Teach English in BaoshAnlu Jiedao - Shanghai Shi

Motivation in the classroomRegardless of a student?s reasons for studying english, one of the primary ways of helping a student to learn is through motivation. The dictionary describes motivation as; ?1. The act or an instance of motivating. 2. desire to do; interest or drive. 3. incentive or inducement. 4 Psychol. the process that arouses, sustains and regulates human and animal behaviour.? (The Collins english Dictionary). It is exactly this desire to do and incentive to study that the teacher needs to arouse in the student but it is important to sustain this motivation throughout the learning process. This can be achieved in several ways, some of which I have broadly categorized below; Lesson plans: The teacher needs to carefully plan a well-structured, well thought-out lesson, that is designed with the needs and interests of the student in mind. The engage part of the lesson should do just that, engage the interest of the student. The teacher should arouse the interest of the student in the topic that is to follow so the student is motivated to listen and contribute. The study phase must sustain the student?s interest and focus on the language with clear explanations as to how it is constructed. It is essential that the teacher makes this part of the lesson interesting, involving the students by asking them to provide examples in order to ensure that the student is able to use the language correctly. The opportunity to use the language in a fun and functional sense is given in the activate stage and a motivated student will feel enthusiastic about putting into practice what he/she has learnt in the lesson. Correction: All students will make mistakes when learning a new language but it is important that the teacher corrects these at the right time and in the right way. The teacher should avoid negative language such as ?that?s a stupid mistake? or ?it?s so easy? because this will de-motivate the student and make them reluctant to participate in the lesson. Positive expressions such as ?nearly?.?, ?try again? or asking other students to make the correction (student-student correction) are much more motivating. The teacher should make minimal corrections to the student?s mistakes in the engage phase of the lesson. The teacher?s aim should be to get the students interested in the topic and to get them speaking. Mistakes should be corrected during the study phase, but it is important to correct in a positive manner. When completing written activities it is important to correct mistakes at the end of the activity and if possible give the students the opportunity to self correct their work. It is important to focus on practicing language and creating interest during the activate activity so mistakes should be corrected at the end of the activity. Praise The teacher should remember to regularly praise the efforts of the students as this is extremely motivating and encourages the students to actively participate in the lessons. Praise can be both verbal or through the use of positive comments or marks on written work. A small gesture such as asking a student to read his/her good work to the class, for example at the end of a creative writing exercise, can be a good way to motivate individual students. Topic The teacher should take care when choosing the topic for the lesson and the activities used to teach that topic. The topic should arouse the interest of the students and the related activities should aim to sustain this interest and create an incentive to participate in the lesson. To pick a suitable topic the teacher needs to consider the age and interests of the students, whether the students can relate to or will be interested in the topic and whether the activities in the lesson plan can be designed to be inspiring and motivating for the students. Motivation is something that can sometimes take time to achieve depending on the individual circumstances of the student. At the beginning of the course it may be that the student is not motivated to learn because he/she has not chosen to take lessons but has been obliged to take them by his/her parents or teacher. A good teacher can try to encourage the student to develop an interest in learning a new language by motivating the student and creating a desire to study by making the learning experience fun and stimulating. A positive learning experience is something that will encourage further study in the future. A motivated language student will have the confidence to improve his/her language skills and will hopefully feel the desire to experiment with the language through other experiences such as reading, watching films or travel.