Teach English in NiujiApai Zhen - Tianjin

Motivation in the classroomMy article is based on various ways a teacher can positively affect the motivation of his/her students, or I?d like to say classroom management and motivation. Especially, how a teacher motivates students to learn efficiently in class. I will discuss the reasons why I have chosen this topic, the challenges I feel these skills present to the teachers, and what I hope to achieve by continuing to work on this skill through further observations. The main reason I decided to focus on this aspect of teaching is that I feel it is the key component to a successful class. As we know that motivation is defined as "some kind of internal drive which pushes someone to do things in order to achieve something", so there is no doubt to say that motivation is one of the most important factors in determining success or failure in any learning situation. All teachers, especially those who have taught teenagers and adults, will appreciate that motivating students is probably one of the most difficult aspects of the profession. This is especially true teaching a second language, as learning a second language is a long and often daunting prospect for many students. As mentioned previously, motivating students to learn is one of the key components of effective teaching and classroom management. If students are not motivated to learn then they are most likely not involved in the lesson, and if they are not involved in the lesson they are much more likely to cause classroom management problems. Therefore, it is critical for teachers to increase students? motivation to learn, and this is why I decided to look at this in more detail. Let?s take a look at a common phenomenon in classrooms, a teacher is teaching with great enthusiasm while there is another scene just several meters away are like: some students nod now and then; some students are doing their own business pretending to listen; even worse, some fall in sleep. As a teacher, how would you feel? Do you feel happy? Do you think that students are highly motivated and always ready to learn more new language points? ?Absolutely no? must be the answer. That?s obviously meaning that if a teacher doesn?t work harder to arouse students? interest and get them involved in each class activities, usually they will be bored and apathetic. However, sometimes motivation does not solely depend on the teacher, but the student?s mood and attitude on that particular day also dictates whether or not they can be motivated easily. In particularly, with those low level students, they?ll easily lose their confidence in language learning if they are not well-motivated at the beginning of the course. Thus, each student should get as much talking time as possible in class to build up their confidence and interest since it is quite beneficial to both teachers and students. As students learn faster and more effective is majority teachers? sincere hope and the teaching goal, it helps teachers with setting up class activities and exercises easily and effectively. That?s why we emphasize motivation is an important word for all language teachers and it is like the heart of communication. As a matter of fact, through studying the course and my own observations of other teachers, I have realized some strategies the teacher employs to achieve them: ? Establishing good ?student ? teacher? rapport; ? Developing a pleasant, relaxing & supportive classroom atmosphere (e.g. use of jokes, self-anecdotes, game, etc); ? Making the learning experience enjoyable (e.g. use of games, fun activities, technology, etc); ? Making the lesson content relevant for the students; ? Ensuring that the engage phase is well-designed in order to motivate students; ? Forming a cohesive student group; ? Increasing the students? self-confidence; ? Challenging students to ?think?; ? Increasing students? satisfaction (by allowing students to show their work); ? Arranging seats properly based on the number of students; ? Offering students more chances to share their opinions on certain topics with classmates before reporting back to the teacher. It is my hope that through observing more different professional teachers in my teaching career, I can learn more methodologies and become a more enthusiastic, effective, creative and motivational teacher to improve the motivation of my students in a great deal. This would subsequently help me in a variety of situations. For example, there are times when subject content is a little boring ? by implementing newly learnt skills in motivating students, I can improve the learning environment for them.