EFL Teachers’ Motivation of Professional Development at the University Level in China

The motivation of instructors has been found to have a significant impact on students’ enthusiasm to learn a second language, but less attention has been paid to the motivation of English Foreign Language (EFL) teachers, especially in the Chinese environment where English plays a significant role. In order to lay the groundwork for the formulation of suggestions on how to increase teacher motivation and consequently boost the standard of instruction and student performance, this study explores the motivation of English instructors at the university level in China. 203 native Chinese EFL instructors who are currently employed at institutions in China’s mainland participated in the study. The motivation of EFL instructors for selecting a profession in teaching and the elements influencing that motivation was investigated using a quantitative approach design. For the purpose of evaluating the level of English writing skills of EFL instructors, a survey with close-ended questions that was founded on theories of motivation and modified from earlier research was utilized as the instrument. Then proportion, frequency, mean, and statistic tests were used to analyze the survey data. The findings indicate that the EFL instructors had a variety of motivations for deciding to work as teachers, with intrinsic motivation being the primary driver, followed by altruistic motivations like wanting to support English education in their own countries. The findings also showed that a variety of factors, such as positive student feedback, personal happiness, and a solid wage, had an impact on the motivation of EFL teachers. Demotivating variables were discovered to be extrinsic, such as poor pay and few other sources of money, uncomfortable working circumstances, and students’ unfavorable attitudes.


Introduction
The globe has transformed into a global village due to the ever-increasing degree of globalization in the twentyfirst century.Because of this, individuals need to speak the same language to preserve friendly connections.Additionally, maintaining worldwide contacts in the sectors of commerce, science, media, and other industries calls for the use of a globally recognized language.Considering such, the English language has a special place and has developed into a language that is widely used and well-established in the aforementioned sectors and worldwide (Rao, 2019).China has joined the global community via commerce and communication as a rapidly modernizing nation.As a result, English's status as a lingua franca in China has grown throughout the years (Simpson, 2017;Si, 2019).English is now indispensable for all levels of school from basic to higher education and has become a key component of teaching programs throughout the nation.Some discipline courses are taught in both Chinese and English at many mainstream schools and universities, according to studies by Hu (2005) and Gao and Wang (2016).In addition to Chinese, English in China is the topic that requires the greatest study hours throughout the course of a student's education.
Over the past decades, studies on teachers' work happiness and motivation often study individual demographic factors (e.g., Brookhart and Freeman, 1992;Watt and Richardson, 2008;Karavas, 2010;Zhang, Wu, and Zhu, 2020), and the findings show certain trends and correlations in terms of teachers' job satisfaction.Additionally, Watt and Richardson's (2008) research of secondary and primary teacher students in Australia found that age was a poor predictor of profession choice.In other words, older individuals were more likely to remain in the teaching profession after graduation, while younger participants were more likely to pursue other careers.In research examining the motivation of preservice CSL (Chinese as a Second Language) instructors, Zhang et al. (2020) provide support for this conclusion.In one study, the motivation of EFL instructors at a Chinese institution is examined, along with their degree of motivation and motivating factors (Ma, 2012).The motivation of EFL instructors at the university level is examined in studies by Karavas (2010), who examined elements that affect motivation and the causes of teachers' professional development.
Compared to previous research that only examined one or two areas of teacher motivation in professional growth, to fill the gap, this study aims to provide a more complete picture of EFL instructors' motivation in the professional development of the Chinese setting by assessing English language competency and other personal background factors including gender, age, and academic experience, in addition to foreign experience, EFL instructors' motivational factors are also investigated.After knowing college teachers' motivations and their internal realization in teacher professionalism, many teacher training programs would goal-oriented and effective.The findings may expand teachers' motivation and emotion regulation theories to L2 teacher education.
As a result, this study's importance is both theoretical and empirical.Theoretically, as was previously said, motivation among language teachers has received little consideration (Aydin, 2012;Hastings, 2012;Tsutsumi, 2014).Despite the crucial role that teacher motivation plays in achieving professional development goals in language learning, there is a dearth of research on the subject (Sugino, 2010).Additionally, there is a huge research vacuum, particularly for the Chinese setting, since there aren't many studies on EFL teacher motivation.

Concepts of teacher motivation
A clear description of teacher motivation is challenging due to its complexity.It can be argued, however, that this is the type of drive that teachers have for their work; "it is synonymous with work motivation" (Hastings, 2012), which clarifies a person's willingness to put forth and maintain an effort for behaviors related to their place of employment (Deressa and Zeru, 2019).In addition to "integrative" and "instrumental" characteristics, teacher motivation may also show traits referred to as "intrinsic" and "extrinsic".According to Dörnyei (2005), teacher motivation is similar to other forms of motivation, hence generic models of motivation can be applied to describe it.As a result, in terms of education, motivation for teachers explains why educators choose to pursue a career in teaching as well as how long and how diligently they are prepared to work at it.This is consistent with Sinclair's (2008) interpretation of teacher motivation.According to Sinclair (2008), what draws people to instruction, how long they stay in the field, and the degree of engagement they have with it are all influenced by teacher motivation.
The four parts of teacher motivation are as follows, according to Dörnyei (2005): (1) an inherent component, (2) contextual elements, (3) the dimension of time, and (4) adverse impacts.The term "intrinsic component" refers to the pleasure and delight instructors have in their work as well as the intrinsic benefits they receive.There are macro and micro contextual influences.The macro-level is connected to external social influences, but the micro-level is more intimately connected to the organisation and learning settings where the educator operates, such as the culture and norms of the school.According to Dörnyei (2005), motivation for teachers includes both the desire to teach and the desire to pursue teaching as a job for the rest of one's life.Stress, limited autonomy, a lack of self-efficacy, a lack of mental challenge, and an inappropriate career structure are all harmful factors (Dörnyei, 2005).Other academics that share a similar perspective on teacher motivation include Dowson and McInerney (2003) and McInerney, Maehr, and Dowson (2004).These authors contend that there are three components to teacher motivation: attraction, retention, and focus.They determine "what draws people to teaching, the amount of time they stay in their first education as teachers and ultimately become teachers, and the degree that they interact with their education and the teaching profession," in other words.Michaelowa (2002) described teacher motivation as the "willingness, desire or drive to take part in good teaching."In this context, "good teaching" refers to upholding professional standards and making every effort to support student learning to the best of one's capacity (Guajardo, 2011).
Scholars have also sought to define teacher motivation in a Chinese setting.Positive attitudes and behaviours displayed when teaching are the unique components of teaching motivation, according to Zhong et al. (1999).Teacher motivation drives educators to advance continuously in their careers, defines their level of devotion, and affects their mindsets towards teaching and behaviour in the classroom.Li (1988), on the opposite hand, contends that instructors' own drives and wants, which are crucial to teaching, are the source of their motivation.Tang (1984) asserts that the amount of time and energy instructors invest in the teaching process is a good indicator of their motivation.The explanations of teacher motivation presented in the Chinese context are comparable to those presented in the international studies stated above, which seems to place more emphasis on the teaching process than on the prospect of a career.In summary, the current study summarizes teacher motivation as pragmatic justifications for selecting teaching as a profession and justifications originating from a person's intrinsic drives and wants.Additionally, it affects how instructors behave in the classroom, how they feel about teaching, and how much time and effort they really put into teaching.As a result, and in keeping with the discussion above, two of the stages outlined by Dörnyei (2005)-career motivation and teaching motivation-will be used in the present research to gauge the motivation of EFL teachers.We will look at the instructors' effort and devotion as potential measures of their degree of motivation.Therefore, the dimension of concentration proposed by Dowson and McInerney et al. (2004) can be explained and supported by these indicators.

Studies on teacher motivation in general education
Research on teacher motivation has gained popularity, particularly in the fields of educational psychology and teacher preparation.Research on teacher motivation has been done on four different topics, according to Han and Yin (2016): reasons for choosing teaching as a career (career motivation), the relationship between teachers' background variables and career motivation, motivational factors for teachers (motivation to teach), and the connection between teacher motivation and student motivation.Additionally, there is research examining the connections between job drive and specific background factors including age and gender.Studies have been done to examine how pre-service teachers' job choices are impacted by their age disparities.It was discovered that older pre-service instructors could comprehend the teaching profession more objectively and realistically than younger pupils.For instance, older student instructors exhibited more pecuniary incentives and motivation for career transfer than their younger colleagues, according to Joseph and Green (1986).Following an investigation into 510 student teachers from three Australian universities, Watt and Richardson (2008) reported similar findings.They discovered that the "highly engaged switchers," who were more likely to have had career plans other than teaching, were younger than the "highly engaged persisters," who intended to devote their entire careers to teaching.

L2 Teachers' Career Motivation
Similar findings are observed for EFL instructors and general education teachers in terms of the variables affecting teachers' decisions to join the field (Kazerouni and Sadighi, 2014;Koran, 2015).That is, the intrinsic, altruistic, and extrinsic motivations for choosing a profession as an EFL instructor may all be divided into three categories.Altruistic motivation and intrinsic drive are the two most prevalent forms of motivation, according to research.In their 2012 study of pre-service English teachers at a state university in Turkey, Topkaya and Uztosun discovered that the participants' career motivations included both intrinsic values like "liking teaching" and altruistic motivations like "teaching will allow me to shape child and adolescent values."Moreover, the empirical research conducted by Koran (2015) on 37 English teachers from secondary schools and universities who all worked at an Iraqi educational institution revealed that the participants had multiple motivations for choosing to enter the teaching field, with strong intrinsic and altruistic motivations being the main ones.In addition to that, Wang and Wang (2023) explored Chinese EFL teachers' per-ceptions of self-directed professional development and claimed that the most frequent benefits of self-directed professional development were being "needs-based" and "selfdirected", which, in turn, produce "flexibility", "autonomy", and "professional knowledge development" inteachers.

Language intricacy and motivation among teachers
It is a prevalent belief that L2 instructors who are more fluent in their intended language are more equipped to teach it compared to those that are less skilled.English language proficiency has been discovered as one of the essential qualities of a good English teacher in English as a Second language education (Llurda, 2005;Braine, 2010;Nayernia and Babayan, 2019).L2 English teachers' English language proficiency plays a crucial role in their competence.Moreover, it enables teachers to shape their professional development, which has now moved away from product-oriented courses that only prepare teachers for the pedagogical aspects of their job (Bhatt, 2021).Instead, teachers' motivation is currently seen as an ongoing practice in which teachers are constantly working on their teaching quality and expertise (Wang et al., 2021).
Moreover, the connection among emotions, professionalism, and reflectivity of teachers is in accord with the nature of L2 education, which is multi-layered including intrapersonal and interpersonal domains (Wang and Wang, 2023).While several research have examined student language competence, particularly in relation to language complexity (see, for example, Ortega, 2003;Bulté and Housen, 2018), very few have examined L2 teacher competency up to this point.
Given this reality, the present research also makes an effort to investigate the relationship between native Chinese undergraduate EFL instructors' English language competency and the reasons they choose to pursue teaching as a profession.
Because a questionnaire rather than interviews was utilized to gather the data, the participants' English writing competence rather than their English speaking skill is examined in the present research.Because of the "face" culture, it was thought possible that participants could be unwilling to use English in front of a stranger.The complexity of language at the vocabulary and syntactic levels, which is represented in the participants' responses to open-ended questions, is the focus of the current research.This part analyses earlier lexical and syntactic analyses of English language competency in order to choose the best indices and measurements for the current investigation.

L2 English teachers' language proficiency and their professional development
The ability to instruct in English as well as understand the subject matter or topic are all examples of an English teacher's competency (Richards, 2017).Richards (2017) adduces that instructors' language competency affects their capacity to instruct in English.The English language competency of teachers has an impact on their professional development, based on the ELT literature.The ability of language learners has previously been assessed using measurements of the complexity of the English language.Instead, it is employed in the current research to gauge how sophisticated the language used in English instructors' questionnaire responses is.These instructors only use English in certain situations, including in the classroom and at international conferences; it is not their first language.Chinese EFL instructors must read and listen to English-language books to keep up their language competence.Here, measures of linguistic complexity are applied to texts authored by university professors who are native Chinese speakers.Since it is unknown how much teachers' desire for professional development may be connected to their language competence, this is considered an experimental component of the present research.
In conclusion, research on the career motivation of EFL instructors may be split into two groups based on the participants: pre-service teachers and in-service teachers.The examination of the literature reveals that pre-service and in-service instructors, regardless of the setting, have comparable reasons for choosing to become teachers.In other words, rather than being driven only by extrinsic motivation, they are also driven by altruism.According to the pertinent literature, EFL teachers often cited their positive attitudes toward teaching and a positive self-evaluation of their abilities to assist students in learning English as reasons for choosing a career in education.This was done in an effort to support the nation's English education.Specifically, there will be three research questions to be answered:

Instruments
The instrument conducted to gather the data is a questionnaire, including both close-ended questions and a series of open-ended questions in English.The questionnaire is divided into five sections, starting with demographic inquiries about gender, age, employment location, prior experience teaching and studying English, etc.These inquiries often appear first because they are straightforward and "demand minimum effort from the reply" (Rasinger, 2013).The last sections are divided into three open-ended questions.In this research, a quantitative methodology was used.This is because combining several approaches might result in more persuasive and trustworthy findings than doing so with just one.To gather data from quantitative analyses, a web-based questionnaire was developed as the primary research.The closed questions' responses-the majority of which were in the form of Likert-scale ratings-were utilized to compile the quantitative data.Data from those questionnaire questions were utilized to examine the career motivation, degree of motivation, and variables influencing teachers' motivation in native Chinese EFL university instructors.The demographic data, motivational data, and participant-written texts that could be used to gauge the difficulty of their English writing were all collected as part of a survey that was utilized to gather the data for the present research.

Data collection procedure
The software application was used to create the questionnaire.There were four motivational elements for EFL teachers that were examined: career motivation, intensity degree of motivation, and motivational factors for professional growth.Based on earlier research on EFL teacher motivation in career growth (see, for example, Dörnyei, 2001;Kassabgy, Boraie, and Schmidt, 2001;Sugino, 2010a;Kim et al., 2014;Rasheed, Humayon, Awan, and Ahmed, 2015), questionnaire questions were created.Additionally, certain components were taken from research on the motivation of teachers in general education (see e.g., Watt, and Richardson, 2008).
Choosing a representative group of units from a big population is the process of using the quantitative research sampling technique (Bryman, 2016).The selection procedure is laborious and expensive, but samples should be as accurately representative of the population as feasible (Dörnyei and Taguchi, 2010: 60).Numerous techniques, such as convenience sampling, random sampling, etc., may be utilized.
The snowball sampling technique, which includes a "chain reaction," was mostly used in this investigation.The researcher chose a small group of individuals to serve as the contact persons, and then requested these individuals to invite other members of the population to serve as contact people (Dörnyei and Taguchi, 2010: 60).Snowball sampling was chosen because it is more socially acceptable in the Chinese environment, where "face-saving" and social networks are significant factors.In China, it is uncommon for strangers to get in touch with someone directly since doing so is regarded Subsequently, a pilot study was carried out prior to the survey being given to the informants.The objective was to find errors and examine the questionnaire's design.The questionnaire's structure was changed to make it easier to comprehend, and any unclear or biased questions were either omitted or rewritten.50 EFL instructors from China who were employed by the same institution but were not included in the final research agreed to participate in the pilot study.
They looked over every question on the survey, responded to them, and gave spoken comments, mostly about the structure and language of the questions.For instance, they recommended utilizing various font sizes for the question items and directions.As a result, a questionnaire with a more readable structure was created.The items' wording was changed to make them more specific.

Data analysis
The researcher gathered the data through a questionnaire of closed-ended questions and three open questions.
When data was received from 201 native Chinese university EFL instructors, it was analyzed through SPSS software.The numbering of the replies received from the respondents was done.The total scores on the scale were computed to investigate the motivation of EFL instructors regarding professional development.

Self-reported satisfaction level of teacher motivation
The findings of the study on the motivation of native Chinese EFL instructors at the university level are presented in this section .They include the teachers' professional motivation, degree of motivation, and self-rated motivators.This part begins with the participants' self-reported satisfaction level of teacher motivation, followed by results on the kinds, reasons, and variables affecting the career choices of EFL instructors.And then, the degree of instructor motivation is presented .
The findings in this part depend on all 203 informants who responded to the questionnaire.Table 1 lists the participants' self-reported levels of satisfaction.According to the findings, only roughly 14% of the participants evaluated themselves as "strongly agree" and felt confident in their English language ability.First of all, English is not often utilized as a means of communication; even EFL instructors seldom get the chance to speak and hear English in everyday life.

Motivation to become an English teacher for a career
One goal of the research is to determine why Chinese EFL instructors choose to pursue a career in teaching English.According to the mean scores Table 2, Item 4, "I feel a sense of accomplishment and pride when I see students make progress in English," came in top with a mean of 5.19.Question 9, which deals with EFL instructors' desire to share their personal English learning experiences with students, came in second with a mean of 4.91.Additionally, the participants claimed that elements like satisfaction with the teaching process (item 2, mean = 4.89) and an interest in English (item 6, mean = 4.81) had a significant role in their decision to pursue a career in education.
Furthermore, it was discovered that approximately 79% of the respondents (Figure 1) gathered means above four on a six-point Likert scale for items suggesting intrinsic motivation.This finding indicates the main kind of career motivation that teachers of English as a Foreign Language stated attends to be intrinsic.Only 13.90% of participants    In conclusion, according to Figure 1, while the native Chinese university EFL instructors in this research had sev-eral motivations for teaching languages, their major motive was intrinsic.Altruistic motivation, which is related to the desire to benefit others, also had an impact on the participants' professional motivation in the current research.This is consistent with research on the initial employment motivation of EFL instructors conducted in several nations, including Turkey (Topkaya and Uztosun, 2012) and Iran (Koran, 2015).

Teachers' motivation level
A total of fourteen items, focusing on desire and dedication, were created for the questionnaire in the current study to assess the level of teacher motivation.The comprehensive survey findings on participant motivation, including their dedication to teaching and their willingness to stay current on the topic, are shown in Table 3.As can be observed, the average motivating level of EFL teachers is high, at 4.43.For instance, many of them claim to be continuing their education by watching English-language films in their free time and staying current with events in their field of expertise.Additionally, they put effort into their instruction.over the past couple of years.

Discussion
The current study was an empirical attempt to reveal the Chinese EFL teachers' motivation of professional development at the University Level.According to the study, even though EFL instructors had a variety of motivations for deciding to become teachers, intrinsic drive predominated in their decision.Despite reporting a decline in intensity between the time they started their careers and the time they answered the questionnaire, EFL teachers generally had a high degree of motivation.Besides, one of the main sources of motivation was discovered to be intrinsic elements, such as a sense of personal growth.This study also demonstrated that the majority of teachers enjoy teaching and have a strong interest in the English Language, which could be concluded in intrinsic motivation.In addition to that, altruistic motivation is the second motive as they believe that English education plays a vital role in students' future careers.These findings corroborate those of Dowson and McInerney (2003), Maehr and Dowson (2004), who contended that there are three components to teacher motivation: attraction, retention, and focus.Therefore, chances for teacher growth and with-service training activities may aid in boosting motivation among teachers.According to Nudrat (2017), training exercises can aid instructors in feeling more accomplished, which enhances their performance at work.Spuck (1974) discovered that engaging in constructive social interactions may help motivate people, and conferences and seminars can help teachers engage with one another.In conclusion, maintaining teachers' enthusiasm and enabling individuals to impart knowledge to the highest level of their abilities requires a collaborative effort from the institution, students, and the instructors themselves.Teachers are only likely to be effective if they are personally fulfilled and strongly driven.

Limitations and Implications
To conclude, this study showed that teachers' motivation contributes to their professional development and well-being because they are all governed by intrapersonal and interpersonal variables.However, the study did not re- port the mediating role of many other teacher-related factors in such interplay.Further research can be done on the impacts of teachers' internal, external, and altruistic motivation on students' English proficiency in the context of assessment, especially alternative methods like learning-oriented assessment (LOA) that entails questioning strategies and interactions (Derakhshan and Ghiasvand, 2022).Finally, the interaction and influence of teachers' motivation and PP constructs (Derakhshan, 2022) on teachers' professional development and wellbeing can be explored in the future using mixed-methods designs.

Conclusion
In conclusion, this study contributes to the field of EFL teacher motivation research in the areas of career inspiration, degree of desire, factors that motivate teachers, and the association between individual characteristics and teacher motivation.By giving academics the chance to fully comprehend EFL teachers at university levels in a Chinese environment, the study also fills a vacuum in motivation research.Relevant research on the motivation of such EFL teachers is scarce.Hopefully, the perspectives on English language instruction in mainland China that are mentioned in the current study's Part 2 may inspire more research on the subject.More significantly, this study marks the first time a formula for evaluating the level of English writing ability of EFL teachers has been used.
The findings may have applications for sustaining or boosting the desire of EFL teachers.It is important to have a thorough approach to evaluating teachers that takes into account the many facets of their professional contributions and practice.In order to provide teachers more time for research, policies that lighten their responsibilities might be created.Additionally, chances for in-service training must be made available in order to increase teachers' productivity, competence, understanding, and desire in their line of work.
a. What drives native Chinese university EFL professors in their pursuit of professional development?b.What inspired in-service native Chinese university EFL instructors to choose a career in education?c.What motivates native Chinese university EFL teachers to stay in the teaching profession, and how motivated do they perceive themselves to be?This study was employed in the EFL context of China, focusing on the EFL teacher motivation of professional development at the University Level.In this research, participants are split into two groups: (i) 50 native Chinese speakers who teach EFL at universities in the pilot study; and (ii) 203 native Chinese speakers who teach EFL at universities in the main study.The pilot study's 50 native Chinese EFL instructors contributed to the analysis and creation of the online survey.The 203 EFL instructors that participated in the primary research are from various Chinese colleges.
embarrassing and may result in face loss.People have a tendency to rely on their social networks by requesting favors from friends.As a result, to create the snowball sample in this research, coworkers, old classmates, and acquaintances who work at different colleges were recruited.EFL instructors and teachers from other disciplines are the points of communication.Many considerations and variables were adjusted for when choosing the contact persons, including the location of their jobs and the kind of institution where they worked, in order to guarantee the representativeness and richness of the data.
values, such as pay, benefits, and social standing, were more significant influences on their employment choice, as shown in Figure1.Approximately 63.70% of those who took part said that their decision to become teachers was motivated by altruism.For instance, they believed that teaching English may help the Chinese people become more globally minded in some little ways.

Table 2 .
Aspects for choosing English teaching as a career (N = 203).

Table 3 .
Chinese university EFL teachers' motivation level.