Resumen en inglés

Motivation is considered an important prime mover for all human activity and therefore also for learning in school, foreign language teachers play a vital role in the students’ foreign language learning process. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the perceptions of a teacher of English concerning his experience to generate motivation in his demotivated students. The study employed Colazzi’s seven-steps method of phenomenological analysis. The researchers collected the data through semi-structured interviews following Seidman’s model and also using reflective diaries. Four themes emerged from the data: (a) being a father and a psychologist in the classroom, (b) a sense of mixed feelings, (c) a struggle for fulfilling a pedagogical role, and (d) Students-centeredness and integratedness in foreign language education. The completion of this study is meaningful to the stakeholders, especially secondary school teachers who can find it helpful to their process of teaching, in order to keep their pupils’ motivation in learning English.