Japanese high school and university students learning English: Differences in their perceptions of teachers as motivators

This paper reports on the perceptions of a group of Japanese high school students (N =125) and a group of Japanese university students (N = 255) of English as a foreign language (EFL) about the influence of their English teachers as a factor affecting their own motivation. The study employed a questionnaire to collect data with the results computed statistically using SPSS 19. An independent samples t test was conducted on the means drawn from the five-point Likert-scale between university and high school respondents. The results revealed that university students view their teachers as influencing their own motivation more strongly than do high school students. The chisquare test on a range of teacher-related factors: teacher’s classroom behaviour, personality, and teaching skills, also showed notable difference between the two groups of students.