Does Teaching Experience Matter More Than Qualifications? A Pragmatic Inquiry into Tanzanian EFL Teachers’ Choice of Motivational Strategies

Abstract

Motivating learners to acquire English as a foreign language (EFL) remains a persistent classroom challenge, and while teachers’ use of motivational strategies is known to enhance learner engagement, the pragmatic question of whether teachers’ demographic characteristics, particularly teaching experience versus formal educational level, actually predict their strategic choices has received scant empirical attention, especially in under-researched African contexts like Tanzanian primary schools. This study pragmatically examined the association between teachers’ teaching experience and educational level with their self-reported selection and use of 35 motivational strategies derived from Dörnyei’s (2001) taxonomy. A quantitative survey was conducted involving 100 English language teachers proportionally sampled from 20 primary schools in Morogoro Municipality, Tanzania. Data were collected using a validated Likert-scale questionnaire (Cronbach’s α = .966) and analysed using chi-square tests at α = .05 to determine statistically significant associations. The results demonstrated a striking pragmatic asymmetry: 15 motivational strategies were significantly associated with teaching experience (p < .05), particularly those requiring nuanced classroom judgment such as maintaining motivation, enlisting active task participation, personalising learning goals, and promoting cooperation over competition. In contrast, only 8 strategies showed significant association with educational level, mostly limited to creating basic motivational conditions like showing care and organising extracurricular activities. These findings pragmatically indicate that years of classroom interaction, not formal degree attainment, substantively shape teachers’ ability to select and deploy a wider, more sophisticated range of motivational strategies. The study offers an empirical contribution by providing the first systematic evidence from Tanzanian primary EFL contexts and a theoretical contribution by demonstrating that Dörnyei’s framework yields different demographic patterns than those reported in Western or Asian settings. Practically, the findings suggest that policy investments in teacher retention and subject-specialised deployment may yield greater motivational returns than merely upgrading qualifications. The study concludes that teaching experience is a stronger pragmatic predictor of motivational strategy choice than educational level, and recommends that teacher deployment guidelines be revised to assign English instruction by subject expertise, alongside structured mentoring programmes for novice teachers to accelerate strategy acquisition.