EFL Teachers’ Initial Career Motives and Demotivation in South Korea

초록

Kim, Tae-Young and Kim, Youngmi. 2016. EFL Teachers’ Initial Career Motives and Demotivation in South Korea. Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics 16-1, 29-52. For the purpose of understanding EFL teachers’ motivation, this paper investigates Korean EFL teachers' initial job motives and demotivating factors. In addition, the influence of individual differences on each factor was explored. A set of questionnaires was administrated to 153 Korean in-service teachers. Five constructs emerged regarding initial job motive: ideal L2 self, ideal L2 teacher self, expected intrinsic rewards, pressure on career choice, and monetary rewards. Among them, expected intrinsic rewards were observed as the most dominant reason for choosing their career. In terms of demotivating factors, the administrative burden and learners’ lethargic attitudes proved to be the primary sources of demotivation for teachers. Regarding individual differences, the group with 4 to 6 years of teaching experience was particularly vulnerable to demotivators. The results point to the importance of dealing with affective aspects in L2 teacher education. Given opportunities to reflect their initial career motives and current situation, they may have the chance to remotivate themselves.

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