| Motivation is a fundamental factor for all students to acquire learning, but motivation is of particular concern for teen mothers who face other challenges such as poor school performance, low socioeconomic status, residence in high-risk neighborhoods, and specific parental attitudes and behaviors. The study purpose was to determine how foreign language teachers described the experiences and challenges they face in teaching teen mothers. The conceptual foundations of this qualitative study are second language acquisition model and the theory of multiple intelligences. The research questions were designed to determine how foreign language teachers, administrator and counselor describe the experiences and challenges they face when teaching teen mothers in the classroom. Data were collected from foreign language teacher participants via individual interviews, a focus group session, and documents such as lesson plans and grade books, with data analysis by classification based on coding and identification of themes and relationships. The findings indicated that foreign language teachers need strategies to help teen mothers acquire the foreign language skills. These findings also identified issues for teachers in developing practical and rich strategies to better understand the attitudes of teenage mothers. It is important for foreign language teachers use the strategies and begin challenging teenage mothers to apply more than one learning style. Implications for positive social change include new teaching strategies which could allow the foreign language teachers improve teaching strategies which in turn can improve the students’ learning skill and their ability to achieve while learning a foreign language. |
