The Importance of Motivation and Good Teacher-Student Relations in the Process of Learning Foreign Languages

It is well known that motivation is the "neglected heart" of our understanding of how to design instruction. Many teachers believe that by sticking to the language materials and trying to discipline their refractory students, they will manage to create a classroom environment that will be conducive to learning. Nevertheless, these teachers seem to lose sight of the fact that, unless they accept their students' personalities and work on those minute details that constitute their social and psychological make-up, they will fail to motivate them. What is more, they will not be able to form a cohesive and coherent group unless they succeed in turning most "curriculum goals" (goals set by outsiders) into "group goals" (goals accepted by the group members, that is, students). Learning a foreign language is different to learning other subjects. Therefore, language teaching should take account of a variety of factors that are likely to promote, or even militate against, success. Language is part of one's identity and is used to convey this identity to others. As a result, foreign language learning has a significant impact on the social being of the learner, since it involves the adoption of new social and cultural behaviours and ways of thinking [1].

There have been a lot of education-oriented publications (M. Argyle, R. Daniels, T. Good, J. Brophy, Z. Dornyei, I. Otto, C. Rogers, E. Ushioda, and M. Covington) providing a variety of classroom-specific motives and offering an efficient guide to practitioners. In this article, we will briefly examine a variety of techniques, strategies and macro strategies which teachers can employ to motivate their students as teacher skills in motivating learners and creating a favourable learning environment should be seen as central to teaching effectiveness. Thus, the aim of this article is the analysis of the importance of motivation as well as good teacher-student relations in the process of learning foreign languages.

To begin with, it is necessary to emphasize that a discussion of motivation and motivational strategies would not be complete without a consideration of group processes as there is usually a group of people that teachers are called on to motivate. Any group goes through four stages from its formation, which has important implications for the study of the classroom and the use of group activities during teaching [1]. Let us consider these stages.

1. Forming. At first, there is some anxiety among the members of the group, as they are dependent on the leader (that is, the teacher) and they have to find out what behaviour is acceptable.

2. Storming. There is conflict between sub-groups and rebellion against the leader. Members of the group resist their leader and the role relations attending the function of the group are questioned.

3. Norming. The group begins to develop a sort of cohesion. Members of the group begin to support each other. At this stage, there is co-operation and open exchange of views and feelings about their roles and each other.

4. Performing. Most problems are resolved and there is a great deal of interpersonal activity. Everyone is devoted to completing the tasks they have been assigned.

Experience shows that almost every group goes through these four (or even more) stages until it reaches equilibrium and, thus, taps into its potential. In reality, this process may go on forever, since student lethargy and underachievement norms in the classroom are considered to be basic hindrances to effective teaching and learning. Against this background, it is possible to design a framework for motivational strategies.

As it has been said above, skill in motivating students to learn is of paramount importance. Until recently, however, teachers were forced to rely on "bag-of-tricks" approaches in their attempt to manage their classroom and motivate their learners. These approaches have been influenced by two contradictory views. On the one hand, learning should be fun and any motivation problems that may appear should be ascribed to the teacher's attempt to convert an enjoyable activity to drudgery. On the other hand, school activities are inherently boring and unrewarding, so that we must rely on extrinsic rewards and punishment with a view to forcing students to engage in these unpleasant tasks [2, p. 212].

The central question in designing a framework of motivational strategies is to decide how to organize them into separate themes. The following taxonomy, around which our main discussion will revolve, is based on the process-oriented model by Dornyei and Otto. The key units in this taxonomy are as follows: creating the basic motivational conditions, which involves setting the scene for the use of motivational strategies; generating student motivation, which roughly corresponds to the preactional phase in the model; maintaining and protecting motivation, which corresponds to the actional phase; encouraging positive self-evaluation, which corresponds to the postactional phase [3].

There are certain preconditions to be met before any attempts to generate motivation can be effective. It is possible to highlight the following conditions: appropriate teacher behaviour and good teacher-student rapport; a pleasant and supportive classroom atmosphere; a cohesive learner group characterized by appropriate group norms.

To be motivated to learn, students need both ample opportunities to learn and steady encouragement and support of their learning efforts. Because such motivation is unlikely to develop in a chaotic classroom, it is important that the teacher organize and manage the classroom as an effective learning environment. Furthermore, because anxious or alienated students are unlikely to develop motivation to learn, it is important to create a relaxed and supportive atmosphere [2, p. 215].

Ideally, all learners exhibit an inborn curiosity to explore the world, so they are likely to find the learning experience pleasant. In reality, however, this "curiosity" is vitiated by such factors as compulsory school attendance, curriculum content, and grades − most importantly, the premium placed on them.

Apparently, unless teachers increase their learners' "goal-orientedness", make curriculum relevant for them, and create realistic learner beliefs, they will come up against a classroom environment fraught with lack of cohesiveness and rebellion.

In an ordinary class, many, if not most, students do not understand why they are involved in an activity. It may be the case that the goal set by outsiders (the teacher or the curriculum) is far from being accepted by the group members. Thus, it would seem beneficial to increase the group's goal-orientedness, that is, the extent to which the group tunes in to the pursuit of its official goal. This could be achieved by allowing students to define their own personal criteria for what should be a group goal.

Many students do their homework and engage in all sorts of learning activities, even when a subject is not very interesting. Obviously, these students share the belief of the curriculum makers that what they are being taught will come in handy. To inspire learners, we should find out their goals and the topics they want to learn, and try to incorporate them into the curriculum.

It is widely acknowledged that learner beliefs about how much progress to expect, and at what pace, can, and do, lead to disappointment. Therefore, it is important to help learners get rid of their preconceived notions that are likely to hinder their attainment. Learners need to develop an understanding of the nature of second language learning, and should be cognizant of the fact that the mastery of L2 can be achieved in different ways, using a diversity of strategies, and a key factor is for learners to discover for themselves the optimal methods and techniques.

Unless motivation is sustained and protected when action has commenced, the natural tendency to get tired or bored of the task and succumb to any attractive distractions will result in demotivation. Therefore, there should be a motivational repertoire including several motivation maintenance strategies. Let us have a look at two of them: increasing the learners' self-confidence and creating learner autonomy.

In an inherently face-threatening context, as the language classroom is likely to be, it is important to find out how to maintain and increase the learners' self-confidence. There are five approaches that purport to help to this end: teachers can foster the belief that competence is a changeable aspect of development; favourable self-conceptions of L2 competence can be promoted by providing regular experiences of success; everyone is more interested in a task if they feel that they make a contribution; a small personal word of encouragement is sufficient; teachers can reduce classroom anxiety by making the learning context less stressful [3].

Many researchers argue that taking charge of one's learning, that is, becoming an autonomous learner, can prove beneficial to learning. This assumption is premised on humanistic psychology, namely that "the only kind of learning which significantly affects behaviour is self-discovered, self-appropriated learning" [1]. Benson distinguishes between five types of practice fostering the development of autonomy: resource-based approaches, which emphasize independent interaction with learning materials; technology-based approaches, which emphasize independent interaction with educational technologies; learner-based approaches, which emphasize the direct production of behavioural and psychological changes in the learner; classroom-based approaches, which emphasize changes in the relationship between learners and teachers in the classroom; curriculum-based approaches, which extend the idea of learner control over the planning and evaluation of learning to the curriculum as a whole [3].

Good and Brophy note that "the simplest way to ensure that people value what they are doing is to maximize their free choice and autonomy" − a sentiment shared by Ushioda, who remarks that "Self-motivation is a question of thinking effectively and meaningfully about learning experience and learning goals. It is a question of applying positive thought patterns and belief structures so as to optimize and sustain one's involvement in learning" [2, 4].

Research has shown that the way learners feel about their accomplishments and the amount of satisfaction they experience after task completion will determine how teachers approach and tackle subsequent learning tasks. By employing appropriate strategies, the latter can help learners to evaluate themselves in a positive light, encouraging them to take credit for their advances. Dornyei presents three areas of such strategies: promoting attributions to effort rather than to ability; providing motivational feedback; increasing learner satisfaction and the question of rewards and grades [3].

The feeling of satisfaction is a significant factor in reinforcing achievement behaviour, which renders satisfaction a major component of motivation. Motivational strategies aimed at increasing learner satisfaction usually focus on allowing students to display their work, encouraging them to be proud of themselves and celebrate success, as well as using rewards. The latter, though, do not work properly within a system where grades are "the ultimate embodiment of school rewards, providing a single index for judging overall success and failure in school". In other words, grades focus on performance outcomes, rather than on the process of learning itself. Consequently, "many students are grade driven, not to say, 'grade grubbing,' and this preoccupation begins surprisingly early in life" [5].

As it has been mentioned above, one of the main factors in achieving student satisfaction and getting the most out of lessons is positive teacher-student relations and motivation. For students learning a foreign language, the prospect of facing a class full of people (or even engaging in lessons on a one-to-one basis) can be daunting to say the least. Students may feel that they are being ‘judged’ by other class members, or feel less confident in their language abilities. Students often rate good relations with their teachers as being of paramount importance. It is the role of a teacher to ensure that students feel at ease within the classroom, so they are able to relax, open up and use the language they have learnt effectively in a “no-pressure” environment [6]. Things to consider when building up good relations with your students are as follows:

Ø Positive, relaxed atmosphere in the classroom. This can be achieved in a number of ways, including setting up the classroom so that it is not “teacher-headed” and there is more of a sense of a “group” or “community”. To do this, tables could be arranged so students are seated in a circle and the teacher can join in the circle and encourage communication and group work.

Ø Include your students as much as possible. Avoid at all costs a lesson that is based purely around the teacher and teacher talking time. Try to connect with your students on a more personal level and get to know them as people. Ask about their families, their experiences, their interests and try to develop lessons to include these things and be of interest to them. Getting students to share their ideas and become active in lessons is a great way to develop good relations.

Ø Ability to listen. Perhaps one of the most important qualities of successful teachers is their ability to listen. Students greatly value the time that a teacher devotes to listening to and participating in conversation with them. Once again, this adds to a less formal, more open class atmosphere and leads to student-student and student-teacher interaction.

Ø Relaxed approach to learning. Some teachers become frustrated when a grammatical concept or language structure they have been focusing on for weeks is still being incorrectly implemented by students. Students like to feel that their teacher is fair. Thus, it is important not to make an example of students who make errors, but instead to professionally correct them (for example, by highlighting the mistake on the board) or in such a way that the student can laugh at the mistake and not feel embarrassed. In the same way, students who correctly use the language should be praised and persuaded to develop further. Positive affirmation is always encouraging for students.

Ø Teacher personality. It is vital that students get to see the teacher’s personality. They should feel that the teacher, too, is a “real” and “approachable” person, with a friendly attitude. In the same way, teachers want to develop a connection with their class, students, too, want to be able to connect with the teachers and get a sense of who they are. Never adopt a pre-rehearsed or robotic style in your lessons. Allow your own personality and enthusiasm for what you do to come through in what you say, how you teach and the topics you chose. Students will value this.

Ø Enthusiasm for teaching. If learners can see that the teacher is not only knowledgeable, but also enthusiastic about teaching and keen to gain whole-class involvement, students will begin to open up and trust the teacher as a key to language learning and developing.

In conclusion, it is necessary to emphasize the importance of good teacher-student relations and positive atmosphere as well as increasing the learners' self-confidence and creating learner autonomy in the process of learning foreign languages. To get the most out of lessons, the appropriate techniques and strategies should be used by the teachers to motivate their students and achieve student satisfaction.

References:

1. Thanasoulas D. Motivation and Motivating in EFL [Electronic version] / D. Thanasoulas. – On line – https://www.englishclub.com/tefl-articles/motivation-motivating-efl.htm

2. Good T. Looking in Classrooms / T. Good and J. Brophy. − New York: HarperCollins, 1994. – p. 212 – 228.

3. Dornyei Z. Motivation in Action: A Process Model of L2 Motivation. Working Papers in Applied Linguistics / Z. Dornyei and I. Otto.− London: Thames Valley University, 1998. – p. 43 – 69.

4. Ushioda E. The Role of Motivational Thinking in Autonomous Language Learning / E. Ushioda. − Plymouth: University of Plymouth, CERCLES, Centre for Modern Languages, 1997. − p. 39 – 50.

5. Covington M. Caring about Learning: The Nature and Nurturing of Subjectmatter Appreciation. / M. Covington. − Educational Psychologist, 1999. – p. 127 – 136.

6. Mielnik S. The Importance of Good Teacher-Student Relations [Electronic version] / S. Mielnik. – On line – https://edition.englishclub.com/tefl-articles/teacher-student-relations/