teaching experience

As a dynamic and multifaceted entity, motivation is prone to constant change under the influence of a great many factors including context, task, group dynamics and learner characteristics. Informed by the dearth of research on motivational fluctuations among the teacher community, the researchers in the current study strove to investigate the factors giving rise to Iranian EFL teachers’ motivational oscillations during the practice of online teaching. Thus, opting for a mixed methods research design, the researchers explored the role of emotional intelligence (EI) and seniority (teaching experience) in determining teachers’ motivational status and intensity in the quantitative phase. However, in the qualitative phase the researchers tapped into the teachers’ perceptions concerning the overriding factors bringing about their motivational fluctuations. A total of 55 teachers with varying degrees of teaching experience ranging from one year to 28 years participated in the study. To gather data for the quantitative phase, Bar-On’s (1997) emotional quotient inventory (EQ-i), and Motometer were utilized. However, in the qualitative phase, the data from teacher narratives and interview responses were consulted. The quantitative results via applying Mann Whitney U test revealed that though emotional intelligence and seniority both played a role in teachers’ motivational level, their influences were not statistically significant. Also, as regards the results of data analysis for the qualitative phase, several factors were pinpointed to underlie the teachers’ motivational changes during online teaching experience, including teaching materials, time intervals during the session, instructional topics, learner factors and internet connection problems. The findings are thought to have fruitful implications for EFL teachers, particularly in sensitizing them toward the role of different factors in their motivational changes.

The current study attempted to cast light on the status quo of Iranian EFL teachers' perceptions of ICC. It further attempted to see if their experience would influence their conceptualizations of ICC. To this end, a total of 100 EFL teachers were asked to complete a questionnaire survey adapted from Han & Song's (2011) study. The results of both quantitative and qualitative analysis revealed a number of commonalities and discrepancies among the participants' conceptualizations of International Communication Competence (ICC) and its relevance to ELT considering their teaching experience. The findings point to the prominence of intercultural teacher education in the Iranian context.

This study, drawing on a dual theoretical standpoint constituting ecological systems theory (EST) and self-determination theory (SDT), compared Iranian novice and experienced EFL teachers’ remotivational strategies. The participants, selected based on convenience sampling technique, comprised two equal 32-member groups of novice and experienced EFL teachers teaching different proficiency levels at six language institutes. To gather data, semi-structured interviews were conducted. The results of thematic data analysis indicated that novice and experienced teachers were approximately similar in terms of the emerging theme instances situated within the integrative SDT/EST framework. Nonetheless, novice and experienced teachers were markedly different concerning the number of theme instances for each SDT facet positioned in the EST layers. Moreover, the results of Chi-square test demonstrated significant differences between novice and experienced teachers in terms of the number of themes existing in the SDT/EST frame. The results, enhancing teacher educators’ understanding of the similarities and disparities between novice and experienced teachers’ perceptions of remotivational strategies, can provide teachers and teacher educators with awareness concerning how remotivational strategies are nested across multiple systems while simultaneously being informed by a certain motivation-specific theory.