Teach English in Zhuwang Zhen - Weihai Shi

Speakers of foreign languages learn English for many different reasons. This can include career opportunities, travel, exams, moving countries, or for improving general communication. Motivation is different based on age and level of experience with the new language. Adults are usually motivated to learn English for a job, school, or travel. Children and young learners are usually not highly motivated because it is not their choice to learn a new language, but generally pick up English more easily than adults. All students will bring a different level of motivation to the classroom, and it is the teacher’s job to encourage and maintain this motivation throughout their course lessons. To motivate children in the classroom, it is important to keep the lessons interesting and vary them often. When teaching beginners, you can motivate them through having a relaxed and supportive atmosphere, praising and encouraging often, and explaining your methods. Since children have a short attention span, it is important to keep their curiosity up and engaged in exciting and fun activities. Many children are simply seeking approval, which is where praise and encouragement from the teacher comes in. A teacher can also keep children motivated by relating activities to the student’s own interests. Yet it is important to keep lessons interesting and vary them often, so they do not get bored. A teacher can make the classroom more exciting by putting up children’s artwork or visual posters. Motivational lesson plans can include playing simple games, giving out positive reward stickers, or acting out meaning and ideas. Motivation is elicited in the Engage phase of an ESA lesson, and should be a main focus for teaching children. The engage part of the lesson is used to get the students interested and motivated to participate in the lesson. Usually if they are involved, they will feel the lesson is more fun and stimulating. Although it is just used as a ‘warmer,’ it is very important for the rest of the lesson. Engage phase can be initiated through introduction prompts, alphabet relay, I spy, or memory games. Motivating adults in the classroom may be easier at times because they are self-motivated, but the teacher still needs to create an encouraging learning environment. Adults are usually scared to take risks with a new language, or in front or a classroom where they may get the wrong answer. Although they are making their own choice to learn a new language, social dynamics and peers will still play a big role in their comfortableness in the classroom. Specifically, you can have adults who are in a business English course, which are learning this new language for professional or educational purposes. These students are usually highly motivated to learn because their job or program depends on it. Since they are usually learning English on their own time, they may be tired from their day job or not attend at all due other obligations. Because of this it is important to structure lessons based on what the students need. Here it would be important to do a needs analysis questionnaire to identify and prioritize specific objectives of the course. This way the students will not feel like you are wasting their time and be more motivated in their learning of English. For all groups of students, it is important to keep them engaged through eye contact, gestures, and varying tone of voice. Use an overhead projector to stay facing the students at all times, invite students to write on the board, know every students name, and establish a good rapport with all of them. Group and pair work with other students are good motivational tools. Overall, the more motivated a student is, the more likely they will succeed in their English language learning.