Motivational Practices in Foreign Language Teaching: From the Perspective of Self-Determination Theory

This quantitative-oriented study investigates junior middle school EFL teachers' beliefs about motivational practices in the language teaching process. Grounded in self-determination theory, the study examined teachers' beliefs in three basic psychological needs (relatedness, competence and autonomy) and the effect of their teaching experience on these beliefs. Data were obtained from 84 Chinese junior middle school English teachers through a questionnaire. Results suggested that teachers recognized motivational practices for relatedness and competence satisfaction while showing relatively low recognition of a few motivating practices for autonomy satisfaction. Teaching experience was found to have no influence on teachers' conception of needs-related motivational practices. Findings reveal that traditional activities like collective lesson preparations may have a negative influence on teachers' beliefs about motivational practices. They also present the necessity for adjustments on educational regulations, and for modern professional training to help teachers understand students' basic psychological needs, and to encourage new ideas to bolster students' intrinsic motivation for language learning.