This is a review of the article The dark side of motivation: teachers' perspectives on 'unmotivation'.
Introduction
For the purpose of this study, the authors differentiate between amotivation, demotivation, and unmotivation. Amotivation refers to people who "see no relation between their actions and consequences of those actions...In such a situation, people have no reason, intrinsic or extrinsic, for performing the activity, and they would be expected to quit the activity as soon as possible (Noels, Pelletier, Clément, and Vallerand, 2000, p. 40). Demotivation describes a situation in which learners lose motivation for various reasons (Dornyei, 2001). For the purpose of their study, the authors use the term more general term, unmotivation to include both amotivation and demotivation.The Study
An open-ended survey was sent out to 100 university EFL teachers in Japan, asking the following four questions:
- How do you, as a classroom English teacher, understand learner motivation?
- Do you, as a teacher, think that you can influence learner motivation? Why/why not?
- What motivational strategies do you use?
- When do you think your strategies are limited in influencing learner motivation?
The fourth question was the focus of this study. Thirty-two teachers responded and the results indicated three areas in which teachers feel limited when motivating learners: institutional systems, student attitudes and personalities, and teacher-student relationships. The results can be best summarized as being a three-way responsibility between administrators and policy makers (institutional systems), learners (student attitudes and personalities), and teachers (teacher-student relationship).
Discussion
This article might be helpful for those in English language teaching programs who want to research unmotivated learning environments. Perhaps a look at the differences between student, educator, and/or administrator perspectives might shed more light on possible actions that reduce unmotivation. Another related research topic might be to compare amotivation and demotivation (or study them in independently), again including the various perspectives of the educational stakeholders.
A couple of comments. First it appers we're not able to see the full article. This is a great pity and I'm a firm believer in making academic research free for all to push forward the profession rather than hide it for a select few.Second, were students asked? It seems that if you only ask teachers you are only getting one side of the story. But without seeing the full article it's difficult to know the full details here.Shame.
ReplyDeleteA couple of comments.
ReplyDeleteFirst it appers we're not able to see the full article. This is a great pity and I'm a firm believer in making academic research free for all to push forward the profession rather than hide it for a select few.
Second, were students asked? It seems that if you only ask teachers you are only getting one side of the story. But without seeing the full article it's difficult to know the full details here.
Shame.
I too support open educational resources, but this article, unfortunately is not one of them. Regarding your second point, the purpose of this article was to see when teachers think their strategies are limited in influencing learner motivation. But I do think that a case study that took various perspectives into consideration would shed additional light on the complex issue of unmotivation.
ReplyDeleteI too support open educational resources, but this article, unfortunately is not one of them. Regarding your second point, the purpose of this article was to see when teachers think their strategies are limited in influencing learner motivation. But I do think that a case study that took various perspectives into consideration would shed additional light on the complex issue of unmotivation.
ReplyDelete