Teaching Styles and Learners’ Motivation: An Investigation into the Perceptions of High School Learners of English

Abstract

Research in the field of second/foreign language learning has shown that some learners are more successful than others. This can be ascribed to the influence of several factors. Manifold studies have proved the consequential effect of motivation on the learning process. The level of motivation of learners, however, is believed to fluctuate due to the effect of various internal and external factors. The teacher’s teaching style is one of the external factors that has been claimed to be influential in the process of teaching and learning by many researchers. Nonetheless, less emphasis has been put on the relationship between this variable and motivation, especially in the Moroccan context. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to investigate the effect of teachers’ teaching styles on common core learners’ motivation to learn English at Moulay Youssef High School in Meknes, Morocco. To this end, a random sample consisting of 103 participants was selected using the stratified sampling method. To collect numerical data, the questionnaire was employed as a research instrument, and the data were analysed statistically using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. The results of this research demonstrate that teachers’ teaching styles significantly affect learners’ motivation to learn English. Further, it is indicated that the authoritarian and the democratic styles are the dominant styles among English teachers at Moulay Youssef High School. Hence, it is paramount to consider the effect of the teaching style to be able to control its influence on the learners’ motivation.