The Motivation of Second/Foreign Language Teachers

Abstract

In order to offer a picture of the construct of language teacher motivation, this paper is subdivided into two main sections. In the first part, the main framework for exploring this specific construct is presented and, considering it as mostly social, insights have been drawn from Atkinson’s sociocognitive approach, from complexity theory and from theories of mediation. In the second part, the teacher’s mind is investigated and the scaffolding for its description is provided by the triadic distinction between cognition, affect and motivation.