A Qualitative Study into Teacher Power Use in EFL Classrooms: The Impact for Learning Motivation

Abstract

• Albeit extensive studies on teacher power use in EFL classrooms have been widely carried out, there is a paucity of research that explores students' and teacher's voices with regard to the enactment of teacher power in the classrooms. To fill this gap, the present study qualitatively investigates the voices shared by students and teacher in experiencing and enacting teacher power. Situated in an English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom, the study was participated by three successful students and a single teacher. Findings suggest that some aspects influence students' reluctant to speak such as limited vocabulary, making correct sentences, developing ideas, being confident, having low motivation. In addition, teacher power can contribute positively to student learning motivation by providing enthusiasm and motivation through the power that teachers have such as coercive power, referent power, reward power, expert power, and legitimate power. These can all be used as power tools by the teacher to encourage students in the class to participate during learning. Interestingly, the finding shows that the dominant factor that greatly motivates students is reward power. The power of teachers who are able to change discipline behavior for students is coercive power and legitimate power. The results of the study show that these two powers can be used to show the assertiveness of teachers to students who often violate. Further studies are encouraged to explore teacher power using case study design.