STARTBODY

Teach English in Renliji Zhen - Dezhou Shi

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Renliji Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Dezhou Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language.

Our goal as EFL teachers is to get our students to learn to communicate through a second language; therefore we should try to make them want to learn it actively. For this, it is necessary to take into account several factors which affect the learning process, analyze how to better motivate students and encourage them towards positive attitudes in EFL competences; other student’s learning feedback, the classroom, the teachers, the English language and its culture. All of the fore mentioned factors will affect our student’s motivation and as a consequence their way of learning. However, sometimes and as we know, previous or inherited attitudes can affect negatively creating inhibition and shyness among students. Generally, such attitudes are usually due to: Previous student’s experiences Low self-esteem Family problems Environmental resistance towards the learning of a foreign language Rejection of the foreign language and its culture learning difficulties Boredom Attention seeking behavior Whatever the case and scenario, the teacher can analyze the different causes, show interest towards the students’ circumstances and schedule compensating activities of their interest when possible. Motivation rest on our part as teachers and has to do mainly with the attitude towards the accomplishment of a task. Motivation is achieved through a combination between efforts, will to learn and a positive attitude. Therefore, motivation and attitude are directly related factors, since if students have a positive attitude they usually feel motivated. These factors, motivation and attitude, can be modified either by the students themselves or by external stimuli outside of the class or teaching institution; which is why I would like to highlight some differences between these types of motivations. External motivations: They are triggered by factors related to aspects outside the classroom. For example, show interest in native people and their culture or have a desire to learn a foreign language for practical reasons: learn English to find a good job. This type of motivation is more oriented towards adults needs, but teachers must help students to discover English culture, and to develop in them positive and genuine attitudes towards speakers of English language. As seen external motivations are very important factors that affect a student’s performance. However as a result of the lesser degree of impact teachers have on them I am going to concentrate a bit further on the Internal and personal motivations. Internal and personal motivations: Have to do with factors related to what happens inside the classroom or teaching institution, student teacher interaction and their impact on students’ motivation. Some of these factors are: The physical conditions of the class Lighting, number of students, the spatial disposition of the desks, decoration or heating can alter the motivation of students too. So, if the room is not sufficiently heated, ventilated, or properly lit and students are not comfortable they will probably not pay due attention to the teacher. Methodology A methodology focused on the needs and interests of the Students reinforces motivation. Methodology should be sufficiently up to date to student’s mood and reality. Teacher’s attitude When teachers positively reinforce the students, they feel highly motivated and classes will be more productive and competence will increase. Success perception If the student perceives that he obtains positive results while completing the activities, they will motivate even further. So as teachers, we must establish real objectives and plan activities adapted to the level of competence of the students. Psychology Teachers must know if their students are outspoken, introverted, if they have a high or low level of competence and self-esteem, and what their general tastes are. In addition, we must take into account if they have brief attention span, sense of curiosity or if they are or not dynamic. These aspects change according to nationality or social background and been aware of them, we can design appropriate activities and make them fit into our group of reference to increase student’s motivation levels. Family, environment and social relations This is perhaps one of the most important factors that influence motivation, especially with children and younger learners. If a student has parents who think that learning English is something useful and helpful, they will most likely encourage their son or daughter when presented with positive results, thus they may participate emotionally from something that the student learned. If, in addition, they are used to watching movies in English or with subtitles, or they already have bilingual dictionaries at home, or enjoy listening to English music or use the internet to work with the English language, they will have a deeper contact with it and will consider English as something that is already and naturally part of their life. Paying due attention to all these factors will make the students feel more motivated in class and best encouraged to learn English. On the contrary, for reasons of location and cultural barriers we can also meet parents who think that English is not very useful, that will make your students feel apathetic with English and as a result they will show little interest in learning. CONCLUSION When it comes to teaching a foreign language we should keep in mind not only that we have to teach words, sounds and grammatical structures but we also have to teach how to use the English language appropriately and fluently in contexts and situations of ordinary daily life. This implies to motivate the students and encourage in them an interest and a positive attitude towards the language: if they feel motivated they will want to learn it and include it in their work and daily life. To summarize, we should do that our students feel happy and comfortable when learning English.


ENDBODY