Impact of teaching styles and ARCS strategies on middle school students’ motivation toward English lessons

Impact of teaching styles and ARCS strategies on middle school students’ motivation toward English lessons

The current study examined the effects of three teaching styles (i.e., Didactic, Socratic, and facilitative) on 74 middle school students in Korea in terms of motivation (Stage [1]) and the effects of the Attention-Relevance-Confidence-Satisfaction (ARCS) strategies on motivation levels of 44 learners (Stage [2]). Stage [1] lasted for six weeks, and one instructor taught three groups. Each group was assigned to one of the three teaching styles. Stage [2] (one control group and one experimental group) was conducted over 13 weeks. Between the stages, a one-week dummy ARCS period was conducted to determine the pure effects of the ARCS strategies. The mixed-methods design, using both the Adapted Course Interest Survey (ACIS) and interview approaches, for the two stages, was adopted to examine participants’ motivation. The findings imply that the Socratic method significantly influenced the learners’ motivation regarding English lessons, while the Didactic method did not. Meanwhile, the ARCS strategies did not elicit significant differences in the motivation of Korean middle-school students for English lessons. In-depth interviews with eight participants revealed positive, negative, or neutral perceptions of English lessons. (178 words)