Motivating Students

Motivating Students

Keeping your students motivated to learn is one of the biggest challenges any teacher faces.

There’s nothing worse than going into a class full of people who don’t really want to be there. As an EFL teacher most of us have the chance to work with a variety of age groups. Adults are usually in your classroom because they have made the choice to be there and in most cases they have made a financial commitment towards their learning and they know exactly what they want to achieve by improving their language skills.

However, children and teenagers often haven’t made their own decision to attend the English class and they are obliged either by their parents or school to do so. It is sometimes appropriate for teachers to take an active role in trying to improve the motivation levels of a group. A highly motivated group of students is generally a lot easier and more fun to teach. Obviously there’s only so much you can do, but most teachers have come across de-motivated students at some time in their careers and it’s often worth addressing the problem when you recognise it before it escalates further. Don’t however feel personally responsible for a student’s lack of motivation. There are often many factors that contribute towards a lack of motivation and these should be taken into account. Here are some ideas that I’ve put together which may go some way towards increasing motivation levels in a group or at least addressing the problems and bringing them out into the open.

Star charts and effort charts Star charts are a simple way to acknowledge the effort students make in your class. If your students are too grown up to get stars think up another point system. Draw up a chart with all the students’ names down one side and at the end of each class mark a smiley face or an A, B, C or D for effort. Introduce the idea at the beginning of the class and explain your marking system. Try to get the students to endorse the idea of the chart before you implement it. You could work with the group to decide how they would like their effort to be recorded. When they get used to the idea of this sort of evaluation you can ask the students to rate themselves on their performance in the class.

Set goals Try to negotiate some realistic goals with the group. What do they want to be able to do in English by the end of the course? Find out, and think of ways of achieving those goals together. Achieving the goals will take effort on both parts, it’s not only up to you; so be sure they accept their part of the bargain and take some responsibility for their own learning goals.

Progress markers All language learners know that there are times when you seem to be getting nowhere and making no progress. You reach a plateau and there seems to be no way to get better. If this is the case for some of your students take a snap shot of where the learners are. By this I mean gather some evidence of their level by keeping a piece of their written work, recording them on tape or keeping the results of a test. Then set a date in the future (end of term or Easter holidays) and tell them they will redo the piece of work at the future date. When they have done this, give them back the old piece of work and look for evidence of improvement. Did they make less mistakes or use a bigger range of vocabulary the second time? Usually this helps students to ‘see’ their improvement in a more tangible way.

Questionnaires How do your students feel about learning English? How do they feel about it becoming an ‘international language’? Some students resent the widespread use of English and can even see it as a threat to their mother tongue. Designing a questionnaire about the student’s attitudes towards English may be a nice way to bring their feelings out into the open.

Feedback sheets Asking for feedback on your classes can be a daunting thought! You leave yourself open to both positive and negative comments. However, it is one way to show that you are thinking about your learners. Simple questions such as which activities they enjoy and feel they benefit most from will help you to plan the classes and select activities for each group. Remember that you will never please all your students all the time!

Personalise Find out what your students are into and base your lesson around their interests. If you discover that a few members of the class like a certain group or singer you could ask them to bring in the CD and make an activity out of the lyrics. Or if there are several members who support the same football team you could get some information from the internet or some pictures of the team and base an activity around that.

Personalising classes is also about giving the students to find out about you. Obviously it’s up to you to decide how much you want to give away but you will be a lot more interesting to the class than the photo of Billy in their text book! If you haven’t already, bring in some photos of friends and family from home to show them. Most students will be fascinated.

Look outside the classroom Encourage your students to look at how English is used outside the classroom and exploit any examples you can find. The internet is an obvious source of authentic English, but also advertising, tourist information, menus, original version films etc. This should remind students that learning English can be useful in all sorts of areas of their lives. If you have any students who have travelled to an English speaking country use their experiences with the group.

Think to the future Do your students think they will ever need to use English in the future? Will they have more job opportunities with a higher level of English? If it is the case that some of your students may answer yes to these questions it may be worth while reminding students of this. Find some local job advertisements where English is required. You could base a lesson around jobs and offer help with writing CVs. For some of the students this may make students think of English as more than just another subject and more as a tool to help them achieve their future goals.

How to keep the students motivated?

Involve your students

You will not keep your students motivated if you do not involve them and let them take an active role in your classes. Long gone are the days when teachers talked for most of the lesson, with students taking a passive role. Classes need to be student-centred. The teacher should act as a coach and facilitator; to help, guide and direct the learning process.

Give students the chance to shine

It is also very important to give students the opportunity to be successful. Give them tasks where they can see the results of their efforts. That feeling of 'yeah, I did it!', that 'a-ha' feeling students get when they have done a difficult exercise, boosts their motivation.

Make learning fun

Make your classes memorable. Use games and competitions. Everybody loves competitions, and it gives students a nice opportunity to interact with each other, have fun and learn at the same time.

Step away from the textbooks

Bring in authentic material that your students can connect with, and that matches their needs and interests. Create your own activities and show them that you are also prepared to put in a lot of effort and time to help them succeed.

Explain why you are doing things a certain way

There is nothing more boring than a teacher telling students to open their book on page 22, and asking them to do exercise five. You need to explain why it is important for them to do this exercise, and what they are going to accomplish by doing it.

Give very clear instructions

When setting a task, be clear and allow students time to prepare first and ask you any questions. There is nothing more frustrating for them than not being able to perform well, because they didn’t understand the task. This is very important to students. They need to have a very clear idea of what they are supposed to do.

Set clear, attainable goals for every lesson

You want your students to leave your class thinking it was worth their while. Start your lessons by writing down your lesson plan on the corner of the board, so that students know what they are going to learn. At the end of the class, point to the lesson plan and go over everything they have learned. It’s important for them to see where they are now, and where you are going to take them next.

Vary the social dynamics and include movement

Ask students to work in pairs or in groups. Get them out of their seats and moving. Ask them to change partners regularly. To keep your students’ attention, set a variety of engaging, meaningful activities, and create a friendly atmosphere where they feel they can talk freely and ask questions.

Use different materials

We all know that our students prefer looking at a screen than at a book, so use visuals, flashcards, infographics, quizzes, and make use of new technology. There are plenty of sites that offer online quizzes, games or videos. As teachers, it’s up to us to seek out new resources that may benefit our classes, and bringing technology into our lessons is a great way to motivate students. You cannot expect your students to be motivated if you spend half the class doing endless grammar and vocabulary exercises.

Don’t over-correct

Avoid over-correcting, especially when students are speaking in front of the class. Don’t undermine their confidence by interrupting every single time they make a mistake. Listen to them, and when they finish, thank them for their contribution and point out one or two important mistakes they might have made. You can then remind students that making mistakes is a natural part of learning and that everybody makes mistakes, even the teacher.

Praise

In capital letters. A 'well done' or a 'thank you' at the end of their contribution, even if their answer was not correct, will boost confidence a lot, especially for weaker students. There is always something positive to say. Start with the positive thing, and then tactfully move on to what needs to be improved.