Abstract:

The question of how to increase learner motivation and encourage a positive learning atmosphere in a second language university context has been widely discussed and examined in the fields of English Language Teaching. To increase the level of learner motivation and the quality of English Language Teaching, educational administrators should begin with motivating the teachers and helping them to bring out the best in them.

The application of Appreciative Inquiry in ESL Teacher Motivation should be adopted by educational administrators to identify what already is working and how they can build on that in an English language school context and to create an area of development to help teachers improve.

This presentation aims at raising awareness on the importance of teacher motivation to create an effective language program and how appreciative inquiry can be applied to English language programs focusing on EAP and higher education. The research question I will be discussing and elaborating on will be: How can we, educational administrators, bring out the best in language instructors by identifying and appreciating their strengths and increasing their motivation?

Specifically, in this project, I will be looking at the definitions of teacher motivation, discussing what makes a teacher motivated and enthused about teaching, and concentrating on Appreciative Inquiry to help educational administrators with organizational change and achieve school effectiveness.

My project is being undertaken as a research study which concentrates on the theories as well as applications for administrators in order to reveal and clarify more effective ways to promote teacher motivation. I will also be suggesting five ways of thinking to foster and practice Appreciative Inquiry that would bring positive organizational change.

In English Language Learning, the direct relationship between teacher motivation and student motivation should be realized to achieve positive learning outcomes. To address this, I will be looking at the social constructivist view on motivation (Williams and Burden, 1997) that focuses on the individual uniqueness of motivation. This view suggests that each person is motivated differently and the choices people make are mainly based on personal reasons.

Appreciative inquiry should begin with recognizing success and what is working well. In order to move towards the best future, administrators should focus on how to create organizational change so that the institution reaches its best. Teachers working at an educational institution should then be accepted as people who are sources of creativity and innovation. They should be accepted as hearts, not as resources.

To create change in an educational institution, five theories of appreciative inquiry should be studied and adopted (Bushe, 2005). These five different ways of thinking are: the social construction of reality, heliotropic hypothesis, the organizational inner dialogue, paradoxical dilemmas and appreciative process theories of change. In this paper, I will be discussing and analyzing these five theories and make suggestions on how to best apply them in language schools and institutions.

In conclusion, this presentation, by discussing and examining teacher motivation and deficit-based problem solving and appreciative inquiry approaches, will shed a new light on the little recognized issue of teacher motivation and organizational change in language programs.

Keywords:

Teacher motivation, appreciative inquiry, ESL, ELT, higher education, educational leadership.