Supporting EFL Students’ Learning of Theoretical English-Content Through Using an Inquiry-Based Teaching Technique

The present study investigates the effects of implementing an inquiry-based teaching technique on motivating EFL/ESL student teachers to learn an English content-based course and to become critical toward the knowledge they are exposed to in this course. A quasi-experimental methodology of research was implemented through the one independent group design on a class of 19 students majoring in English education in the bachelor program at Bahrain Teachers College, University of Bahrain. A pre-post questionnaire was conducted to identify students’ motivations towards both the English content-based course and the proposed technique that is the inquiry-based teaching before and after the application of it. The study findings revealed positive impact of the proposed technique on increasing those EFL/ESL student teachers’ motivations toward the current course which indicates the effectiveness of this technique in motivating students to study other theoretical English content-based courses as well as supporting these students to develop new study skills that can assist them to learn and understand the content of these types of courses, which usually are theoretical.