement can enhance their students’ sense of self-worth. The value of their teachers’
words would even make them do their best just to please their teachers. Teachers then should
not only give positive comments on the good points of their work but also deal with their
mistakes in ways that does not mar or break their self-esteem. With this strategy, students can
have significant increase in their motivation to learn and be encouraged to self-retrospect.
“Uses grades in a motivating manner, reducing as much as possible their
demotivating impact” is the third most preferred motivation strategy”. A respondent
confirmed this saying:
“... students are motivated in a way. Because some teachers give those as incentives, students
tend to develop this as their goal)
According to Lile (2002), extrinsic motivation, such as grades, can also work well with
the intrinsically motivated. He emphasized, however, that as a starter, students with low
or no intrinsic motivation must be given extrinsic motivation such as credit for their
efforts and then gradually helped to aspire for more lasting intrinsic goals/reasons for
learning.
“Increases learner satisfaction” is one of the least preferred motivation strategies.

This reveals that to the student respondents, their ESL teachers are not able to implement
this strategy satisfactorily. Buckbinder (no date) claims that satisfaction from learning can
come from different sources. One is the giving of extrinsic and intrinsic rewards to learners
who achieve or who are able to apply learned knowledge and skills in a new environment.
Another is the giving of positive feedback. The frequency of quality feedback given does
not only increase learners’ confidence, but it also increases their satisfaction, as well as
their motivation to learn (Ismail, et al., 2010). It is worth noting that there are students who
can gain competence in their target language without really enjoying the process of
language learning itself (Xiao, 2013). That is, in the process of language learning, a
learner’s personal feeling and beliefs are equally important in enhancing a learner’s
“Offers rewards in a motivational manner” is another least preferred strategy.

Results reveal that apparently, the students are not keen about giving rewards as
motivation strategy. It may be that they are thinking of the short-lived effects of external
rewards and that they have other reasons for learning their target language. Brophy (2004
cited in Aiming & Aimin 2009) approves this finding in his argument against external
rewards saying that the more desirable values derived from performing learning tasks tend
to be neglected when individuals pay attention to the reward rather than to the task itself. It
is important then that teachers challenge their students to aspire more for intangible
rewards rather than the tangible because the former have more valuable effect on

Effectiveness of ESL Teachers’ Motivation Strategies

Table 3 shows the perception of the respondents on how effectively their ESL
teachers employed each of the motivation strategies in the list. These motivation strategies
were originally conceived by Dornyei (2001) and used repeatedly in several international
researches (Astuti, 2013; Manning, et al., 2012; Kassing, 2011) to assess the motivation
strategies of teachers in different content areas worldwide. These strategies have been
attested to by research as unquestionably effective in initiating, generating, maintaining and
evaluating learner motivation. In this study, however, as can be quickly noted in the
following table, no strategy was perceived VERY EFFECTIVE by the student respondents
because they were looking at the motivation strategies on the basis of how effectively these
were implemented by their ESL teachers.
Table 3. Motivation strategies considered effective
Mea QI
MOTIVATION STRATEGIES n
Score
Creating initial motivation
1 Demonstrates and talks about own enthusiasm for the course material, and how it affects him/her personally 3.04 E
2 Takes the students’ learning very seriously 3.09 E
3 Develops personal relationship with students 3.12 E
4 Creates a pleasant and supportive atmosphere in the classroom 3.33 E
5 Promotes the development of group cohesiveness 2.97 S
6 Formulates group norms explicitly, and have them discussed and accepted by the learner 2.85 S
7 Has the group norms consistently observed 2.72 S
Total weighted mean 3.01 E
Generating initial motivation
1 Promotes the learner’s language-related values by presenting peer role models 2.85 S
2 Raises the learner’s intrinsic interest in the English learning process 3.12 E
3 Promotes “integrative” values by encouraging a positive and open-minded disposition towards the L2 … 3.11 E
4 Promotes the students’ awareness of the instrumental values associated with the knowledge of English 3.13 E
5 Increases the students’ expectancy of success in particular tasks and in learning in general 3.09 E
6 Increases students’ goal orientedness by formulating explicit class goals accepted by them 3.11 E
7 Makes the curriculum and the teaching materials relevant to the students 3.33 E
8 Helps to create realistic learner beliefs 3.17 E
Maintaining and protecting motivation
1 Makes learning more stimulating and enjoyable by breaking the monotony of classroom events 3.23 E
2 Makes learning stimulating and enjoyable for the learner by increasing the attractiveness of the tasks 3.15 E
3 Makes learning stimulating and enjoyable for the learner by enlisting them as active task participants 3.13 E
4 Presents and administers tasks in a motivating way 3.25 E
5 Uses goal-setting methods in your classroom 2.97 S
6 Uses contracting methods with your students to formalize their goal commitment 2.96 S
7 Provides learners with regular experiences of success. 3.01 E
8 Builds learners’ confidence by providing regular encouragement 3.32 E
9 Builds learners’ confidence in their learning ability by teaching them various learner strategies 3.23 E
10 Allows learners to maintain a positive image while engaged in the learning tasks 3.19 E
11 Increases student motivation by promoting cooperation among the learners 3.08 E
12 Increases student motivation by actively promoting learner autonomy 2.87 S
13 Increases the students’ self-motivating capacity 3.15 E
Encouraging positive self-evaluation
1 Promotes effort attributions in students 3.4 E
2 Provide students with positive information feedback 3.35 E
3 Increases learner satisfaction. 3.28 E
4 Offers rewards in a motivational manner 3 E
5 Use grades in a motivating manner, reducing as much as possible their demotivating impact 2.97 S

In the first aspect of motivation strategies (MS), Creating initial motivation, the
weighted mean score is 3.01 with effective as QI. This overall rating indicates that in general,
the ESL teachers are perceived effective in their implementation of the motivation strategies
meant to stir or awaken the motivation of their students in learning English.
Considering the seven (7) specific MS under the first aspect, four (4) MS are
perceived effective while three (3) MS are perceived slightly effective. The first three out of
the four MS perceived effective are: (1) “Creates a pleasant and supportive atmosphere in the
classroom” with a mean score of 3.33, followed by (2) “Develops personal relationship with
students” at 3.12, and (3) “Takes the students’ learning very seriously” at 3.09. On the other
hand, the MS perceived slightly effective are: (1) “Promotes the development of group
cohesiveness with a mean score of 2.97; (2) “Formulates group norms explicitly, and have
them discussed and accepted by the learner at 2.85,” and (3) “Has the group norms
consistently observed” with 2.72 as mean score.
When consulted during the FGD to explain their perception of (1), the student respondents
explained thus:
“Having a pleasant atmosphere in the classroom makes students feel at ease. It makes us
comfortable to interact with teachers. We can express our ideas to them without hesitating
about our response.”
This shows that when teachers are able create a learning atmosphere that is physically
comfortable, stress-free, non-threatening, non-judgmental, and tempered by a sense of
community, learning motivation is certainly fostered (Krashen, 1985).
The next strategy (2) perceived effective is “Develops personal relationship with
students”. This can be noted in the FGD excerpt:
“…teachers have personal relationship with students that motivate them to ask questions. Thru
this, teachers would have interaction with students.”
These statements reveal that teachers who have good relationship with their students and do
not take an authoritarian role lower their students’ anxiety level. Corroborative to this finding
is the idea of Curran (1976) in his community language learning (CLL) approach which
advocates a teacher-student relationship that resembles that of parent and child. With teacher
taking up the role of a parent-and-counsellor and the student treated as child-client, language
learning occurs in a CLL classroom where ambiance created is very much like a community
such that everyone inside feels a sense of community where they feel a liberation from
ridicule, judgmental attitude, negativity and the like. In other words, there is kindness,
consideration, acceptance and helpfulness such that the more able go out of their way to be of
help to the less able. Accordingly, this inclusive atmosphere of CLL becomes a fertile ground
for learning motivation to flourish.
The third MS perceived effective is “Takes the students’ learning very seriously”.
Students can easily sense the sincerity and desire of their teachers to help them learn because
of what they do. Again, this was confirmed during the FGD:

“If the teacher takes the students seriously, students will also take her seriously. They will take
the lessons seriously, come to school prepared, and listen as she explains the lessons very
well… She provides appropriate and sufficient handouts, too.”
Another respondent supported this finding saying:“…if the teacher shows that she wants the
students to learn, then I guess the students will also try their best to learn…”Indeed, a
teachers’ attitude towards teaching, his/her passion or commitment in what s/he does, and
his/her will at taking the students’ learning seriously – all these do influence his/her students’
motivation to learn what s/he is trying to teach (Matsumoto, 2009).
“Has the group norms consistently observed” is perceived as slightly effective in this
aspect. When asked for further clarification of their perception, they mentioned the following
during the FGD:
“Minsan po iyong ibang teachers mahilig mag-extend. Magandang motivation po example
signet niya po sa gaiting arrow. Gustong tapusin po ng estudyante. Pag nag-set pong deadline
kailangan mag-stick po doon. (Sometimes some teachers unnecessarily extend agreed deadlines.
It would be a good motivation if s/he keeps deadliness set on specific days. Students are willing
to beat deadlines. Once a deadline is set teacher should stick to it).
Still another respondent said,
“. . . standards set should be followed, but if you give certain standards and we feel that you are
not following them what are these for?
From these comments, it is clear that even to students, consistency in keeping agreements is
an effective way of sustaining their motivation to keep up with desired norms and standards.
In the second aspect of motivation strategies (MS), Generating initial motivation, the
weighted mean score is 3.10 with effective as QI. This overall rating indicates that in general,
the ESL teachers are perceived effective in their implementation of the motivation strategies
meant to deepen, build up, and strengthen the motivation of their students in learning
English.
Considering the eight (8) specific MS under the second aspect, seven (7) MS are
perceived effective while only one (1) MS is perceived slightly effective. The first three out of
the four MS perceived effective are: (I) “Makes the curriculum and teaching materials
relevant to the students” with a mean score of 3.33, followed by (2) “Helps create learner
beliefs” at 3.17, and (3) “Promotes the students’ awareness of the instrumental values
associated with the knowledge of English” at 3.13. On the other hand, the MS perceived
slightly effective is: (1) “Promotes the learner’s language-related values by presenting role
models” with a mean score of 2.85.
Of the first three MS considered effective, “Makes the curriculum and the teaching
materials relevant to the students” tops the list. This result implies that students are somehow
given the choice to learn what they perceive is relevant to their needs. Sometimes they are
also made to accept what their teachers think they should learn; hence, the level of their
motivation to learn English (Brophy, 1999). To this, Nunan (2009) underscores the need for
teachers to tailor courses to learners’ nature and needs. By this, he means that different
learners have different communicative requirements; thus, these ought to be reflected, both in
the content of the curriculum (what is taught), teaching materials, and learning processes
(how it is taught). To see the relevance of the learning content teachers should not only rely
on the activities in textbooks but relate what is being learned to the real life outside school.
The second strategy perceived effective is “Helps to create realistic learner beliefs”.
This finding reveals the need for teachers to help students rectify their students’ thinking
about learning English. This is corroborated by Gilakjani (2012) who said that most learners
have certain beliefs about language learning which are partly incorrect. For example, they
tend to believe that they can learn by relying on their aptitude alone (Al-Kaboody, 2013). On
this regard, Dornyei (2001) warns that if these false learning beliefs and expectations are not
met, students may get frustrated or lose interest in the course. Thus, teacher must provide
opportunities for students to realize that they can use various strategies to learn English; to
allow them to discover unique ways to better impact their learning; to understand that
learning a second language has some complexities, and to develop diverse techniques to be
able to achieve success in learning the target language.
Based on effectiveness, the motivation strategy that ranks third is “Promotes the
students’ awareness of the instrumental values associated with the knowledge of English”.
This result finds confirmation in what respondents shared during the FGD:
“... I believe that people respond to incentive…if at the start of the learning process you are
able to instil in their minds that there are many possibilities or opportunities where they can use
the English language especially in their future work or job. For me, that will serve as a great
motivation in learning English.”
These comments point to the benefit of students’ awareness of the pragmatic value of
learning English. When students are shown its practical benefits, it strengthens their
motivation to master English. The pragmatic benefits that may hook students’ learning
interests are: earning extra money, getting a promotion, pursuing further studies where the L2
is a requirement, improving their social position, and pursuing hobbies and leisure activities
which require the English language (Dornyei, 2001, cited in Oplustilova, 2008).
It appears that the least effective strategy is “Promotes the learner’s language-related
values by presenting peer role models”. Every teacher is aware that some learners in every
group of learners display language-related values such as eloquence, good pronunciation, a
wide range of vocabulary, and the like. Consequently, these learners rise above the others
and are often looked upon as models by their peers. In the classroom, teachers often choose
them to act as leaders to their peers. To some students, this is desirable and seems to work as
is noted in the following FGD excerpt:
“I would be inspired… that model can inspire because for me as a person I look up to those at
a higher position to get what I want....I can generate that confidence or inspiration for myself to
do the things that that person did.”
Julkunen (1991, cited in Dornyei, 1994) affirmed this saying that cohesive relationship
created among peer groups (including the peer model) helps lessen their anxiety and put great
effort in their tasks. To some learners, however, the strategy of using peer models is not
effective in fostering their motivation to learn English. Instead, it has demoralizing effect
because of the feeling that they are being compared with others supposedly better than they.
Note what was shared during the FGD:

“I don’t think it is effective for me because that can only be a point of comparison… you will
always compare yourself to him because he is doing well in English and then you are not that
good…” Another respondent said: “...presenting the role models brings some kind of
frustration on the part of the students who are seldom or never chosen to model a language skill
in focus.”
The use of this strategy imposes some expectations especially on struggling students who
feel pressured to keep up with set role models. In like manner students who are never chosen
as models get intimidated and feel discouraged instead of getting inspired. Implicated in this
finding is the need for teachers to use this strategy with utmost care and sensitivity.
In the third aspect of motivation strategies (MS), Maintaining and protecting
motivation, the weighted mean score is 3.1 with effective as QI. This overall rating indicates
that in general, the ESL teachers are perceived effective in their implementation of the
motivation strategies meant to maintain and sustain the motivation of their students in
learning English.
Considering the thirteen (13) specific MS under the third aspect, ten (10) MS are
perceived effective while only three (3) MS is perceived slightly effective. The first three out
of the four MS perceived effective are: (1) “Builds learner confidence by providing regular
encouragement” with a mean score of 3.3, followed by (2) “Presents and administers tasks in
a motivating way” at 3.25, and (3) “Makes learning more stimulating and enjoyable by
breaking the monotony of classroom events” and “Builds learners’ confidence in their
learning ability by teaching them various learner strategies at 3.23. On the other hand, the
MS perceived slightly effective is: (1) “Using contracting methods with students to formalize
their goal commitment” with a mean score of 2.96.
In the third aspect, the motivation strategy considered most effective is “Builds
learners’ confidence by providing regular encouragement. This was affirmed in the following
comment:
“... if the teacher will give encouragement to his/her students like “Oh you can do it”; “You can
make it... the student will try and try because his/her teacher is pushing her to learn or
encouraging her to learn.”
This clearly shows that students who receive encouragement from their teachers are likely to
be motivated to learn the target language. Clement and Kruidenier (1985, cited in Ziyuan, no
date) corroborates this study. According to them, the higher the level of self-confidence one
has about his language skills, the more frequent contact with the target language and higher
achievement in the language are expected. Teachers then need to raise their students’
confidence through regular encouragement so that students can achieve better in learning
English.
The motivation strategy that ranks second in relation to effectiveness is “Presents and
administers tasks in a motivating way”. Tasks can be presented in motivating way if they are
administered well (Al-Kaboody, 2013). They should be able to know why they are engaged
in the activity and offered appropriate strategies to achieve it. According to Kubanyiova
(2006, cited in Al-Mahrooqi, et. al., 2012), learners tend to engage in a task when it is
meaningful, has personal relevance and degree of difficulty and structure that allow
flexibility in students interaction. It is important that teachers establish the connection
between the task and the students’ real life or to social issues and the way they should respond
to the activity. They can give challenging activities but they should see to it that they are
doable. This strategy is also highly endorsed by participants in several motivation researches
(He, 2009; Cheng and Dornyei, 2007; Dornyei and Csizer, 2002) regardless of cultural
differences.
The third most effective strategy is “Makes learning more stimulating and enjoyable
by breaking the monotony of classroom events”. Monotonous classroom activities are likely
to have a negative effect on student motivation. As earlier stated by Sillanpaa (2012),
students will enjoy learning the language when they are involved in varied interactive
activities from class to group or paired work. If the teacher varies his or her presentation
style, learning materials, physical arrangement of the classroom and the extent of student
involvement, students will get to enjoy learning the language. He can break the monotony of
learning by using creative methods to activate their language skills.
“Builds learners’ confidence in their learning ability by teaching them various learner
strategies” is another third most effective MS in the third cluster. The National Capital
Language Research Center, Washington, D.C., (2007) states that language learners differ not
only in ability, motivation, or effort, but also in their learning strategies. It stresses teachers’
role in helping them direct and monitor the language process by striking their metacognition
or their knowledge about how languages work and how learning happens. It is important that
teachers model these strategies for students and let them practice in different learning
situations. As Sillanpaa (2012) puts it, a wide range of learner and communicative strategies
should be promoted to learners to make their learning more effective and to help them in
their times of insecurity.
The least effective motivation strategy in this cluster is “Increases student motivation
by actively promoting learner autonomy”. This result suggests that their teachers usually use
approaches that are teacher- centered and that they seldom give opportunities for students to
direct themselves. According to Al-Mahrooqi, et al., (2012), teachers serve as facilitators of
learning and learners are responsible for their own learning as far as learning autonomy is
concerned. If teachers delegate certain responsibilities and provide opportunities to perform
tasks they are capable of doing on their own. However, instructional scaffolds such as
modelling or demonstrating task performance, giving cues to help students move on to the
next step when they are temporarily stuck, and questions that help them to diagnose the
reasons for errors ... (Al-Mahrooqi, 2012) should be given to students who have not
developed expertise yet. When students are able to manage their own learning, the scaffolds
or support are gradually removed.
In the fourth aspect of motivation strategies (MS), Encouraging positive evaluation,
the weighted mean score is 3.21 with effective as QI. This overall rating indicates that in
general, the ESL teachers are perceived effective in their implementation of the motivation
strategies meant to assess the motivation of their students in learning English.
Considering the thirteen (5) specific MS under the fourth aspect, four (4) MS are
perceived effective while only one (1) MS is perceived slightly effective. The first three out of
the four MS perceived effective are: (1) “Promotes effort attributions in students” with a
mean score of 3.4, followed by (2) “Provides students with positive information feedback” at
3.35, and (3) “Increases learner satisfaction” at 3.28. On the other hand, the MS perceived
slightly effective is: (1) “Uses grades in a motivating manner, reducing as much as possible
their demotivating impact” with a mean score of 2.97.
“Promotes effort attributions in students” ranked first among the MS perceived
effective, which shows that their ESL teachers employed this strategy in ways that made the
students realize the importance of effort in learning. According to Hashemi (2011), learners
who attribute failure to lack of effort, that is to their own actions and characteristics, feel
more responsible for their actions. It is because effort is an internal factor that they can
control. It is argued that students focusing on their ability to determine success can lose
interest when they experience immediate success; moreover, successful students tend to
become complacent in their supposed giftedness for language (Bankier & Wright, 2012).
Teachers then can enhance effort attribution as they engage in evaluating their students and
provide informational feedback.
The second most effective strategy is “Provide students with positive information
feedback”. This finding shows that feedback on what learners are as persons or on things
they do can build or destroy them, especially if this comes from their own teacher. This was
confirmed during the FGD when a respondent said:
“... Students want to get positive feedback from their teacher. If the feedback is positive I think
that next time the other students will also be motivated….” Another student said “...I think the
teacher can always say a good thing about the presentation…if I have something not good
enough…mention that but do not exaggerate to the point that the student will forget his
mistake.”
These statements reveal how students value what their teachers say about their person or their
work. With essential feedback, they are propelled to progress toward their goals, increase
their learning satisfaction, enliven their learning spirit, promote positive self-concept and
build their self-confidence (Dornyei, 2001). Karaoglu (2008) adds that teachers should not
only give positive comments on the good points of their work but also deal with their
mistakes in ways that does not mar or break their self-esteem. With this strategy, students can
have significant increase in their motivation to learn and be encouraged to self-retrospect.
“Increases learner satisfaction” is also perceived effective.Learner satisfaction springs
from several sources. Being able to find application of a learned knowledge and skill
increases satisfaction (Buckbinder, no date). Dornyei (2007) also states that appropriate
motivational feedback such as praise can have a gratifying function of increasing learner
satisfaction and lifting his learning enthusiasm. Students tend to lose interest in learning
when they have given much effort in their work yet they are not recognized. This was
confirmed in a student’s statement during the FGD:
“Halimbawa po iyong mga estudyante exert nag exert ..sa mga project pero negative feedback
naman po iyong teacher…nakakawala po ng gana, nakadis-appoint, nakakainsulto.” (Students
lose interest, feel disappointed and humiliated if they have exerted much effort in their projects
yet they receive negative feedback).
With positive feedback, students get empowered with sustained motivation to undertake
challenging tasks.
The motivation strategy considered least effective is “Use grades in a motivating

manner, reducing as much as possible their demotivating impact”. Dornyei (2001) affirms
this finding saying that grades have many potential negative effects regarding learning such
as their segregating features, the tendency to put more importance to good grades instead of
actual learning, and the creation of social inequality. Grades, however, can be used in
motivating ways without these potential negative effects. To do this, teachers should make
the grading system very clear at the start of the term, give students and their peers the
freedom to express their perceptions about it and allow them to negotiate and agree on what
to carry out. Since grades are not a sufficient gauge for level of learning achievement, effort
and progress, they need to be used sparingly as a motivation strategy.
Based on mean results, the ESL teachers’ implementation of all the motivation
strategies in the four aspects is perceived effective. In terms of rank, however, the aspect with
the highest total average mean is “Encouraging positive evaluation” (3.2), followed by
“Maintaining and protecting self-evaluation” (3.11), then “Generating initial motivation”
(3.10), and lastly “Creating initial motivation” (3.01).
Student-suggested motivation strategies

This part presents the results of the focus group discussion meant to solicit the opinions and
suggestions of the student respondents on what motivation strategies would work in their
English classes.
Make the learning environment less tense for students. This suggestion was strongly
implied during the FGD exchange as illustrated in the following excerpt:
“…ayoko iyong ipapahiya ka … kasi ang magiging effect po non eh matatakot na pong sumagot
uli iyong estudyante.” (Students who are humiliated become threatened to recite in
class).Another respondent said:“...having a pleasant atmosphere in the classroom makes the
students feel at ease… It makes us comfortable to interact with the teacher. We can express our
ideas to her without hesitating about the correctness of our response.”
Learners like being in an environment where they feel relaxed and where the norm of
tolerance is maximized. They want humane treatment from their teachers who accept them
for their strengths and weaknesses as learners of English. When their teachers embarrass
them due to their linguistic errors, they are unlikely to participate in class activities, much
less speak in the target language for fear of getting embarrassed again.
This finding is consistent with the results of Kassing’s (2011) study which revealed that a
non-threatening and positive learning environment in which the student-teacher relationship
is well maintained improves the students’ learning spirit and their sense of belonging while
inside the classroom. Accepting students’ personality and respecting their opinions and
values can help foster and maintain their learning motivation. Moreover, teachers showing
positive behaviours as students ask questions, share their opinions or clarify ideas in the
context of the course under study enhance their approachability to their students.
Use authentic and relevant materials to supplement course materials. Gathered data
reveal this:
“I-relate po sa pang-araw-araw na buhay para mas makarelate iyong estudyante. Maganda po

siguro na mag-cite iyong teacher na magpapatotoo sa theories o examples nanararanasan sa
pang-araw-arawnabuhay”. (Relate to daily life so that students can relate. It would be better
when the teacher cites how theories can be realized or examples that can be experienced in
everyday life).
Another student said:
Dapat po iyong gagawing bagay may katotohanan. Dapat di lang po itinuturo; dapat din po
ginagawa para mas makahulugan po iyong dinidiscuss po ng teacher. (Activities should be
realistic. These should not only be taught but done so that what the teacher is discussing
becomes meaningful)..
The learning content may be very too difficult to understand and as a result, students would
feel less motivated to learn. To make them see the relevance of the learning content, teachers
should not solely rely on tasks and activities in textbooks, but to let their learners encounter
authentic target language items in the kinds of contexts where they occur. Lessons can be
made more exciting, interesting and relevant to real life outside school (Nunan, 2007).
Crookes and Schmidt, 1991 (cited in Deniz, 2010), likewise, suggest that teachers can use
new technologies to increase the attractiveness of their teaching materials by employing the
multisensory approach where appropriate audio, visual, and tactile aids are utilized.
Provide feedback on given prompts. Sillanpaa (2012) confirms this idea saying that
positive feedback provides students information on their strengths and ways they can
improve on certain areas in language learning. Note this FGD sharing:
“... by providing students positive information feedback ..we will be able to know whether we
are doing good or bad. ...we will be able to keep track on our performance and that we can
check whether we are on the right way or we really getting the right information the teacher
has really conveyed what the students really want to get from her.”
Another student said:
“Meron pong mga teacher namaramot magbigay ng positive feedback. Maganda po… na kahit
paano na-aapreciate iyong ginawa mo para ipagpatuloy iyong nasimulan mong tama.”(There
are teachers who are not very generous with their positive feedback. It would be good if you are
being appreciated for what you have done so that you can continue the work you have done
right).
With large classes, teachers may find giving informational feedback very laborious.
Matsumoto (2009) however stresses that coming up with alternative measures of
feedbacking such as giving instructions in checking students’ work and assigning
student assistants or conducting peer revising may be carried out. Also, feedback can
have a gratifying function, that is, offering praise can increase the learner’s spirit and
satisfaction; trust and encouragement passed on to learners increases their self-
confidence and protects their self-concept; and it encourages learners to continually
identify the areas they need to improve on and ways they can learn best (Dornyei, 2001,
cited in Sillanpaa, 2012). This reveals that students who are given feedback are
informed about their progress in language learning. Through informational feedback
they can be responsible toward their making decisions such as using appropriate
learning strategies to achieve their goals.

CONCLUSION
This study aimed to determine the strategy preferences of ESL students in the BSFT,
BSED, and ABDC programs. Generally, the students prefer that their teachers demonstrate
and express their own interest and enthusiasm for the course material and how it affects them
personally and enable them to see the value of effort in language learning. Results revealed
that their English teachers remain great motivators of learning above all external factors
including grades. Moreover, their program does not affect their preferences for the
motivation strategies.
The study also sought to determine the MS preferred by the ESL students considering
their levels of motivation. Results indicate that both the always motivated (AM) and the
slightly motivated (SM) students prefer their teachers to also demonstrate and express their
own interest in and enthusiasm about the course they teach, to inspire in them a positive and
open-minded attitude towards the native speakers of English and their culture, to make
language learning stimulating and enjoyable, to make them see the value of effort in learning
English, and to provide them positive feedback about their performance. Just like their
program, level of motivation does not affect their strategy preferences.
In terms of the level of effectiveness of the ESL teachers’ motivation strategies, the
students generally perceive it as effective or just average. This implies the need for teachers
not only to be aware, but to be skillful in implementing strategies that increase their students’
motivation to learn. This becomes possible as teachers create a learner-friendly atmosphere,
provide relevant materials and learning tasks, and encourage their learners with helpful
feedback. Undoubtedly, motivation plays a significant role in second language learning.

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Motivation Strategies of ESL Teachers From The Perspective of Their Students

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MOTIVATION STRATEGIES OF ENGLISH TEACHERS FROM THE

PERSPECTIVE OF THEIR STUDENTS

Keywords: Aspects of Motivation, Motivation Strategies, Second Language Learning, Second

Second language motivation, in particular, is the combined effort and desire to

Master of Arts in Education (Language)

Self-efficacy is yet another factor thought to bear on language learning motivation. It

Master of Arts in Education (Language)

According to Dornyei (2001), the motivation strategies employed by teachers may be

Master of Arts in Education (Language)

Generating initial motivation is the second category. One of its subcategories is

After generating initial motivation, motivation has to be maintained and preserved.

Furthermore, Dornyei (2001) reports on self-efficacy as the individuals’ thinking

Related to Dornyei’s self-efficacy is social support which is the extent to which

Master of Arts in Education (Language)

Research studies have been made on motivation strategies employed in

Master of Arts in Education (Language)

Master of Arts in Education (Language)

METHODS AND PROCEDURES

Respondents and Locale

Instrumentation and Data Collection

As a data gathering tool, FGD is an organized discussion of 4-12 participants and

Master of Arts in Education (Language)

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Table 1. ESL students’ motivation strategy preferences according to program

Master of Arts in Education (Language)

Another strategy that ranks second is “Promotes integrative values by encouraging a

The second most preferred MS is “Provides learners with regular experiences of

Master of Arts in Education (Language)

The second most preferred MS is “Offers rewards in a motivating way”. This MS is

Master of Arts in Education (Language)

“..iyong pagbibigay po ng reward tumutulong po sa pagiging competitive ng mga estudyante

Master of Arts in Education (Language)

The third most preferred strategy is “Promotes “integrative” values by encouraging a

One of the least preferred MS is “Promotes the learner’s language-related values by

Another least preferred MS is “Increases students’ goal orientedness by formulating

Master of Arts in Education (Language)

Another least preferred MS is “Allows learners to maintain a positive image while

Master of Arts in Education (Language)

The second most preferred strategy is “Promotes effort attributions in students”.

Master of Arts in Education (Language)

Another respondent said:

According to Brophy (1998, cited in Dornyei, 2001), students may be concerned

Another motivation strategy which ranked second is “Creates a pleasant and

Master of Arts in Education (Language)

The least preferred motivation strategy is “Increases the students’ expectancy of

“Increases the students’ self-motivating capacity” is also most preferred. Dornyei

Master of Arts in Education (Language)

A second most preferred MS is “Provides learners with regular experiences of

Master of Arts in Education (Language)

“Builds learners’ confidence by providing regular encouragement” is another least

Still another least preferred MS in this cluster is “Increases student motivation by

In the last aspect, Encouraging positive evaluation, the most preferred MS is

“....providing students with positive information feedback is an encouraging form of

“Uses grades in a motivating manner, reducing as much as possible their

The least preferred MS is “Increases learner satisfaction”. This should be a highly

Another least preferred MS is “Offers rewards in a motivational manner”. It is likely

Master of Arts in Education (Language)

Table 2. Preferred motivation strategies according level of motivation

MOTIVATION STRATEGIES (MS) LEVEL OF MOTIVATON

Master of Arts in Education (Language)

Motivation Strategy Preference of ESL Students according to Level of Motivation

In generating initial motivation, the most preferred MS is “Raises the learner’s

Master of Arts in Education (Language)