Impact of Motivational Languaging Activities on Novice English Teachers’ Motivation: An Activity Theory Perspective

Hyun Soo Kim; Tae-Young Kim

doi:10.30827/portalin.vi36.15909

Authors

Hyun Soo Kim Chung-Ang University
Tae-Young Kim Chung-Ang University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30827/portalin.vi36.15909

Keywords:

English Teacher, Teacher Motivation, Activity Theory, Languaging, Motivational Languaging Activity

Abstract

The study aims to explore the influence of languaging on novice English teachers’ motivation and to investigate the uniqueness of each English teacher’s reactions to motivational languaging activities (MLAs) from an Activity Theory (AT) perspective. Three novice English teachers at secondary schools in South Korea were interviewed using questions based on an AT framework, and they completed six sets of MLAs consisting of two parts: motivation and languaging. Our findings indicated that the two relatively motivated teachers could use MLAs to develop their ideal teacher identity and improve their teaching confidence. By participating in MLAs, a demotivated teacher can reshape her thoughts regarding teaching and motivate herself again. It has also been shown that MLAs can mediate participation in an imaginary teacher community, possibly leading to enhancement of L2 teacher motivation, but that this also might not occur depending on one’s teacher agency.

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