Motivação para o exercício da profissão docente de língua inglesa: um estudo de caso com alunos de um curso de licenciatura em Letras

Abstract

The last census about higher education careers conducted by INEP has revealed a considerable increase in the number of students starting Education programs that grant teaching credentials, therefore it is considered relevant to evaluate Languages and Literature student-teachers inclination to follow the English teacher career, since the graduation courses role is to propitiate the initial preparation to the teaching profession. To evaluate such inclination, and supported by the literature, we discuss the role of motivation of prospective EFL teachers to pursue the profession (DÖRNYEI, 2011). Besides, other considerations about the role of the initial experience in the undergraduate program are important to this study to ensure a more comprehensive and deeper understanding about the subject. We justify this study accomplishment based on the existing literature gap on motivation to become a teacher, which reveals it as a pertinent theme in Applied Linguistics (AL), for the purpose of contributing to generate relevant information on the highlighted theme. In this context, the present research aims at characterizing the motivation in student-teachers in their final semester of a teacher education course at a public university in the state of São Paulo, which conducts to their choice to become English teachers. The methodological procedure consists of a case study conduction, in which the collected and analyzed data allowed us to identify the determinant elements in the motivation process of the participants to work as teachers, based on their individual experiences.