TEACHERS' MOTIVATIONAL STRATEGIES IN EFL CLASSES: THE CASE OF GRADE 10 AT ALETA WONDO SECONDARY SCHOOL

<strong>ABSTRACT: </strong>The aim of this study was to examine teachers’ use of motivational strategies in EFL classes. The researcher used case study research design with mixed research approach. Participants were grade 10 students and EFL teachers at Aleta Wondo Secondary School. Questionnaire, interview and classroom observation were used to collect data. Questionnaire was prepared for students, interview for English language teachers and classroom observation was designed to gather data from observation. Two male and two female teachers were selected by comprehensive method for interview. 133 male and 139 female students were selected by systematic sampling method for questionnaire. The classroom observation took thirty periods. Quantitative data were analyzed by descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentile. Qualitative data were analyzed by narrative paragraphs. The findings revealed that the interviewee teachers had a good perception about motivational strategies. The findings concerning classroom applicability indicated that the EFL teachers practiced motivational strategies; making the learners express their ideas or opinions with their partner sitting side by side either in pairs or in small groups, engaging the learners in the activities and clarifying the questions to the students by giving them simple instructions, providing the group and pair work activities, brining several different puzzles and word puzzles into class that students to work out. Moreover, giving the students different incomplete sentences and letting them complete and assigning writing tasks that students to write, were employed in the classroom. Furthermore, assessing students’ work and providing a positive feedback, clarifying the instruction to the students about how to carry out certain tasks in the EFL rooms were the applied in EFL classes. On the other hand, the results depicted some of the strategies expressed appeared difficult to employ in the EFL classrooms. Therefore, this study made recommendation that EFL teachers should take responsibility to facilitate and encourage their students in learning process using motivational strategies.