THE MOTIVATIONAL DYNAMICS OF EFL TEACHERS: GOAL-SETTING, INTRINSIC INTEREST, AND TEACHING EFFECTIVENESS

Abstract

The prominence of teacher motivation in teaching practices and behaviors and its impact on student achievement is widely recognized in educational psychology. Nevertheless, English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ motivation and the factors influencing its development appear an uncharted domain. The following study attempted to explore EFL teachers’ motivation in relation to intrinsic interest, goal setting, and teaching effectiveness. The sample comprised 127 Iranian EFL teachers with their students (N= 500). The teachers were asked to complete a battery of two questionnaires. To assess teacher goal-setting and intrinsic interest, the researcher utilized the 'Teacher Self-Regulation Scale (TSRS )' designed by Yesim, Sungur, and Uzuntiryaki (2009). To gauge teacher motivation, 'The Work Tasks Motivation Scale for Teachers' designed by Fernet (2009) was employed. In the present study, this questionnaire was translated to Persian and then the translated version was validated in the Iranian context to pave the way for future studies on teacher motivation in Iranian context. To measure language teachers' performance and success in language teaching, the researcher employed the 'Characteristics of Successful Iranian EFL Teachers Questionnaire ' (CSIET) designed and validated by Moafian and Pishghadam (2009). The results of structural equation modeling (SEM) indicated that there were relatively strong interrelationships among the three variables (intrinsic interest, goal-setting, and job motivation). All of them were positive and significant predictors of teacher success, and intrinsic interest exhibited the highest impact. It was also found that intrinsic interest positively influenced job motivation. The SEM analysis also indicated that go Article visualizations: al-setting was positively influenced by both intrinsic interest and job motivation.