Questions

An Investigation of Motivational Strategies Used by L2

Language Teachers to Promote English Language Learning:

A Case of Iranian High School Students

Mohammad Khatib and Saeid Najafi

What is the author’s main argument? What conclusions are drawn?

The author’s main argument is to promote motivation among his high school students.

His conclusion is how motivation influences in second language learning and the motivational strategies that can help teachers to have a better understanding about the role of motivation in learning a foreign language.

What evidence does the author put forward to support the argument and conclusion?

He did a questionnaire including cognitive, affective, and social strategies based on Chastain’s model (1988) that it was developed, piloted and validated.

What is your view of this evidence? Can you spot any weaknesses in the methodology, the findings and the way that the conclusions are drawn?

We think this research is really good because it is similar to what we want to do for our thesis and we consider that the research questions and all the data were interesting and we can have an idea of what we are going to face when we start with the questionnaires, etc.

Has the author made any implicit assumptions about shared beliefs which you, the reader, you might question?

There aren’t assumptions that we, as readers, might question. We believe that this research is very good, clear, and related to our thesis. Nevertheless, The author says that more research has been conducted on identifying and analyzing various motives and validating motivational theories than on developing techniques to increase motivation. We wonder why this research hasn’t been done.