Teacher-student relationship factor affecting motivation and academic achievement in ESL classroom

Abstract

The teachers need to understand that in many schools, students come from different cultures and backgrounds and each student deserves to be respected as an individual and their needs vary from one another. Thus, teachers must establish a positive relationship with their students in order to provide the learning opportunity as well as motivation they needed to be successful in both academic and life lessons. Therefore, it is necessary for future teachers to be exposed with such awareness as preparations before they went out into the real world. Research overseas has shown that better contact and more closeness between teachers and students results in higher student motivation. However, not many studies have been conducted locally, in Malaysia. Hence, this study investigates the pre-service teachers’ perceptions regarding teacher-student relationship factor affecting student's motivation and academic performance in ESL classroom. The findings will be presented and elaborated upon this paper. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.