Secondary school students' perceptions of classroom justice and their effects on motivation in EFL classes

The purpose of the current study is to investigate Secondary School Students' Perceptions of Classroom Justice and Their Effects on Motivation in EFL Classes. In order to achieve this goal, the mixed method research design was adopted to collect data. Scales and interviews were both used in the research to examine the link between classroom fairness and motivation in second language learning. Quantitative data was collected by two scales which are "Perception of Justice in Classroom Management" and "Motivation Scale in English". Qualitative data was collected by semi a structured-interview done with the participants. Interview form consisting of 5 open-ended questions was applied to 10 participants. Since the study aimed to reveal the relation between classroom justice and motivation in second language learning, the data collected from the two scales was analyzed with Correlational Survey Model. Secondary school students studying in Gaziantep province were the universe of this research. 337 students studying in secondary schools in Gaziantep were asked to participate in this research. The participants were selected from 5th, 6th and 7th grades through convinience sampling. Both quantitative and qualitative data revealed that teachers treated students fairly, regardless of their gender and success in the lesson. Reward, procedural and distributive justice dimensions differed significantly according to the grade variable. According to the results of the scales, no significant relationship was found between perception of justice and motivation, but the interview results showed that it was the opposite. Keywords: justice, classroom justice, motivation, foreign language learning