Interrupting the Loop: EFL Teacher–Learner (De)motivation During Critical Incidents

Motivation in language classrooms is often treated as an individual trait, yet periods of disruption reveal how strongly it is shaped through interaction. This study examines how learner and teacher (de)motivation was experienced and enacted during the return to offline English as a foreign language instruction following pandemic-related disruption. Using a convergent mixed-methods design, data were collected from learner and teacher questionnaires, regression analyses, Motivational Identity System-informed domain mapping, and teacher observational accounts. Findings indicate that learners maintained interest in English learning while experiencing moderate cognitive–emotional demotivational strain, suggesting vulnerability rather than pervasive demotivation. In contrast, teachers reported cumulative demotivational pressure arising from institutional conditions, classroom interaction, and pandemic-related constraints. Integrating these perspectives reveals a teacher-observed, interactionally mediated (de)motivational loop at the point where internal learner experience and classroom interaction intersect, in which teachers’ interpretations of learner responsiveness shaped instructional responses and subsequent classroom dynamics. Crucially, the trajectory of this loop appears to hinge on teachers’ moment-to-moment interpretive filtering under conditions of uncertainty, indicating a potential point for redirecting motivational movement. By conceptualizing motivation as perceptually mediated and context-dependent, this study highlights how vulnerability, interpretation, and interaction jointly shape (de)motivational experience during critical incidents.