An interpretative phenomenological analysis of English-as-a-second-language (ESL) teachers' motivational beliefs in developing different pedagogical starategies

Abstract

Motivated teachers affect not only their own teaching quality and job satisfaction, but also their students' motivation and learning outcomes, and institutional culture and development. One self-financed tertiary college in Hong Kong has also begun to consider the significance of teacher motivation and revised its appraisal criteria to include evaluating teacher motivation. However, as of yet, the college has not developed programs, classes, or seminars designed to improve teacher motivation. Hence, teacher motivation, and the different ways to improve and assess it, has become an important consideration for higher education institutions like the research site. This study employed an interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) to investigate higher education English-as-a-second-language (ESL) teachers' motivational beliefs about pedagogical development. This study was guided by the following research question: How do ESL teachers in a private tertiary college in Hong Kong make sense of their motivational beliefs in developing or adopting different pedagogical strategies. Through qualitative inquiry, this study employed semi-structured interview questions. Four full-time ESL teachers working at the Department of English in the research site participated in this study. The teachers perceived that students' ESL weaknesses and learning needs were the driving force behind teacher motivation for pedagogical development. The participants were also motivated to tailor different instructional practices to suit their students' age, learning characteristics, and affective needs. While teachers exploited their strengths to develop teaching practices they were confident in, their perceived weaknesses became the reason to attempt different ways to keep their lessons interesting and meaningful. Teachers also gained confidence in instructional strategies proven successful when being adopted by their role models. On the other hand, they disassociated themselves from negative images of teachers who were unable or reluctant to modify their teaching. Influences from departmental and college policies on teachers' pedagogical decisions, however, were comparatively minor.