Teach English in YangliuZhen - Tai'an Shi

Young learners have a variety of energy and a variety of interests. When trying to motivate students the teacher must use that energy and use their interests as a guide to their lessons. First, young learners, especially very young learners, like to move around and they like to touch and interact with things. Second, like adults, children are very interested in the teacher and the teachers culture. Third, there is almost always something that children like that is universal to all children, such as very popular shows and music. We must always consider the above factors when making a lesson plan that will encourage motivation especially when the topic is not that interesting. Young learners like to move. They like to get up, stretch their legs and jump up and down. Usually they have energy that they want to burn and when their sitting restlessly in their seats, it could even be a distraction in class. One sure way to combat this is to use their energy through the use of active games in the classroom. Games will in return motivate the students to want to participate and learn the subject by having a want to play the game and or win the game. For example, younger young learners would enjoy getting to act out actions in the classroom by playing a game of Simon Says. They will watch the teacher carefully and their friends so that they can stay playing the game. Students at different levels will even feel motivated to play because they will be using their energy and enjoying acting with their friends. Similarly, older younger learners would enjoy getting up and playing a role paly where they have to seriously act out a scene. They will think deeply about what they’re doing and be motivated to do so because they are using their mind and body to act. Utilizing their energy will be important to keep students motivated and participating even if the lesson itself is dry. Another factor to utilize is your culture and your customs. Children are by nature curious and tend to want to know what is going on in other countries. This is great for teachers because resources are everywhere and it can be a rewarding way to motivate students. For example, if you were to teach your students about greetings in English, you can utilize their curiosity of the language itself by teaching them cultural facts about your country of origin. You could even teach them about greetings in other countries. This will satisfy their curiosity and motivate them because they will naturally be interested in the teacher and where they are from. Giving them information about other cultures and your culture will keep them interested in class and it will encourage students to ask you questions about the topics that your teaching. These questions will further motivate the students and will widen the students’ knowledge of you, which will give you a good rapport that will give students motivation to participate in classes. Another motivating factor in the classroom is pop culture. The more we move into a globalized world, the likes of the teacher’s country will become intertwined with the likes of other countries. For example, pokemon is wildly famous in most countries especially to children, so by adding pokemon into your presentation you could increase interest in the presentation and keep students interested in reading. Other pop culture interests that could be added is themed games using popular movies or filling in the blanks of popular English songs. It is important to learn about the culture of the country that you are in and utilize what is popular there too. For example, in South Korea there is an application for your phone that is used by most people and the characters on the app are so popular that there are whole stores dedicated to their merchandise. A teacher could use those characters in games, presentations, books, and much more. This will indefinably keep students motivated because children love games, movies, music and other things that is helping to develop their persona as they age. Teachers can turn a mundane presentation into one with interest just by tapping into pop culture worldwide and pop culture in the country that the teacher is in. To conclude, tapping into the interests and the nature of children will greatly improve your teaching experiences by keeping your class motivated and keeping your students happy as they improve in their studies. It’s important to stay active in class and let students do many activities involving movement. It’s also important to use your culture and world culture to help them keep interest in you and the lesson. It is equally as important to use themes that our popular to your students and to integrate the themes into the lessons wherever possible. When a teacher puts effort into holding the interest of their students, they will ultimately be more motivated even when learning not as interesting topics. Motivation is the key to success in the classroom.