EFL Teachers’ and Students’ Perceptions of Motivational Strategies in the Chinese Tertiary Educational Context

Although Dörnyei’s (2001) taxonomy of motivational strategies has shaped L2 motivation research for two decades, its empirical fit in Chinese tertiary educational context—and the degree of alignment between teachers’ and learners’ espoused beliefs—remains further explored. This study offers the first multisite, mixed-methods investigation to fill that gap. Following a three-stage design, we conducted (1) semistructured interviews with 30 university EFL instructors; (2) large-scale online questionnaires (teachers, n = 251; students, n = 1,330) after pilot validation; and (3) follow-up interviews (30 teachers; 60 students). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses identified a seven-factor, 29-item model (proper teacher behavior, self-confidence enhancement, goal-orientedness, group cohesiveness, learner autonomy, task stimulation, and L2-related value) that demonstrated configural and metric invariance across stakeholder groups. The results of logistic regression revealed that teachers prioritized strategies linked to goal-orientedness and professional demeanour, whereas students valued autonomy support and affective engagement. The findings corroborate the contextual robustness of Dörnyei’s framework while highlighting nuanced stakeholder discrepancies that instructional interventions must address explicitly.