Low motivation among Students in English Lessons : A Qualitative Study of Teachers’ Perceptions in Grades 7-9

Sammanfattning

The aim of this study is to explore how English teachers in grades 7-9 perceive and deal with low student motivation in English lessons. The study focuses on how teachers identify signs of low motivation, the challenges they experience, and the strategies they use to enhance students’ motivation. Using a qualitative approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with five English teachers in Sweden and analyzed through inductive thematic analysis. The theoretical framework is Self-Determination Theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000), which explains motivation in relation to the fulfillment of the basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness. SDT provides a useful lens for analyzing teachers’ perceptions of low motivation and the strategies used to promote motivation in the classroom. The findings are organized into three themes: signs of low motivation in the classroom, pedagogical and emotional challenges related to low student motivation, and teacher strategies to increase student motivation. The results indicate that teachers recognize low motivation through behaviors such as disengagement, avoidance, and low participation, which create challenges for teaching and assessment. Teachers primarily use strategies aligned with SDT to support students’ autonomy, competence, and relatedness, for example by building strong teacher-student relationships, adapting instruction to students’ interests, and varying teaching methods to enhance motivation.