These are the things that worked for me. I realized that you can not take a teenager and motivate him. You can only find out what motivates him and use this knowledge while teaching.

1. Know them: Know their hobbies, interests, favorite music, sport, subjects in school, what careers they have considered, how they picture their life in 20 years, what they like and hate about school, what worries them, what they like doing with their parents and friends. At the beginning of the school year I want my new students to answer questions which I have found in Motivating Your Students by Hanoch McCarty and Frank Siccone.

2. Respect them: Ask them their opinion on some issues. Don't make fun of them either in private or in public. Never let their self esteem get damaged. Treat them in the way you'd like to be treated yourself. If you had a bad memory with a certain classroom or student, don't bring it back once in a while and talk about it. Don't remind them the mistakes they did. 

3. Be someone they can respect. 

4. Be approachable. Be friendly but not friends.

5. Use music and popular culture. I use songs very often. I sometimes use them to teach a point but more often I use it as a bond to tie us together, to energize, to reduce stress or just to help them daydream a little more:) I realized that most of the exercises and games that include songs are much more enjoyable and useful but the most important thing is that songs always challenge them to learn. What is this song talking about? Songs help them like the language. They learn to pronounce a lot of words. They learn songs easily and sing Eye of the Tiger to you for example, in an unexpected moment and you fell proud. The positive attitude towards learning a second language can not be assessed by exams but it is a really valuable thing we can do in our classes.

6. Use humor. Don't try to be funny though. Be friendly and relaxed.

7. Instead of lecturing on the uses of learning a foreign languge, ask them how they plan to use the language in the future. Why might that be so important? Let peer opinions influence them.

8. Create situations for peer support. They care less about what you think than they care about their friends' opinons of them. Let them work as a team. Let them make teams with people they like most. Peer evaluation, team building activities, group works and games help a lot both in learning and developing their self esteem and social skills. I give public speaking assignments where students give positive feedback and make comments about their friends' work. We sometimes play taboo or running dictation. They both have fun and improve their communication with each other in a non-threatening way.

9. Discover the talented: Give homework or classroom assignments that will in a way help their individual talents known. Include drawing, graffiti, singing, making up stories, good handwriting, acting, organizing, leadership... It does not help every time but I have many students who behaved more positively (i.e started bringing books to class or gave up sleeping all the time) after I had found out about their hidden talent. 

10. No matter how hard you are on them, always make it clear that you play in the same team. When I am pissed off, I ask myself if it is only for their good or just because they didn't do as I "ordered". Try not to be angry because of your ego only. If they believe in your sincerity, even your anger will make more sense.

11. Explain why you want a certain work done. They are in a state of constant questioning the whys of life and they won't act if they can't get the reason behind. "Because I said so" is not a satisfactory reason if you want things done. I try not to give an assignment which has no specific aim, just to keep them on task or for parents to know that I am a strict and hardworking teacher.

 "I want you to read King Arthur because 

a. It will teach you many vocabulary, 

b. It is an interesting story you may already know from games, tv or movies

c. You will have an exam on that

12. Challenge them: Push them. Get them to test their limits. Make them try harder and do things they wouldn't dare to do on their own. I sent my students to museums to talk to tourists. They also taped it and we had so much fun watching and commenting on these videos. I wanted them to make an original karaoke video of a song they loved. I sent them to downtown to photograph every brandname and shop name which are in English. They kept telling me about their adventures about the "tourist hunt" whole year. Teenagers like adventures and accumulating fun memories. Help them.