Students’ Preference for Teachers’ Motivational Strategies and their Perception of their Own Motivation toward Learning English: A Case of Private Vocational Colleges

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate students’ preference for teachers’ motivational strategies, their perception of their own motivation toward learning English in relation to teachers’ motivational strategies, and the correlation between these two variables. The participants consisted of 320 first year vocational certificate students in the 7 private vocational colleges. A questionnaire and semi-structured interview were employed in data collection. The 24 motivational strategy items were categorized into four main categories based on Dörnyei’s (2001b) framework. Descriptive statistics and Pearson's correlation coefficient were used to analyze the data. The findings indicated that 22 teachers’ motivational strategies were preferred at the “greatly preferred” level, whereas only two strategies were preferred at the “preferred” level. It was found that all 24 motivational strategies could motivate students to learn English. The students most preferred motivational strategies under the third category, maintaining and protecting students’ motivation. They also agreed that the motivational strategies under the third category could motivate them to learn the most. On the other hand, the strategies under the fourth category, encouraging positive self-evaluation, were least preferred and they least motivated the students to learn English.  Interestingly, it was found that all preferred strategies could motivate the students to learn English.