The main purpose of the present study is to examine whether teachers’ use of motivational strategies brings positive effects on the enhancement of learners’ motivation. This study also tried to find out whether learners’ English competence and their early motivational levels affect the results. In addition, the study explored if the strategies used either frequently or infrequently show different results in students’ motivational level when applied equally in the lesson.
In the beginning stage of the study, a pilot test was conducted with students who would not participate in the main study to see if the students can answer the questionnaire properly and also to see if there are items that need to be modified. After feasibility was verified through the pilot test, motivational strategies were selected according to their frequency of use by surveying English teachers at school. In this way, eight strategies, four of which are reported to be used most frequently and the other four are reported to be used least frequently, were finally chosen to be used in the experiment. As the semester began, participants’ early motivational levels were measured and their English test scores were collected. Then four experimental lessons were given to students in five classes during normally scheduled class time which was fifty minutes in length. In each of the four lessons, eight motivational strategies were intentionally used while teaching. At the end of each lesson, students were asked to answer a questionnaire asking about the effects of each of the eight motivational strategies. After all experimental lessons finished, students’ motivational levels were measured again using the same questionnaire that was administered before the experimental lessons began to see if there was a change in their motivation level. In addition, the teacher observed one specific student and recorded her verbal or non-verbal response in journals while teaching. And finally, based on the data analysis, students in each class who showed the most and the least improvement of motivation were interviewed for a qualitative interpretation.
The results show that the teachers’ use of motivational strategies led to the enhancement of students’ learning motivation in general. However, students’ English competence did not bring a statistically meaningful difference in the effects of motivational strategies. In other words, students with higher English competence did not show any better improvement in their motivational level and vice versa. Meanwhile, in terms of students’ early motivational levels, students with lower motivational level showed more improvement. In addition, all eight motivational strategies proved to be effective in enhancing students’ motivation, regardless of the actual frequency of use in the field. This may mean that teachers should try to employ low-frequency motivational strategies more often.
In conclusion, using motivational strategies by a teacher had positive effects on the enhancement of learners’ motivation and helped them change their attitude toward learning English.