Review of the Literature Ada Bier Abstract In order to offer a picture of the construct of language teacher motivation, this paper is

EL.LE, 3, 3, 2014, pp. 505-522
512 
Bier. The Motivation of Second/Foreign Language Teachers
ISSN 2280-6792
Several scholars explored teacher motivation according to expectancy 
theory (Walker, Symons 1997; McKeachie 1997; Mowday, Nam 1997; Watt, 
Richardson 2008b), agreeing on the fact that a teacher is motivated when 
s/he knows that the effort expended will lead to the desired outcome, i.e. 
a meaningful learning experience for his/her students, and this will in 
turn produce valuable effects in terms of powerful intrinsic rewards, i.e. 
students’ growth, improvement, satisfaction (Mowday, Nam 1997). 
Others inquired into this field by means of self-efficacy theories (God-
dard et al. 2000; Tschannen-Moran, Woolfolk Hoy 2001; Labone 2004; 
Woolfolk Hoy, Burke Spero 2005; Tschannen-Moran, Woolfolk Hoy 2007). 
Self-efficacy is perceived as a «sense of mastery over the environment» 
(Walker, Symons 1997, p. 11) and teachers «with strong self-efficacy beliefs 
view themselves as able to perform a task [i.e. teaching] in an efficacious 
manner. The result is persistence and a high level of effort to complete the 
task» (Bandura 1982, in Walker, Symons 1997, p. 11). 
Teacher motivation was also explored through the lens of goal-setting 
theory (Latham et al. 1997) and goal-orientation theory (Butler, Shibaz 
2008; Malmberg 2008), both sharing the assumption that «goals provide 
people with a sense of purpose» (Latham et al. 1997, p. 138). The peculiar-
ity of goals is that they affect direction, arousal and duration of an action 
and these are exactly the same elements motivation is concerned with 
(Latham et al. 1997). In particular, as regards the relationship between 
teacher and students, Woolfolk Hoy affirmed that teachers «need to un-
derstand how their own goals and motivations affect their well-being and 
the lives of their students» (Woolfolk Hoy, 2008 p. 496). 
Deci et al. (1997), Csikszentmihalyi (1997) and Kunter et al. (2008) in-
vestigated the field of teacher motivation by means of self-determination 
theory. Self-determination theory explores the link between a) the teach-
er’s internal drives b) his/her practice and c) the instructional context 
where s/he operates. Context provides choice, informative feedback and 
the possibility to establish relationships with both colleagues and students. 
In this respect, Deci et al. claimed that «substantial research indicates that 
when professors have the opportunity to feel autonomous, competent and 
related, they will be able to assimilate their experiences [in context] and 
express them in stimulating ways» (Deci et al. 1997, p. 69). In a similar 
vein, stressing the role of the teacher’s involvement in his/her classroom 
practice, Csikszentmihalyi talked about «flow experience» (Csikszentmi-
halyi 1997), a deep involvement in teaching, activity for which the teacher 
shows commitment and passion and where intrinsic motivation is both the 
instrument and the product of the teacher’s practice. Of this same opinion 
were Sheidecker and Freeman when affirming that the real reward for 
motivated teachers is not on pay-day but «when their passion is caught by 
the students» (Sheidecker, Freeman 1999, in Dörnyei, 2001 p. 27). 
Considering the field of applied linguistics, the first relevant work on 

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