Second language (L2) teachers’ practices in the classroom can influence their students’ motivation for learning the L2. However, most of the research in this area has been conducted with students learning English as L2. Guilloteaux and Dörnyei (2008) recommended that more research be conducted on the use of motivational teaching practices in different languages, cultures, and instructional contexts to enrich the literature on this topic. In line with that recommendation, I had three goals... Show moreSecond language (L2) teachers’ practices in the classroom can influence their students’ motivation for learning the L2. However, most of the research in this area has been conducted with students learning English as L2. Guilloteaux and Dörnyei (2008) recommended that more research be conducted on the use of motivational teaching practices in different languages, cultures, and instructional contexts to enrich the literature on this topic. In line with that recommendation, I had three goals with the current study: first, to investigate which motivational teaching practices are used by four teachers of two African languages in the United States; secondly, to investigate learners’ perceptions of the impacts of those motivational teaching practices on their motivated behaviour; and thirdly, to find out the impact of select factors on teachers’ implementation of those teaching practices. I employed a case study methodology (Duff, 2014) and collected classroom-based data from the four teachers of Swahili and Zulu and their students. Data were collected by means of classroom observations, stimulated recall sessions, and semi-structured interviews. The descriptive qualitative data allowed for the teaching and learning contexts of the participants to be captured in an in-depth manner. Findings revealed that the implementation of motivational teaching practices by the four teachers varied, with some using more motivational strategies than others. While learners’ perceptions about those strategies were mostly positive, results also revealed instances where students did not perceive some practices as motivational despite their teachers thinking that they were. Factors such as the teachers’ cultural backgrounds and training were found to influence the teachers’ motivational strategy use. Additionally, teachers’ preparedness to teach remotely, the challenges of remote teaching, and institutional support were found to affect their implementation of motivational teaching practices. I discuss these results in particular in light of the time of data collection, which was during the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, the findings revealed that the four teachers implemented motivational teaching practices from all four stages of Dörnyei’s (2001) process-oriented model of L2 motivation, and that the teachers with more communicative orientations to teaching tended to use materials and teaching strategies in the classroom that also further promoted motivation within their students. These findings contribute to the literature on motivational teaching practices and highlight how teachers of African languages may have unique challenges in implementing motivational teaching practices, but that they as a collective work hard to foster motivation in ways that they believe will be most impactful to learners, especially in the virtual teaching environment of the times. Show less
