Critical summary

Motivational Strategies in the Secondary Schools EFL Classrooms: The case of Ecuador

By: Rodrigo Rincón

This empirical research was written by A. Cirocki, Sandy. Soto, M. A. Rojas Encalada.

K. V. Honores Cuenca; and it can be found on Electronic Journal of Foreign Language

Teaching, 2019.  The integrated purpose of the paper is to define the best strategies to motivate

English learners in Ecuadorian classrooms, which the students find most effective and

motivating, and which ought to be used more often by the Ecuadorian English teacher in order to

engage their students in the teaching-learning process. From my perspective it is an ambitious

objective based on the limited data resources; however, the study is clear to be a great beginning

for the achievement of the aim in a country context. 

As different researchers suggest, there are many contextual factors that can affect the

learning motivation of the English learners; therefore it is crucial to state that the effectiveness of

motivation strategies depends on complex interactions, such as the approaches to learning and

teaching, or the teacher’s personalities, among others. However, it is important to mention that

there are some strategies that were found as best in different contexts. As gathered data from

other previous studies contemplate common results in most cases, such as the Teachers´

motivational practices and behavior take a main role influencing the motivating behavior of the

students, and a friendly atmosphere where learners feel safe is of main importance for students

and in the Ecuadorian case, it was not the exception. It makes sense from the psychological

perspective, Biggs, J. B. (2004) suggests that “for achieving higher-level cognitive activities or

deep focus, is a necessary intervention in the affective area: motivation and the institutional class
climate, the climate is the relationship established between the teacher and the students”. (Vol

22, P272). 

Another interesting result was that the most desirable category of motivational strategies

for students was “Promoting Learner Autonomy”. Yet it does not have to be taken so extremely;

as Ur, P (2012) states “an extremely learner-center approach, where learning is based in student’s

initiative, can actually be counterproductive, particularly in language courses. Language is

composed of arbitrary sounds, words, and grammatical combinations: there is no way that

students can discover or create them without an instructor”; to achieve effective language

teaching, hence, should be established a balance between teacher instruction and learner

autonomy. Beyond that, teachers found it hard to believe that their students could become more

motivated by assuming more responsibility for their own learning, and that is why they do not

consider developing learner autonomy a main priority. Another fact is that students feel teachers

are not well prepared. One of the main causes could be that the majority of English teachers in

Ecuador do not have the proficiency level required and for that reason, they cannot apply

language learning strategies successfully. According to “primicias.ec web page”, in 2019

Ecuador had the worst English proficiency level in Latin America, and according to “El

Comercio Website” just 15% of the English teachers in Ecuador have the B2 proficiency level.

 From my point of view, it is not only about the motivational strategies the teachers could

apply; it has to do with the competence they have in the English language. Because when a

teacher cannot answer a question from the learners, it could be very demotivating. Hence, the

English teachers in Ecuador ought to improve their language knowledge and skills; in order to

feel and be more competent for applying any motivational learning strategy successfully.
 References

A. Cirocki, Sandy. Soto, M. A. Rojas Encalada. K. V. Honores Cuenca. (December, 2019)

Motivational Strategies in the Secondary Schools EFL Classrooms: The case of Ecuador.
Electronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching. Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 250–265. https://e-
flt.nus.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/cirocki.pdf

Biggs, J. B. (2004). Calidad del aprendizaje universitario. Educatio Siglo XXI, 22, 272-272.

El comercio (19, April, 2021) EE.UU. anuncia convocatoria de becas de inglés para docentes de
Ecuador, Elcomercio.com, https://www.elcomercio.com/actualidad/eeuu-convocatoria-
becas-ingles-ecuador.html

Jonathan Machado (11 December 2019) Ecuador tiene el peor nivel de inglés de América Latina
Primicias.ec: https://www.primicias.ec/noticias/sociedad/idioma-ingles-estudiantes-
convenio-educacion-profesores/

Ur, P. (2012). A course in English language teaching. Cambridge University Press. (p16)
https://dl.avasshop.ir/article/teachingbooks/ur_penny_a_course_in_english_language_tea
ching.pdf