Motivational dynamics in English classes at a Brazilian public school

This research seeks to understand the interrelationship between the motivation of three English teachers at a public federal high school in Brazil and that of their students during one school semester

Maria Raquel de Andrade Bambirra (CEFET-MG - BRAZIL)

Researchers today seem to believe that the role of motivation is not fully understood and made clear in the acquisition of a second language (Dörnyei and Ushioda, 2012). It is expected that a holistic, dynamic and emergent perspective applied to the research can change that. This research seeks to understand the interrelationship between the motivation of three English teachers at a public federal high school in Brazil and that of their students during one school semester. Data collection took place in Brazil, from March to July of 2015.

It privileged teachers’ oral narratives, recorded after each class, and students’ entries in a logbook specially designed for the scope of this research, assessing their own motivational levels at the beginning and end of each class. The students' impressions were compared to aspects of the experiences lived and emphasized by these teachers in their narratives, with a special attention to their motivational components, using Miccoli and Lima's benchmark of formal English teaching experiences (Lima, 2014) as a reference. The main purpose of the procedure was to be able to evidence their organic character and ecology. Pedagogical implications of the study for the reality of public schools in Brazil were also devised.

Part of the Centre for Language Education Research (CLER) Seminars for Spring 2016.