AN ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERCEIVED TEACHER SUPPORT AND MOTIVATIONAL/EMOTIONAL RESPONSES

Abstract

Teacher support has an important role in effective language learning, because it helpsstudents have successful motivational and emotional responses. It leads to decreases inanxiety and increases in intrinsic motivation, help-seeking behavior, and effort, factors ofproductive language learning. Based on this fact, the current study aims to analyze therelationships between EFL students’ perceptions of emotional/instrumental support and theirmotivational/emotional responses. The participants were 200 EFL learners at a stateuniversity in Turkey. The data were collected through a questionnaire and a semi-structuredinterview. Correlation coefficients were obtained to detect the relationships ofemotional/instrumental support with anxiety, intrinsic motivation, help-seeking behavior, andeffort. Finally, independent-samples t-tests were administered to find potential differencesbetween genders concerning emotional/instrumental support, anxiety, intrinsic motivation,help-seeking behavior, and effort. The findings showed that emotional and instrumentalsupport are two related types of teacher support. Besides, significant positive correlations ofemotional/instrumental support with intrinsic motivation, help-seeking behavior, and effortwere detected, along with negative correlations of emotional/instrumental support withanxiety. Furthermore, the results showed no significant difference between gendersconcerning emotional support, anxiety, intrinsic motivation, and effort, but significantdifferences concerning instrumental support and help-seeking behavior were obtained basedon gender. Moreover, the findings of the interviews supported those of the quantitativeanalyses.