Teach English in Weijiatan Zhen - Luliang Shi

To motivate students, it is important to understand them as learners, why are they learning and what do they hope to get out of the classroom. The first thing to acknowledge is that there are two different types of motivation, internal and external. Internal motivation could be things like an enjoyment of learning or meeting a personal challenge, while external motivation would be the need to pass a test or a desire satisfy parental expectations. Next is the student’s cultural expectations, I teach in Japan where lessons are overwhelmingly grammar-based lectures. Students are comfortable with this style and may be shocked and lose motivation if they experience difficulty in transitioning to an unexpectedly communicative classroom. Use of pair work and scaffolding can be an important step in helping students to adjust and maintain motivation in the classroom. Beyond cultural expectations the individual’s expectation for the lesson are important, do they want to practice conversational English, or do they need to pass a particular test in the future? Only by understanding the educational aims of students can a teacher create a classroom of motivated learners. A needs analysis can be extremely helpful in identifying these expectations and what exactly motivates students to learn English. If the learners are compelled to attend class and have little intrinsic motivation, then the teacher could use more games and activities to encourage participation. If the students have a strong desire to pass a test, then the teacher needs to make lessons clearly relevant to this goal. Even a series of ‘fun’ lessons could be demotivating if the student feels they aren’t learning anything important. That is not to say that games should be avoided, creating good natured competition within the classroom can encourage participation even from less academically gifted students. It is just that care should be taken that games are in service to the lesson objective. With younger learners a reward system may be helpful, offering stamps and stickers in return for answers can also help engender a spirit of healthy competition. Once the student’s reasons for participating in the class and learning English are understood the teacher should give them short term goals, as even if the course goals match their own; if success is a distant possibility they will become unmotivated. Teachers should ensure their lesson activities are scaffolded in a way that students can measure their progress, the use of ‘can do’ goals might also be considered for this purpose. The teacher should also ensure when explaining activities that they explain things in a relatable manner, it is better to tell people todays goal is that they will be able to read a menu than to tell them they will be able to understand the past tense. Overuse of academic terminology can be intimidating to beginners, while seeing how an activity could be relevant to them in the future could be quite motivating. When starting a new course effort should be made to create a friendly classroom environment and to encourage students to get to know one another. Language learning can be an uncomfortable experience, many people worry about making mistakes and looking foolish. A friendly and happy classroom is a motivated classroom. Ensuring common elements exist in a lesson and that difficulty does not rise too quickly are also important considerations for maintaining this atmosphere. However, variety in the classroom is also an important consideration, If the teacher has fallen in to a comfortable routine, repeating the same proven activities may cause both the teacher and her students to fall into a rut. Mixing things up in the classroom by using a greater range of activities may help students maintain interest. Furthermore, when the teacher is excited about the lesson there is a good chance their students will pick up on it and join in enthusiastically. While a routine is good for making students comfortable in class, this should be balanced with unexpected activities to keep students interested. Where possible lesson materials and themes should also be directly inspired by students interests, within the context of a task this could create an internal motivation for students to understand. Reading about their favourite sports team or singer is clearly more interesting for students than a dry news article. In conclusion to motivate your students you must first understand your students’ goals, then create a comfortable environment in which they can study towards them. Students should understand what they are learning and how it is relevant to their interests. If this is achieved, then the foundations have been laid for a motivated classroom.