Understanding Teacher’s Motivation to Choose Teaching English as a Career Choice

The purposes of this study were to investigate 176 pre-service teacher graduates’ motivation to choose teaching English as a career choice, to compare the motivation between males and females, and between those who decide to enter the teaching profession and those who decide not to enter the teaching profession. A questionnaire was used to collect the data, consisting of three domains: intrinsic, extrinsic, and altruistic motivation. The findings revealed that the motivation to choose teaching English as a career choice was mainly altruistic; they see teaching as a socially worthwhile and important job, a desire to improve society, help others and make a difference. The findings also illustrated that pre-service teacher graduates’ motivation to choose teaching English as a career choice was significantly different between males and females. Finally, there were no significant differences in motivation to choose teaching English as a career choice between those who decide to enter the teaching profession and those who decide not to enter the teaching profession. Keywords: pre-service teachers, career motivation, teacher motivation DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-12-04 Publication date: April 30th 202