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Motivating students What is motivation? Motivation is difficult to explain and even harder to switch on in people. Motivation is the force that makes us do things: this is a result of our individual needs being satisfied (or met) so that we have inspiration to complete the task. These needs vary from person to person as everybody has their individual needs to motivate themselves. Depending on how motivated we are, it may further determine the effort we put into our work and therefore increase the standard of learning. When we as teachers suggest factors (or needs) that determine the motivation of students, almost everyone would immediately think of to better themselves. Firstly let me say, I think motivation must come from the heart. Without true commitment, there can?t be any motivation. The teacher is motivated then the students will feel that and become interested. The study of motivation helps us as teachers to understand what prompts people to enter into an english language course. Also to study what influences students in their choice of language and why they are interested in english Previously before I made the decision to take the course, I did actually teach english in a private school in thailand. The students were beginners, three age groups ranging from 5 to 12 years of age. I found the most difficult thing was to motivate those children, basically their parents felt it would benefit them to learn english at a young age. The children however thought it was just a game. I found the best way to motivate and interest them was to play along with them, with myself creating the games. I have learnt from the course that to motivate all ages, the lesson must be fun and not allow the students to get bored. We must investigate all media, internet, books, and other kinds of tried and tested materials; we must not be afraid to create our own style of teaching. We must build relationships with our students; put ourselves in their shoes so to speak. Don?t be a figure at the front of the class, be calm and kind, and be fun and amusing. But we must also keep control, delegate some tasks to students, and make them feel important. I have found especially with Thai people they need to be encouraged constantly, praise them, laugh with them, and respect them. Then in turn they will be very motivated, and the will respect you in return. Before we can motivate students, we must firstly find the reason they wish to learn english. For some it?s because of work promotion prospects, higher salary, and some maybe to visit or work in an english speaking country. For some it?s to be a better student, going on to university. Then as above it is the wish of the parents, this is probably the hardest student to motivate. So once we have that information, we can tailor our lessons accordingly. The older students will require more sophisticated lesson planning, whereas the younger require more games etc. In Conclusion to maintain a high level of motivation is an absolute must for a teacher to be successful, low motivation makes for poor level of learning. That is very bad for the teacher and a disaster for the student.
