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Motivating learners: promoting engagement in TEFL

       Learning to communicate in another language takes a long time. It is one of the most challenging tasks your students are likely to undertake, and they can easily become discouraged and bored with it. That is why language teachers have to keep their students interested and motivated by helping them understand the language acquisition process, connect language learning with their larger educational and life goals, and succeed as language learners.

     A primary responsibility of a teacher is to revive motivation. Without strong motivation students will fail in their attempt to bridge the gap between the manipulative and communicative phase of language learning, between receptive and reproductive skills, and their hopes of speaking English fluently will never be realized.

     Motivation is fostered by initiative participation of learners in communication at the lesson and outside classroom activities. It is based on interaction between the teacher and learners, on the one side, and among the learners, on the other. Student’s motivation includes curiosity and interest, positive self-concept and self-confidence, learning valued for its own sake, and the purpose of learning.

     Students will be motivated to learn if the learning activity is meaningful and if the knowledge is useful and provides a means of achieving a desired goal. Such learning activities provide a stimulus to reflective inquiry and continuing intellectual development.

     Guidelines:

·        Focus attention on themes that relate to student’s daily life (relevance).

·        Structure the programme so that all students achieve success (gradation).

·        Set sizeable goals; language learning and behaviour should be clear to students (accessibility).

·        Vary the activities which promote learning and hold students’ interest (variety).

·        Praise students for good performance, progress and behaviour (incentives).

·        Treat students with respect and dignity; be fair (fair treatment)

    The teacher’s personality and outlook may provide students with fresh motivation. If the teacher has a genuine interest in the students and their welfare, if he smiles often and gives praise where deserved, if he is responsive to students’ difficulties, and shows faith in their abilities, they will try harder to succeed in speaking English.

     Language teachers promote or discourage students' engagement by the ways they define successful language learners. When the successful language learner is one who can pass tests and make good grades, learning about the language is all that is required and success is defined by mastery of rules and forms. When the successful language learner is one who has the ability to use the language to accomplish communication goals, success is defined as making the language one’s own.

     To promote engagement in language learning:

  • Encourage students to use the language spontaneously to communicate ideas, feelings, and opinions
  • Identify informal out-of-class language learning experiences
  • Ask students to evaluate their progress in terms of increases in their functional proficiency

     Students’ motivation for learning a language increases when they see connections between what they do in the classroom and what they hope to do with the language in the future. Their attention increases when classroom activities are relevant to their interests.

     To make these connections, begin by having students list the ways they may use the language in future. Have them include both the ways they plan to use it and other ways that might arise. Ask them to be as specific as possible. For each way of using language, ask them to list specific communication tasks that they will need to be able to do. Use these purposes and tasks as the basis for task-oriented classroom communication activities.

     Some lower level students will respond that they don’t plan to use the language – that they are taking the course to fulfil a university language requirement. Encourage these students to develop an imaginary scenario for themselves in which they have some reason for using the language. In doing this, some students may think of ways in which they really might use it, and others will come to understand that purpose is an integral part of language learning.

     Another way of making language instruction relevant and interesting to students is to find out what topics they are studying and draw materials for reading and discussion from those fields. However, remember that reading and discussion do not always have to be about serious issues or academic topics. Students enjoy talking about movies and television programs, vacation plans, famous people, and other popular culture topics.

       Don't be afraid to drop a topic if students' interest begins to fade. Ask them to suggest alternatives. When students know that they have some control over what they do in the language classroom, they take ownership as engaged learners.

      Thus the key to successful language learning is the atmosphere of co-operation and encouragement created in the classroom by the teacher and students working together. Classes should be informative, enjoyable and fun. The whole variety of teaching techniques should ensure lively, interesting and productive lessons with ample opportunities for the students to contribute their own ideas and experiences [1, p. 140].

References:

1.      Blyzniuk M. Lecture-notes on methodology of teaching English as a foreign language. – Chernivtsi: Chernivtsi National University, 1999. – 163p.

2.      Gardner R., Lambert W. Attitudes and Motivation in Second Language Learning. – Rowley Mass.: Newbury House, 1972.- p. 78

3.      Bickhard, M. H. Interaction and Representation. Theory & Psychology, 9(4) ,1999.- p. 234