Learners' perceived competence, intrinsic motivation and the role of the teacher at teaching English as a foreign language

Abstract

Abstract: Students motivation is a key factor when learning a foreign language, since it is related to learning success. Teachers, as part of the teaching - learning process, have an important role that can influence on promoting intrinsic motivation and perceived competence on students. Therefore, this study attempted to investigate the existence of a relationship between students perceived competence, intrinsic motivation and the role of the teacher at teaching English as a foreign language. This research had a descriptive scope and was developed with a mixed method, which had a qualitative and quantitative method. Participants for this research were teachers and students of A1 proficiency level, belonging to the Institute of Languages from University of Cuenca. In order to gather information, a total of 113 students completed two questionnaires, which followed a Likert scale. Also 12 students participated in a focus group and 4 teachers participated in structured interviews. Once information was gathered and analyzed, the results indicated that there exists a relationship between intrinsic motivation and the role that teachers have in the classroom. Also, it was possible to determine how teachers can influence on students perceived competence.