Caring Behaviors of Highly Motivating and Less Motivating Korean Teachers of English

Abstract

This study examined the differences in the caring behaviors of three highly motivating and three less motivating Korean middle school EFL teachers, as perceived by 7th and 8th graders. A Korean sentence-completion item, “I believe my English teacher cares about me because…,” generated 214 student responses in Korean. The caring attributes of teachers that emerged from students’ qualitative reports of their perceptions of teacher caring fell along the dimensions of Dornyei’s (2001) model of a motivational practice. While caring behaviors of both types of teachers showed similarities, some behaviors that were reported for highly motivating teachers were clearly more helpful for learners than other behaviors that were cited for less motivating teachers. Student perceptions of caring in the highly motivating teachers’ classes were found to be substantially associated with the students’ positive evaluation of learning tasks as being varied, fun, interesting, and relevant. The results also underscored the importance of teachers’ caring for students as learners before caring for them as persons. Finally, students of highly motivating teachers made as many reports of teachers being uncaring as students of less motivating teachers.