TEFL Niigata

Motivation can be challenging as well as rewarding. It is a challenge to motivate any student who walks into the classroom who has no desire to be there, but the real reward comes when a student walks in ready to learn. The question is what motivates students to learn english? teachers take part of some of their students' learning, but the rest must come from the student. The reasons why students come to class may be because they find learning english is fascinating or maybe they are there because their work requires that they have to learn english if they want to get promoted. Students will find that many rewards come from their motivation. There are two types of motivation are intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is motivation that comes from within a person, not based on the reward. A student wants to study english because he/she finds pleasure in doing so and has a desire to learn. Extrinsic motivation is when the student is compelled to do something based on the reward. The reason why a student learns english is based on the concept, “What's in it for me?” Some of their reasons may be getting a better job, getting payed more money, or living in a country where english is the dominant language. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are both significant, since it gets students moving to their goal of learning english. From my experiences, I believe that students will become more successful from intrinsic motivation, because it comes from within themselves and not others. The student won't always be successful in every area of english and there won't always be immediate rewards, but if a student is intrinsically motivated they will be able to accomplish the challenges that come. A few of my friends from Costa Rica gave their opinion on what motivates people from their country to learn english. They gave five main reasons which are: so they can understand the media, they are able to communicate with foreigners that come to their country, english is a universal language, all technical explanations are in english, and there are a lot more opportunities for those who know english than those who don't. It was interesting to me that all technical manuals are in english, since here in the united states they are in other languages such as french and spanish. The main reason why people learn english in Costa Rica is to get better jobs that pay more money. Their son Steven is a perfect example on one whose hard work in learning english is paying off. At a young age he had a strong desire to learn english and so he spent his time studying english in a private school along with spending time with the missionaries, who were mainly from english speaking countries. From the very beginning he was intrinsically motivated, which has gotten him far. Steven is now working for an American company. Since he knows english so well he gets to go California for a conference. If students have a strong desire to learn english they will go farther and more opportunities will open up. The rewards of learning english pay off in the end. An acquaintance of mine from brazil learned english mainly from watching movies and listening to music. He married an American woman and lived in the united states. He was given the opportunity to go to college in the states. Unfortunately, he didn't graduate. Intrinsically he wasn't motivated to learn english, but extrinsically he was. This man wanted to learn english to be socially acceptable as well as understanding the media around him. Extrinsic motivation isn't the enduring power to get a person through during the challenging times. There may who learn english because of their career or other reasons and along the way they learn english for themselves; they will become successful. No matter the reason people start out to learn english they must have a desire for it and the focus isn't so much on the reward as it is for what they have accomplished. english is challenging, but if students can find the joy and satisfaction that comes from learning english then the teacher has succeeded.