A Study Of Teachers' Influence On The Learning Motivation Of Vocational EFL Students

Motivation is a very important factor in second/foreign language learning. It has been widely accepted by language teachers and researchers as one of the key factors influencing the rate and success of second/foreign language learning. Learners with strong motivation are able to learn second/foreign language initiatively and involve actively themselves in the learning process and they can achieve greater success.The concept of motivation has passed through a number of different interpretations and has been studied by many researchers from various perspectives as in biology, behaviorism, cognition and sociology. However, a few studies are concerning language teachers' influence on the learning motivation of students and the interrelationship among different aspects of language teachers, such as teachers' personal characteristics, teachers' instructional behaviors and teachers' interpersonal behaviors.Therefore, this thesis attempts to study foreign language teachers' impact on vocational EFL students' learning motivation and to specify in which aspect foreign language teachers could best stimulate learners' motivation in the classroom setting. The participants of the study are 193 non-English-major vocational college students. A questionnaire is used to collect data and then Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS 13.0) is employed to do statistical analysis of data, including descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and One-Way ANOVA test.The findings of the study show that foreign language teachers' personal characteristics have the strongest influence on vocational EFL students' motivation. Teachers' instructional behaviors followed their personal characteristics are important too. Teachers' interpersonal behaviors exert the weakest impact on students' learning motivation. Going into particulars, teachers' English proficiency is most influential of the different aspects concerning foreign language teachers' characteristics and behaviors. Teachers' attitude towards students, teachers' specific and immediate feedback to students' performance, teachers' proper expectancy and modeling are also indispensable to inspire students' learning motivation. As to teachers' interpersonal behaviors, some of them are found effective on stimulating students' motivation.It is also revealed that significant correlation exists between the gender of vocational EFL students and foreign language teachers' influence on students' motivation. The results indicate that female students are more likely to get affected by teachers' personal characteristics and their interpersonal behaviors than male students. However, teachers' instructional behaviors are more influential on male students than on female students.Discussion is done based on the results of the present study. Significance and pedagogical implications of the study are finally provided.