Not afraid to give it a go and make mistakes: What do teachers perceive as the factors that motivate students to speak English in and outside of the classroom?

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Vt 2020

Examensarbete, 15 hp Pedagogik

Not afraid to give it a go and make mistakes

What do teachers perceive as the factors that motivate students to speak English in and outside of the

classroom?

Jennifer Gosser-Duncan

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Abstract

The goal of English language teaching is to encourage students to become proficient and confident users of the target language. Maximal use of the target language by both teachers and students in the classroom and outside it is one way to increase language confidence and fluency, according to Krashen’s acquisition learning theory where students are exposed to the target language and acquire it instead of learn it. This is why motivating students to use English as much as possible as a classroom language is desirable. However, how to do so is what this study seeks to discover. The aim of this study is therefore to deepen the knowledge of teachers’

perceptions of students’ use of the target language English. Experience from ten teachers who teach their subjects in English has been collected, using structured and recorded interviews. A thematic analysis has resulted in two main factors perceived by teachers to motivate the use of the target language in the classroom. These factors: specific motivating factors for students, including teacher presence and teacher techniques are each given a section in this report. The collected knowledge will be the basis for recommendations on how to best use the classroom situation to encourage maximal English speaking and therefore maximal English proficiency.

McIntyre’s pyramid of conditions leading up to willingness to communicate in the target language has been incorporated as a theoretical background and reference when discussing the results. As a consequence of this study, the need for more directed motivational techniques to be included in teacher training programs is discussed. Furthermore, awareness of key motivational factors and strategies will assist teachers in planning more successful lessons in which students are speaking the target language. Finally, further research into students’

perceptions and experiences of their own use of English as a classroom language is desirable.

Keywords: motivation, English, classroom language, willingness to communicate, teacher presence, strategies

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Introduction

Students learning a foreign language often tend to use their own native language in the classroom despite having the resources and capability to express themselves in the target language they are learning. As a teacher of English in the Swedish school system, I have observed this to be the case with the greater majority of students, although there are always a few students in every class who adopt English as their chosen language of communication with other students in the classroom and sometimes even outside of it. If more students would do the same and use the target language as much as possible in class and outside of class, I suspect this would benefit language fluency and accuracy, as well as improve listening comprehension, expanding students’ range of vocabulary and increasing self-confidence in the language. The overall outcome could be increased language proficiency and faster language acquisition. This is in resonance with Krashen’s theory of language acquisition, where exposure and use of a language is in direct relation to proficiency and fluency in that language (Krashen, 1987.) The link between willingness to communicate and language acquisition is motivation. In order to make a change in the status quo, teachers need to motivate students to change their behavior.

Nevid (2013) defines motivation below and how to infer motives based on observed behavior.

The term motivation refers to factors that activate, direct, and sustain goal-directed behavior.

Motives are the 'whys' of behavior—the needs or wants that drive behavior and explain what we do. We don't actually observe a motive; rather, we infer that one exists based on the behavior we observe (Nevid, 2013, p 288.)

This study will focus on the teacher perspective; what behaviors teachers observe in their classrooms, how teachers perceive the situation in their classrooms and some methodologies they can recommend using, based on their own classroom experiences, to motivate greater target language use in and outside the classroom. Identifying key factors or as Nevid (2013) calls them, the ‘whys of behavior’ that motivate students to use the target language as a natural classroom language is important for teacher awareness when planning lessons that encourage use of the target language. McIntyre’s theory of willingness to communicate (McIntyre et al.

1998) and the factors he compiles into a motivational pyramid will be an important theoretical reference point in this study, as will Kang’s (2005) definition of willingness to communicate, which includes situational factors in motivation.

Aims and Research Questions

The aim of this study is to deepen the knowledge of teachers’ perceptions of students’ use of the target language English.

Research Questions:

1. What thoughts and experiences do teachers have of students’ use of the target language both inside and outside the classroom?

2. What do teachers think motivates students to use the target language as a natural classroom language?

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3. What methodologies do teachers suggest to encourage students to use the target language as their classroom language?

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Background and Theoretical Concepts

This section outlines the background research that went into the topic of motivation in general and then more specifically into motivation to communicate in a foreign language learning classroom atmosphere. Much research has been conducted on motivation to use the target language in the classroom. I started off by reading about Jeffrey Nevid’s general theories on motivational psychology in which he defines motivation as ‘factors that activate, direct and sustain goal-directed behavior’ (Nevid 2013.) Identifying the motives or whys for students to use or not use the target language in the classroom is crucial in developing functioning pedagogical techniques to encourage the desired behavior, which is speaking as much English as possible in and outside the classroom.

I then read research conducted by Macintyre and his colleagues into willingness to communicate (WTC) and the factors that influence this. WTC is defined by McIntyre and group as “a learner’s readiness to enter into discourse at a particular time with a specific person or persons using a L2.” (McIntyre et al 1998.) This definition takes into consideration more aspects such as personality, self-confidence and perceived competence in the language. A later, adapted definition of WTC was offered by Kang to include other factors, such as situational factors.

“WTC is an individual’s volitional inclination toward actively engaging in the act of communication in a specific situation, which can vary according to interlocutor(s), topic, and conversational context, among other potential situational variables” (Kang, 2005.) This definition is more applicable to the situation of teaching and pedagogical strategies, as teachers can create situations for learning and WTC, while personality is more fixed and thus harder to influence.

Table 1: (McIntyre, Clemént, Dörnyei, Kimberly, & Noels, 1998)

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Concepts from this theoretical framework will be used in the analysis and discussion to deepen the understanding of the results in this study. Several of these motives were identified by the teachers I interviewed as key motivating factors to whether students choose to speak English in the classroom or not. The theoretical concepts in this pyramid will be discussed later in the thematic and final analyses, as well as in the discussion.

Current National Policy Documents

The English curriculum from the Swedish National Agency for Education (SNAE, 2018) states that pupils should be given opportunities to develop ‘all-round communicative skills’ (SNAE 2018, p35.) As well as being able to interact with others and adapt their language depending on the situation, purpose or person they are speaking to, they are expected to have confidence in using English and show that they are able to use strategies to help in communicating and solving problems they have in making themselves understood (SNAE 2018, p 35.) All of these aims support the overall goal of language proficiency and fluency that is achieved by using English as a classroom language. Although the Swedish National Agency for Education does not dictate what types of opportunities a teacher should give pupils to reach these goals, teacher training programs ought to provide teachers with methods and practice in how to do this. One obvious method of reaching these goals of all-round communicative skills is to actively use the language as much as possible both inside and outside the classroom. Kang (2005) is of the opinion that as second learning acquisition becomes more important, so does the motivating factor of willingness to communicate. The Swedish National Agency for Education (2018) and Kang’s (2005) theory of the importance of WTC support each other in that they have the end goal of increased communication as their focus.

Previous Research

Macintyre et al’s theory of willingness to communicate (WTC) illustrated in the table above tied in well with what teachers also perceived as one of the strong motivating factors in whether their students spoke English willingly in the classroom. This led to a search of previous studies conducted using the WTC theory and two very interesting previous research studies, both on the topic of WTC, were selected.

The first study, published in The Modern Language Journal, was done by Tomoko Yashima (Yashima, 2002.) This study was done in Japan with university students to ascertain if an international context would give the students the necessary self-confidence for WTC in English.

Factors such as anxiety, fear of failure and perceived lack of competence were identified as those preventing Japanese students from being willing to communicate. When they were put in a situation where they were to speak with individuals with international backgrounds, their WTC increased. This is meaningful in the context of my research, as many of the teachers I interviewed work at an international school where English is the school language and where students have daily opportunities for increased WTC in international settings. This is also relevant because students at secondary school age suffer from anxiety, fear of failure and perceived lack of competence.

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The second study, published in The Journal of Education and Practice, is a case study done from the perspective of Pakastani undergraduates and investigates the students WTC in English (Bukhari, Cheng, Khan 2005.) Motivating factors in this study included small group friend situations which made communication more meaningful, as opposed to larger group activities and class presentations. This study is relevant and useful because of the resulting motivating factors that both my study and the Pakastani study share.

In addition to these international studies with the focus on WTC, I chose two research studies done in Sweden at the teacher-training level, because of their relevance to my target group.

Both are systematic analyses of the literature surrounding the topic of use of English by Swedes in the classroom and both focus on elementary or upper-elementary school students, which is similar to my student group. Whereas their studies both focus on analyzing literature they do both concentrate on the teacher perspective, as I have also decided to do. However, my method is to interview teachers directly to find out their perceptions of what motivates students’ use of English as a classroom language. Carolina Falk’s (Falk, 2015) study reviews teacher strategies that promote motivation, self-confidence and a conducive learning environment. She stresses the importance of Swedish teachers teaching in English and not in their native language of Swedish and the positive motivating results this can have on students. Lina Newstam (Newstam, 2016) investigates teacher’s choice of language in the English classroom and the effects on student motivation to speak English. Newstam investigates what the literature says about the choice of language the teacher uses in the classroom and the advantages and disadvantages of both. She cites Lundberg (2007) and his opinion of using English as the teaching language at an early age to increase self-confidence among students. She also refers to Hall and Cook (2013) who insist that teaching in the students’ first language is a way of reducing the anxiety often associated with communicating in the target language. Both of these Swedish researchers’ work has been useful as reference and will be included in the discussion, especially with regard to the overall interest in this knowledge.

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Method

In order to gain a deeper knowledge of teachers’ perceptions of Swedish students’ use of English in the classroom as well as outside the classroom, a qualitative method using structured interviews was conducted with ten teachers at five different secondary schools (grundskolor), all of whom teach their subjects in English. A qualitative method, according to Trost (1997) is useful when dealing with perceptions, ways of reasoning or justification for action taken and the aim of the interviews was to discover the teacher perception of target language use. These interviews have then been analyzed using the thematic content analysis method (Braun and Clarke, 2006) and two main themes were discovered. This section continues with more detailed information about the design of the study.

Sampling

In order to identify teacher perceptions of student use of English in the classroom, it was necessary to select teachers who teach their subjects in English. A selection of ten teachers with a variety of subjects including English (50%), music, science, textiles, domestic science and woodshop were chosen from five different secondary schools, using criterion based sampling (Christoffersen and Johannesen 2015) The criteria for selection of participants was that they had to be teachers of a subject that they taught in English, which is directly relevant to the aim and research questions. The participants have different amounts of teaching experience, from newly graduated teachers to teachers with twenty years’ experience which gives range and depth to the conclusions. All participants are native English speakers, representing five different English-speaking countries including USA, Canada, New Zealand, England and Ireland, giving the study a more international perspective. 90% of the participants have teacher qualifications from their home countries and of that 90%, 33% also have their Swedish teaching license.

Furthermore, an attempt was made to choose equal numbers of male and female teachers, although this proved to be difficult because of the general lack of males in the teaching profession. This meant that 80% of the interviewees were female and 20% were male. Some background information about the sampling of participants can be found in table two below.

Sampling of participants

Fictitious Name Subject Age

group English

school Years of

experience Teaching language

Mary English 14-15 Yes 9 English

Sally English 13-15 No 6 English

Sarah English/Music 9-11 Yes 20 English

Tom Woodshop 11-15 Yes 1 ½ English

Rebecka English/Home Ec 11-14 Yes 20 English

Nelly English 11-15 Yes 4 English

Amy Spanish/Music 10-15 Yes 11 English

Mike English 12-13 Yes 1 ½ English

Liz Technology/Science 12-14 Yes 1 ½ English

Kathy Textiles/Home Ec 10-15 Yes ½ English

Table 2: Background information about the sample of participants

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In order to identify previous research surrounding the research objectives, a search in the database search engine Google Scholar was conducted, using the search phrases ‘willingness to communicate’ and ‘motivation to speak target language’. This gave many results and a sample of research publications that were relevant in relation to research aim and questions were selected.

Structured Interviews

By using the structured interview method (Kvale & Brinkemann 2014) teachers’ stated experiences and opinions about the research questions were collected in a well-structured and systematic manner. An interview guide was created using the research questions as the basis of the three sections of questioning. This guide is attached as appendix 1. The interview questions were identical for all teachers and were asked in the same order, with follow-up questions asked as needed. The first area of questioning consisted of background information about the teachers, including teaching qualification, experience, subject and age group they teach, as well as which language they teach their subject in and if they work at an English school or not. Part two asked about teachers’ observations of students’ use of English in and out of the classroom and possible motivating factors. Finally, part three focused on techniques teachers have used or heard about to motivate students to use more English in the classroom with their classmates and how effective they believe these techniques have been. The interviews took between 6 and 23 minutes each with the average interview lasting for 15 minutes.

One advantage with this method was that it was a more personal way of getting teachers to open up and share their experiences, as all of the interviews were done either face-to-face or using a video chat function. This is in line with Cohen and Crabtree’s (2006) view that structured interviews allow participants to express their opinions on their own terms. Another advantage of using the interview method to collect the data as opposed to using a questionnaire was that it was possible to ask logical follow-up questions immediately, serving the purpose of checking understanding, encouraging the teacher to give examples or explain in more detail. This resulted in clearer answers with more detail. A possible disadvantage with the structured interview method was that it took time to conduct the interviews and also time to transcribe them but this was nonetheless worthwhile for the depth of answers when it came time to analyze the interviews. The interview questions were sent to teachers in advance, giving them time to reflect on their experiences, but in the interview situation, they were required to respond immediately, whereas with a questionnaire they would have had more time to reflect on their answers. Despite the disadvantages, the structured interview method was an excellent choice with this target group, producing a great range of data to analyze.

Thematic Content Analysis

The method of analysis used is thematic content analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006) which proved especially useful in answering the research questions. Braun and Clarke (2006) argue that because of its theoretical freedom, thematic analysis can be a useful and flexible research tool which can provide the researcher with ‘a rich and detailed, yet complex account of data.

(Braun and Clarke, 2006) The method served as a particularly flexible tool and resulted in a wide range of detailed and complicated data. Locating common thematic areas proved to be

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relatively easy due to the use of well-structured questions which were related directly to the research questions and which were consistently applied throughout all of the interviews.

Analyzing the data into relevant themes helped to reach some important conclusions, but also resulted in the formulation of a series of new questions for further study.

As previously stated, this analysis of the interviews with teachers who use English as their teaching language is based on the principals of thematic content analysis, which means that not only are the results of the study empirically stable in regard to means of collection, documentation and analysis, they are also ethically collected and analyzed. They should be reproducible, using the same selection of participants, the same interview guide and the same method of analysis.

Data was collected through the use of recorded interviews, conducted either face-to-face or by use of a video chat function. Following the interviews, the data was transcribed exactly as recorded into individual interviewee files, totaling 29 typed A4 pages. Afterwards, key phrases were highlighted from each interview and from these ten key content documents, one new document was created which included all key content collected in one place. Upon analysis of this document of key content, two main themes were chosen describing motivating factors teachers perceive as important as to whether students use English or not in the classroom. These two themes are motiving factors, including teacher presence and useful teacher techniques. In accordance with Taylor and Ussher (2001), an active role was taken in the choice of themes and how they were reported. They argue that the researcher always plays an active role in identifying patterns and themes, choosing those which are of interest to the study and reporting them to the reader using vocabulary such as find, identify, locate, as opposed to giving a passive account using vocabulary such as themes emerged, were discovered, were embedded in (Taylor

& Ussher 2001.)

Ethical Considerations

In line with the principles of good ethical research practice (Vetenskapsrådet 2017) all interviewees were informed of the nature and aim of the study and that their participation would be anonymous. If at any time they wished to no longer participate in the study, they would be free to do so. They were also assured that the recorded interviews would be destroyed at the end of the study. In a qualitative study, according to Orb, Eisenhauer and Wynaden (Orb et al 2000), there can be potential ethical conflicts in how the researcher gains access to the interview group and also what effects the researcher may have on the participants. The effects the researcher may have had on the participants and their responses is unknown but the enthusiasm for participation in the study and the desire to take part in the conclusions of the study were apparent in all of those participating. The topic of the study was expressed as relevant by all and everyone who was invited agreed to participate, with all of the participants completing the interviews.

Discussion of Method

The study is transparent in that it is clear from the method section how the study was carried out, giving it transparency and credibility and reproducibility. All interviews were documented

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verbatim and because every word is documented this facilitates close in-depth analysis. For the same reason, the study has a high level of validity. Analysis of the same content can easily be repeated by another researcher. The thematic content analysis method was therefore an ideal method to use. However, because this was a small project and only ten teachers participated in the study, the sample is too small to give the desirable level of reliability. Reliability in qualitative research can be viewed in terms of the concept of quality, that is, credibility, neutrality and applicability (Lincoln and Guba, 1985, in Golafshani, 2003). In this study, the quality of the interviews was high in that they were credible and applicable but the sample group is not gender equal, although it is gender representative, considering the proportion of men to women in the secondary school teaching profession. It is also biased in that the majority of the teachers sampled work at English-speaking schools in Sweden and consequently represent a minor part of the Swedish educational system. They all come from other countries and this gives a lack of native Swedish teachers in the sampling. Therefore, in future studies on this topic it would be recommended to use the thematic content analysis method for reasons of validity but with a larger sampling of a more diverse group of teachers to improve reliability.

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Results from Thematic Analysis

The aim of this study was to investigate teachers’ perspectives on what motivates students to speak English in the classroom or not. A thematic analysis was conducted and two main themes were identified as a result of the analysis. These key themes have been further grouped into sub-themes. The first theme identified what teachers felt were the key motivating factors for students to be willing to speak the target language, including those which are directly connected to teacher presence and those which are not necessarily connected to teacher presence. The subthemes were comfort, personality, enjoyability and whether speaking English gives value or meaning for students, as well as how teachers overwhelmingly perceived their own presence and the presence of any English-speaking teacher as an immediate motivator for students to speak English. The second theme is a collection of strategies teachers have found to be successful in motivating students to use the target language. Subthemes here include teacher attitude and patience, the atmosphere of the classroom, creating opportunities to speak and use of empathy to encourage students to use English. The results of the individual theme areas are presented in detail in the following sections, followed by a discussion and analysis of how the combination of the findings can lead teachers to create better conditions in the classroom for maximum student motivation to speak the target language. The theoretical concepts in this pyramid will be discussed, as these are essential concepts and tools for teachers to be aware of when designing their lessons and classroom situations.

Theme 1: Key Motivating Factors

Teachers observed several factors as key motivators for whether students choose to voluntarily speak English or stick to Swedish in the English-speaking classroom. These factors have been grouped into the sub-themes of comfort, personality, safe classroom environment and student perceived value in using English as much as possible. The final sub-theme addresses teacher presence and how that can be a motivating factor for willingness to communicate.

Comfort

Starting with motivating factors for retaining Swedish as the classroom language, most teachers observed that students seemed to find it easier and faster, more natural or normal and that there is less risk of embarrassment when speaking Swedish. Seven out of the ten participants mentioned words or expressions having to do with ease, speed or naturalness when referring to why students insisted on speaking Swedish. Textiles teacher Kathy observed that it will always be people’s instinct to speak Swedish, it’s not the natural thing to speak English. They just don’t want to make it difficult for themselves. English teacher Mike expressed the same general opinion They take the path of least resistance, translating directly from their thoughts (to Swedish). In addition to ease, speed or naturalness, teachers observed a tendency to speak Swedish to retain an atmosphere of comfort and low-risk. This was expressed in the following ways by 70% of the teachers interviewed. English teacher Nelly described this desired atmosphere of comfort or security she has observed in her classes as it’s (speaking Swedish) easier, takes less risk and they don’t have to put themselves out there. The students do not want to actively put themselves in the situation where they are at risk of embarrassment if they make a mistake or pronounce a word incorrectly. It is easier and less risk-filled to express themselves

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in the language they are comfortable with. Three of the teachers actually used the word comfort to describe the environment students speaking Swedish seek to maintain. Comfort zone, it’s a comfort thing, it’s where they feel comfortable – it’s their gossip language were ways of describing this combination of the atmosphere of ease and low risk. On the other hand, students who choose to speak the target language, English, are motivated to do so, according to their teachers, because of their personality, because English is enjoyable, especially when they speak it with friends, and because they see value in being fluent. The value in being fluent was interpreted by some of the teachers as the ability to communicate with native speakers and to use English for socially interactive internet activities. Two other key factors for speaking English are the presence of an English-speaking teacher or member of staff and a classroom environment conducive to trying even though they may make mistakes. These factors will have their own sections later on.

Personality

The teachers also reflected on aspects of students’ personalities and willingness to communicate and mentioned traits such as ability, daring, i.e. willingness to take risks, confidence, respect for teachers as well as passion, which shows itself mainly in personal interests. Confidence and ability were shown in the fact that teachers noticed a connection between the students who were good at speaking English and the ones who dared to speak English. Textiles teacher Kathy even asked some of her students who always spoke English why they did so and was told that the students felt themselves that they were better at English than Swedish. This led Kathy to wonder if it was because of the wider range of vocabulary in English that is available to express oneself in or if it was due to the exposure students have to English through their personal leisure time interests, especially social media, gaming and films. This passion or personal interest in the above-mentioned areas, such as internet use for gaming, watching films and series in English or just a general interest in American or British culture is a personality trait that is in some way connected to a tendency to speak English more readily, according to teachers.

Those students who take risks or dare to express themselves in English, regardless of if they made mistakes or not, are also those who are most willing to communicate in English. Kathy describes this observation as these students challenge themselves by leaving their comfort zone and Rebecka supports this by stating that students who spoke the most English in her classroom were those who weren’t afraid to give it a go and be wrong.

The final aspect of personality noticed by teachers was use of English as a sign of respect for their international teachers who do not understand Swedish. English and music teacher Sarah describes the situation at her school. We have a lot of English staff, so they communicate (with them) in English and they speak English (outside of the classroom) because it is the language of some of the fritids (after-school daycare) staff. Liz, who teaches technology and science has witnessed this culture of respect when she has entered a classroom and the teacher has reminded the students that when an English speaker is in the room, it is polite to switch over to English.

Those students who show respect by speaking English with the international staff at their school are also many of the ones teachers have noticed are more willing to use English as a language of genuine communication and not just a subject to be learnt and assessed in.

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If students enjoy speaking English, they will speak it more often. This is an observation made by four out of the ten teachers interviewed, who used words such as it’s fun, they like it, it’s enjoyable, a pleasant experience to describe their experiences at school. Teachers like Nelly have witnessed that students who speak English with their friends or with other native speakers enjoy their time speaking English and combine learning with enjoyment. Nelly has seen that they speak English more readily because they have friends who want to speak English and Spanish/music teacher Amy adds that it is even more likely that they choose English as their language of communication with friends at lunch, on breaks and in the corridors if the friends are native speakers of English. This leads to another key motivator; if students see value in speaking English they will speak it more than if they see little or no value.

Value or Meaning

If speaking English as much as possible gives clear value or meaning to students’ lives or futures they will be keener to speak it. Teachers’ experience seems to be that students who are already speaking English in the classroom have realized the value of being fluent or bilingual.

According to Spanish teacher Amy many students have realized that English offers a more extensive range of vocabulary and synonyms which they are able to use to express what they want to say better than in Swedish. Being able to communicate well and fast in English is valuable in students’ leisure time activities and social lives, especially those that involve the internet, gaming, English or Korean pop-culture. Sarah from USA expresses this sentiment well when she explains the student perspective as That’s what they do in Hollywood! and continues by stressing the interest students have in celebrities and role models from English-speaking countries and how speaking better English will help them on their road to being more like them.

Finally, Kathy from Ireland emphasizes that many students have made the connection between practicing their English and improving it and consequently see classroom and school situations as opportunities to practice and improve their English.

Importance of teacher presence

One key motivator that teachers returned to again and again was the presence of a member of staff, whether it be a foreign teacher, a native English speaker or a Swede who consistently used English as the language of communication inside or outside the classroom with students. This association of a staff member with the English language was enough to motivate students to express themselves in English, both in and outside of the classroom. Teachers were unanimous in that their presence and the choice of language they responded to students in made a real difference in which language the students used. This was expressed in numerous ways, including: If there is an English teacher in their vicinity, they will tend to speak English, but if there is a Swedish teacher, they will speak Swedish (Mike) and As soon as I come closer they will speak English, it’s like I’ve turned on a switch, they try to impress me with their English.

(Sarah) This teacher to language association is mentioned by nearly all of the teachers interviewed and is expressed by numerous members of staff including English teacher Mary from USA who insists that her students know that she will never speak Swedish with them even if they know she can. Usually when they see my face they will remember and switch over, she explains. English teacher Sally from New Zealand seconds this, saying They feel that they have to speak the language because this is what Sally (teacher)understands. My presence forces them into a situation where they have to speak English. Teachers have moreover observed that the

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mere sight of a teacher will cause students to change from speaking Swedish to English, even if the teacher has no direct communication with with the students at the moment of sight. This is highlighted by Mike from Canada who is of the opinion that the sighting of him is enough to get students to speak English with each other, even if he is not interacting with them. He says If I stand next to a group, they will be more likely to speak English. Finally, Rebecka from New Zealand explains the importance of organizing this association of teacher to language in a more proactive way for maximum student motivation. It (speaking English) must be a schoolwide culture, it takes every single person to be on board.

Theme 2: Successful Teaching Strategies

So far teachers have generously shared their perceptions on motivating factors for willingness to speak English in school and they have commented on the strong connection between teacher presence and how this leads students to speak English. This takes us to the final theme, which includes strategies teachers actively use to make the classroom a place where students are motivated to use English as much as possible. Teachers have reflected on the strategies they use to motivate students to speak more English at school and the majority of them have recognized the importance of creating a positive environment where students feel confident enough to try to speak English, even if they make mistakes. To do this, reminders and praise are used, as well as modelling in a variety of ways. Such modelling can include modelling of key terms by using pictures on the wall which can be referred to and modelling correct speech by use of examples and repetition. Two other interesting strategies that teachers perceived as effective include the use of empathy for the teacher situation. The first scenario is when teachers choose to show their own struggles with learning Swedish and have experienced the reaction from students that if their teacher has trouble with my language, then I can also make mistakes, thus encouraging them to speak more. The second scenario is when a teacher does not understand Swedish and appeals to the students’ empathy by asking them to put themselves in the teachers’ shoes and think how it would feel to not be able to understand what is happening in the classroom. These successful strategies from teachers have been grouped into the following sub-themes:

Have a good attitude and lots of patience

Teachers are very aware, as Canadian teacher Nelly pointed out, that it’s going to be a really long process to get them there. Getting them to the point where they are willing to voluntarily speak English will take time and active motivational strategies. Indeed, 40% of the teachers interviewed mentioned the word reminder in their observations about what it takes to get the students to speak English. The trait most described as a general advantageous teacher attitude is patience, and Amy from England expressed this well: The key is consistency, patience and time. In addition to showing patience with students and constantly reminding them, the environment of the classroom plays an enormously important role in whether a student will dare to speak English or not.

Create a positive and well-structured classroom environment

The overall description of a learning environment conducive to willingness to communicate according to teachers is a safe place where students feel like they can make mistakes without being judged. In order to achieve this, a positive relationship with the teacher needs to be built.

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If students feel that they can communicate in a secure environment with a class and teachers who do not judge them, this is the basis for success. Teachers expressed this in a variety of different ways, such as Mary from USA, who advises us to encourage students to just try. Even if they speak Swinglish, let that happen so that students feel more comfortable trusting you and they won’t be embarrassed speaking English. Mike, from another school emphasized the importance of: Building the relationship in English and being accepting of their English abilities, then no matter what they say, they will be more willing to do it. According to teachers themselves, teachers should actively try to do the following things; build a positive relationship with the class where they trust you, encourage them to try, be accepting of their abilities, do not judge them and use lots of praise and positive reinforcement.

As with every good lesson, goals should be crystal clear, but in the language classroom, students should always know the expectations on them and what the objectives of the lesson are, especially in regards to speaking English. Examples of this come from Rebecka: Have speaking English as an expectation from the first lesson and set clear goals related to how much discussion in English is going to happen. Another example is from Kathy: Have the expectation that when I ask a question in English, students will respond in English and set them a challenge to only speak English in this lesson. Mary adds that every single lesson one of their objectives that we are trying to reach is to speak English. Amy advises establishing a routine and a habit, and students have to fall in line with that because they become conditioned and they become much more used to it. She also recommends using well-planned phrases for instructions.

Consistency with using English and modelling of the language are both strategies to bring structure into the classroom. Amy stresses that modelling of an example and encouraging students to use English by using English myself is key to the structure and routines needed for success. Sally seconds this by emphasizing always use English and model, model, model! Mary reinforces this sentiment by saying stick to English only and be consistent!

Create opportunities to speak

Another teacher strategy based on teachers’ own observations is to whenever possible create opportunities to speak the target language. As Nelly urges, have a lot of speaking time with the kids, to make it a normal thing to do. Having vocabulary from a unit visible around the classroom in combination with reminders to use the new vocabulary in their discussions seems to be a recipe for success according to Liz, who says I use subtle reminders like ‘Try to use the English words we talked about at the start of the lesson, incorporate them in your discussions’

and also Kathy who recommends using keywords from the subject and having them posted around the room, encouraging students to use these keywords when they need certain materials for instance. She points to the words, allowing the students to easily find the word they are searching for. Kathy also describes games she makes to force students to use the vocabulary in English, thereby encouraging better communication in the target language. Mary has regular conversation circles where the goal is to only use English.

Use students’ sense of empathy to encourage English speaking

This slightly controversial strategy of appealing to student empathy was mentioned by two of the teachers with positive results. In actual fact, if the teachers who pretended to their students not to understand Swedish were also included, the number of teachers using empathy rises to half of all of those interviewed. Sarah explains that she shows them that I am also struggling

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with learning Swedish. They hear me trying and think, this is not easy for her. I can do this.

That motivates them. Kathy tends to show them that I am in the same boat as them but they are in a better boat. They get enjoyment out of seeing that I struggle (with Swedish) at the same time. When I asked her what she meant by a better boat she explained that the students have had much more time learning English and get lessons in it, while she is struggling to pick Swedish up on her own. This underdog situation that some teachers are willing to show for their students creates empathy and also helps with relationship-building in the classroom, giving a double effect.

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Analysis and Discussion of the Results

The aim of this study was to deepen the knowledge of teacher perception of student use of the target language English. What then can be learnt from the results of this study? The following section will present an analysis and discussion of the themes of the results and their significance in relation to the aim and research questions. The research questions investigated concerned teachers’ thoughts and experiences of students’ use of the target language both inside and outside the classroom, what motivates students to use this target language as a natural classroom language and what methodologies teachers suggest using to encourage this. Each main conclusion of the results of these questions will be discussed separately, referring back to the theoretical and background studies, followed by a personal reflection, final conclusions and a section about future research.

Research Question 1: What thoughts and experiences do teachers have of students’ use of the target language both inside and outside the classroom?

In general, the teachers were of the opinion that it was a positive thing for students to use as much English as possible both inside the classroom and during breaks. This relates directly to Krashen’s theory of language acquisition, where exposure and use of a language is in direct relation to proficiency and fluency in that language (Krashen, 1987.) All of the interviewed teachers come from international backgrounds and many of them work at English-themed schools and these factors are sure to influence the expectations of teachers. It would be more unusual for a native Swedish teacher who taught English in a traditional Swedish school to expect the same level of willingness to speak English both inside and outside the classroom as with these foreign teachers and in schools that have an emphasis on English. That said, in my opinion there is absolutely no reason why this should prevent all teachers from striving to have their students use as much English as possible at school. Teachers also agreed that the process of attaining such a willingness to use the target language is one that takes time and patience.

Those teachers who admitted to having the highest levels of in-class use of English were also the more experienced teachers with nine or more teaching years behind them. They described how their expectations on their students to use English as a classroom language was something that was made clear in the first meeting and stressed regularly as an important learning goal.

Experienced teachers in this study realize the incredible influence teachers have over the learning environment and their own personal role as models. This ties closely in with the situational motivational factors in McIntyre’s pyramid (McIntyre et al 1998), where he means that creating a positive atmosphere in the classroom gives the situational motivation that can lead to willingness to communicate for a whole class and not just for those few who have it in their personality to communicate.

Research Question 2: What do teachers think motivates students to use the target language as a natural classroom language?

Why do the majority of students in an English class speak Swedish as their classroom language with each other and speak Swedish in the corridors of school? These findings constitute the status quo or what can be expected if no or minimal teacher effort is invested. This can be compared with teacher observations of when students make an active choice to speak English

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in the classroom and what they have seen as motivating factors for this to happen. Identifying the motivators that activate and sustain a desired behavior or the whys of behavior as Nevid (2013) describes motivation and analyzing how they can be taken into consideration is the first step in improving the conditions for student motivation and for improving the conditions in the classroom.

The teachers in this study came up with a list of such motivators, including comfort, personality, enjoyability, whether there is value or meaning involved and the teachers’ presence itself. The first two motivators, personality and comfort, are at the lowest level of McIntyre’s willingness to communicate pyramid, level 6, while enjoyability and how much value or meaning students get out of communicating in English are located at level 5 and 4, respectively. These three levels of the pyramid have been described by McIntyre et al as static, whereas levels 3, 2 and 1 are more situational. Perhaps they are static because they are individual and harder to influence in a classroom situation. The final motivator was the presence of a teacher or staff member who students associated with the English language. This motivator lands at level 3, in the situational band, meaning that willingness to communicate will depend very much on the person who is teaching the lesson or the language that staff use when speaking with students in the corridors.

This also includes motivation for students to speak English with a native-speaker classmate.

Personality is not always easy to influence, but it is possible to make lessons enjoyable and make English an enjoyable language to speak. Likewise, it is possible to make a connection between effort expended in the classroom and value or meaning outside the classroom and later in life. Creating a low-risk, secure classroom atmosphere is one of the strategies that will be taken up in the next section, but one which directly affects the comfort motivator. If students feel safe in their classroom, they will be more willing to dare to use English. This idea of safety to reduce anxiety was taken up in Yashima’s (2002) Japanese study as well as in Newstam’s (2016) Swedish study. Finally, associating English with as many people as possible in the school is a recipe for exponentially increasing the odds that students will switch to English whenever these people are seen, according to the teachers. This is easy to build into the culture of the school, especially if the school already has an English profile. Getting as many staff members as possible to speak English and only English with students inside and outside of class will most definitely be a strong motivator in the willingness to use the language. As Home Economics and English teacher Rebecka stressed earlier, if a school wants students to speak English naturally, there needs to be a schoolwide culture in which every single member of staff is onboard, from teachers to kitchen staff. Falk( 2015) also mentions this in her research with Swedish students and the importance of the language the teacher uses in the English classroom on the resulting willingness to communicate in the target language.

Research Question 3: What methodologies do teachers suggest to encourage students to use the target language as their classroom language?

Teachers reflected on their own methodologies in regards to willingness to communicate in the target language and came up with some excellent strategies for adapting their methodology in order to encourage this in the students. First of all, teacher attitude is crucial, according to the teachers themselves. It is important that teachers are patient and that they prioritize developing a good relationship with their students where is it acceptable to make mistakes. Teachers also

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need to be consistent in only using English with their students so that students associate the language with the teacher, both in and outside of the classroom. In addition to how the teacher behaves, teachers stress the importance of good structure in the classroom, setting clear and visible goals about student use of English in the lesson. Kang stresses how important the situational motivators in a classroom can be for willingness to communicate, an area teachers definitely have control over (Kang, 2005.) Students should know that their teacher expects them to use English and how often. Teachers need to provide many opportunities for students to speak the language as a natural part of lesson time, including pictures of terminology, classroom language phrases, games and conversation circles. One final suggestion that has proven successful for several of the interviewed teachers was to encourage student empathy by teachers sharing their own learning difficulty, which could be in Swedish, English or in another subject.

This has had the effect of humanizing the teacher and shows that we all struggle in our learning, so that it is ok to just give it a go and make mistakes.

Willingness to communicate is at its highest when as many of the static and situational motivational factors in McIntyre’s pyramid (McIntyre et al 1998) as possible are reached. The teacher reflection on methodology presents this study with a combination of setting the static factors in place, with attitude and positive relationships and atmosphere in the classroom, but it also presents recommendations on how to influence the situational motivators by actively setting goals and expectations and providing opportunities for communication in every lesson.

The combination of these static and situational motivators, according to Kang (Kang, 2005) is crucial in designing the best practice model for increasing willingness to communicate.

Final Conclusions

The aim of this study was to deepen the knowledge of teachers’ reflections on their students’

use of the target language inside and outside the classroom. Thematic content analysis of the teacher interviews helped to find the common themes of key motivating factors and strategies that teachers can employ to encourage willingness to communicate in the target language.

Teachers listed motivating factors such as personality of the students but also recognized that situational factors such as secure classroom atmosphere, where students feel comfortable speaking and making mistakes and consistency in the language used are equally important.

Furthermore, strategies that teachers use to provide opportunities for use of the target language are crucial. Teachers realize that if students are given a safe environment and regular opportunities to speak, if they are consistent in the language they use with their students and clear in their expectations of which language students are to speak, the chances of students’

willingness to communicate increase.

In addition, two more unexpected conclusions can be drawn from this study. The conclusions are unexpected because they were not mentioned in the background research or literature. The first conclusion is that teacher presence and association of a certain person to a certain language is key to which language a student will speak. Teachers mentioned that just the sight of them would cause students to speak in English, even outside the classroom. For language teaching, this means that the more teachers a student can associate with the target language, the better chance of hearing that student use the language. The second conclusion is that teacher use of student empathy can be a positive motivating factor in the students’ willingness to communicate

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in the target language. By teachers showing vulnerability in their journey of learning Swedish or by enlisting student empathy to speak English because they do not understand Swedish, students may be more motivated to give it a go and make mistakes too. Both of these findings show that teachers are essential in not only what they say and do in the classroom, but also by sheer association with the target language, if this language is used consistently. Moreover, it is a positive motivator for students to experience that teachers also have difficulties and are human.

Personal Reflections and Recommendations

The results from this study show overwhelmingly that although some factors of personality are more fixed, the majority of motivational factors are within the reach of teachers to influence.

In my opinion, teachers need to understand their importance in creating the preconditions for motivating students to be willing to speak the target language. Based on the results of this study, awareness of simple behavioral routines and their effects on student and class atmosphere, such as patience, building a secure relationship with the students, being consistent with the language spoken with students and clear goal and expectation setting in every lesson, are all key to improving situational motivation. This knowledge ought to be built into teacher training programs and added to competence development workshops. In addition, in order for the full effect of this knowledge to be implemented in the schools, school management needs to be informed of these findings in an understandable way and these strategies need to be taken up in teacher development talks. For no extra financial cost, only a renewed awareness of just how important what teachers say and do is, student willingness to use the target language will increase. The logical consequence of this is that fluency and proficiency in English language skills will dramatically improve as well. If students are not afraid to give it a go and make mistakes at school, they will be more willing to communicate in English.

Teachers play an essential role in developing this willingness in many ways, even in some more unexpected ways such as student association of teacher to a language and use of empathy to motivate student use of English. In my opinion, teachers need to be acutely aware of the language they use with students inside and outside the classroom in order for this association to work. If a teacher uses English in the classroom and then Swedish outside it with students, the association will not be as powerful, as was emphasized by the teachers in the study. Having native English speakers mixed with native Swedish speakers working with the younger children in after-school daycare (fritids) is also an easy way to build on this association and motivate willingness to communicate.

The results of this study will hopefully be useful to improve teacher awareness and methodologies and possibly may even be instrumental in future revisions of the teacher training program in regards to foreign/second language teaching. This study has focused on English as the target language but the results may be extended to modern language teaching in general.

The overall consequence of these results, when implemented by teachers, should lead to increased student motivation and willingness to communicate in the target language, resulting in increased language proficiency, fluency and confidence in students.

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Future Research

This study has deepened the knowledge of teachers’ perceptions of their students’ use of the target language English. It would be relevant to supplement this study with one which deepened the knowledge of students’ perceptions of their own use of the target language, giving a more in-depth look at both sides of the situation. Furthermore, a comparative study of teachers’ and students’ perceptions would give the best overall results, leading to the most effective solution to the challenge of willingness to speak the target language. In addition, it would be interesting to study the situation that is more common in the average Swedish school, where Swedish is the language of instruction in most subjects. One final area of future research might be into language association with a specific teacher or person to see how consistency motivates willingness to communicate in the target language upon contact with that person.

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Appendix 1 Cover letter to participants

Dear colleague, 7 October 2019

Thank you for agreeing to take part in my study about teachers’ perceptions of student use of English in the language classroom. As a participant in this study, you will be invited to take part in an interview. The interview is expected to take 20 minutes and will be recorded.

All information obtained will be confidential and you will remain anonymous in the final report. When the study is completed and accepted, it will be available in DiVA database at which point the recordings and transcripts will be destroyed. Participation in this study is voluntary and you may withdraw at any time, without discussion.

If you have any questions concerning this study, please do not hesitate to contact me, or my supervisor.

Best regards,

Jennifer Gosser-Duncan Camilla Hällgren

Jennifer.gosser-duncan.umea@engelska.se

camilla.hallgren@umu.se 072-9876022

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Appendix 2 Interview Guide

Interview Guide Aim and research questions

The aim of this study is to deepen the knowledge of teachers’ perceptions of students’ use of the target language English.

Research Questions:

1. What thoughts and experiences do teachers have of students’ use of the target language both inside and outside the classroom?

2. What do teachers think motivate students to use the target language as the classroom language?

3. What methodologies do teachers suggest to encourage students to use the target language as their classroom language?

Specific question Follow -up questions

Introduction What subjects do you teach?

What age groups do you teach?

Do you work in an English-speaking school?

How long have you worked as a teacher?

What is your formal teaching qualification?

What language do you teach your subject in?

What reflections do you have on students’

use of English inside the classroom and outside?

Do students use English inside your classroom as the classroom language with each other, not including teacher-led activities? Can you give examples of this?

What proportion would you say used English with each other in your classroom, not including structured teacher-led activities?

What about outside the classroom – do you notice many students using English?

Who do they speak English with and what do they talk about?

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If you think of the students who tend to speak English in the classroom with each other, what do you think it is that motivates them to do so?

What do you think motivates students to use Swedish with each other in the classroom and not English?

Do you think that your teacher presence influences what language students use? In what way?

Is there any difference in reasons for students to use English more willingly outside the classroom with each other?

What do you think teachers can do to encourage students to use English as the classroom language with each other?

What recommendations do you have for teachers to encourage students to use English as the classroom language?

Have you tried any of these methods yourself? What was the outcome?

Have you heard of any other methods for motivating students to use English as the classroom language? Were they successful?

Not afraid to give it a go and make mistakes: What do teachers perceive as the factors that motivate students to speak English in and outside of the classroom?