Tutors’ influence on distance language students’ learning motivation: voices from learners and tutors

Teachers’ influence on students’ learning motivation is a well-researched topic. Nevertheless, the majority of such studies are situated in the conventional learning context despite the rapid growth of distance language learning. This study set out to investigate tutors’ influence on students’ learning motivation in the Chinese distance language learning context. It attempted to gain a balanced picture of the issue under study by taking both student and tutor views into account. Findings from this study indicate that teaching competence, personal characteristics, subject matter expertise, and tutor–student relationship were four tutor-related factors which affected students’ learning motivation, reinforcing results of previous studies. Nevertheless, mismatches were found between students and tutors in relation to the influence of particular aspects of teaching competence, personal characteristics, and subject matter expertise. Implications from the study are considered in this article.