UNIT 9: MOTIVATION

We started the second part of TKT Course with the topic about motivation, which is consider as an essential part of the language learning process. When we talk about motivation, we refer to all those feelings and desires that students have for learning a foreign language, which will help them to continue or not in the learning process. For teachers, it is not an easy task to promote motivation in the classroom since every student  has a different interest or purpose for studying it, either because they are interested in the target language culture, or  they think it is useful for getting a job. Whichever would be the reason the teacher´s task is try to find out those reasons because they are part of feeling motivated. On the other hand, this motivation does not come just from the learner, it also must come from teachers since they can influence significantly in the language learning process. For example, a simple gesture or smile can make a difference in your English class because it will transmit motivation to your students. Remember that they get everything from the teacher. If he or she comes in a good mood, with the desire of working, the learners will project the same. On the contrary, if the teacher comes to the class with no desire to work and very stressed out, students will feel unwilling to work and demotivated. Indeed, what I would do for making my students feel  motivated is by giving them positive feedback and praise because it will help to build self-confidence. When they hear positive comments about their tasks by the teacher, it will make them feel proud of themselves and want to continue learning more and more. At the same time, if they get a praise for doing something it will encourage them to do it fast and with energy. For example, I can say “If you finish the task, you can go home”, so it will motivate them to do their task. Similarly, there are other strategies I can use for motivating my students such as selecting interesting topics and tasks, for example if I know that most of my students are interested about a certain singer/actor,  I can bring them some videos with information about them. Another way is by encouraging creativity because when the teacher let their imagination fly they feel that their ideas are important for others. Finally, I can do a needs analysis about the learner´s needs in  order to prepare activities that help them to be successful like the others. Therefore, creating motivation in the classroom is not easy for teachers since it requires time and strategies; however, our task is to help students love learning language.

There are some  links below that I consider useful and have more information related to this topic:

 

*Schulten, K.(2012).Helping Students Motivate Themselves.U.S. Retrieved from

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/09/guest-post-helping-students-motivate-themselves/?_r=0 

*Plevin, R.(2013). Student Engagement And Motivation Tips - HOW to engage your students. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWRSRtdkrag