The Effect of Language Teachers’ Management Style on Students’ Self-confidence, L۲ Motivation, and Willingness to Communicate: Pedagogical Practice under Scrutiny

Classroom management is widely believed to be a part of pedagogical knowledge every EFL teacher carries to EFL classes. There have been a considerable amount of research on classroom management and, accordingly, two major trends in classroom management were identified, interventionist vs. non-interventionist. Additionally, it is thought that classroom management style a teacher adopts affects learners’ success in achieving their language learning goals. This study aimed at exploring the effect of these two styles of classroom management on the learners' motivation, communication self-confidence and willingness to communicate (WTC). In order to achieve this goal, a quasi-experimental design was used and the participants who were male senior high school students from Qaemshahr took part in this study. They were in intact classes taught by the researcher himself. Thirty one students were in the non-interventionist class and ۲۳ students were in the interventionist class. The required data were collected via three questionnaires containing Likert type items measuring the learners’ motivation, self-confidence and WTC prior to and posterior to the course which lasted for six month. Paired samples t-test and Kruskal-Wallis Test were used to test the hypotheses. The results showed that non-interventionist approach could significantly improve the participants' self-confidence, WTC and motivation in terms of ideal L۲ self. The results showed that none of the approaches could significantly affect ought-to L۲ self, though. The results of this small scale study has several implications for current language teachers in senior high schools in Iran, especially, in terms of establishing and holding constructive classroom environment.