Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Dazeshan Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Qingdao 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.
One of the great questions of teachers of all times is how to motivate students. Especially in certain ages, it is possible that the teacher is faced with certain characteristics that hinder the correct development of learning and the lack of motivation is one of the most remarkable. The teacher's abilities to encourage students to learn another language play a fundamental role. The lack of motivation leads to a decrease in concentration and effort and, ultimately, to failure to achieve success. Unmotivated students can be classified into several categories, that is, what is the source of them being unmotivated. The case can be that the student is just a slow learner, the student is a weaker or low performing student, or the student is just a lazy student. Teachers can, on one hand, become a role model for student interest, use a variety of student-active teaching activities, get to know the unmotivated students really well and know especially their interests and hobbies, help and teach students how to set goals and achieve rewards, use technology to increase student engagement, teach students how to make their thinking visible, and keep the assignments and homework sessions short for younger students. On the other hand, the teacher should be considerate as well as patient, and simply make English practical and the class a fun environment. Teacher-student relationship building, teacher feedback, student feedback, as well as making the class communicative for activating the intrinsic motivation are other successful ways for the teacher to motivate students. Personally, there are certain ways that I often employ in order to motivate my students (aged 6-15), and some of them contain the above-mentioned motivation practices. First, I almost always use visual material in class. Working only with a textbook can be tedious and discouraging, so mixing the material of the subject with some teaching tactics such as animations can be more fun. I use slides, drawings, videos, memory cards or other elements to help students visualize the concepts. Second, I establish goals. Developing the objectives of the class learning group will allow individuals to set some personal goals. Therefore, I tend to simplify the curriculum and highlight the goals that must be met, through the use of specific skills of the exercises and tasks. Continuously, while following the progress of the students, I motivate them and point out their positive achievements as well as the areas they should improve. I often offer students rewards for small or big goals achieved. Third, I always encourage interaction and companionship in the classroom through games and exercises, conducting vocabulary contests with activities such as Pictionary, riddles or friendly competitions, which encourage cooperation among school children and creates a more positive environment for learning and group work. All in all, motivation is a key element in the success of students of all ages and in all stages of their learning, and teachers can and must play an important role in providing the encouragement and motivation needed. Naturally, it is much easier said than done, because each and every student is different and they are all motivated differently, and it takes a lot of time and effort to get a whole classroom to work hard every day and be motivated to obtain excellence.
