We often are concerned about how we learn English, but isn't it the time to ask ourselves, why we learn it, and for what. There is no doubt that motivation is part and parcel of any success. So really, why do we learn the English language?
The reasons for doing it can be numerous: necessity, free will, somebody's advice, sometimes we learn it just in case, "perhaps some day I'll need it". And in other situations we do it to wake our brains up. But no matter what motive it is, just learning as a hobbie or a way to succeed in your career, there should be some motivation, a good reason, that drives students through all difficulties and makes it possible to enjoy the results. Therefore our aim is to help students find this reason, give them food for thought!
How we can do it:
- ask them to write an essay;
- discuss it in the classroom (better);
- organize a vote with later discussion;
- suggest pretending to be government officials who decide the importance of teaching English in schools, universities... or any other kind of a roleplay.
Anyway when they know the reason, they try harder even when they do not realize it!
- Elfresh's blog
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Comments
I absolutely agree that motivation is essential but...in my humble opinion only adult students can definitely identify the reason and aim of studying English (with few exceptions among younger learners,unfortunately).The latter have some motivation but it is mainly of the following kinds: "I study English because I need an excellent\good\decent mark in my certificate", "... because my parents make me study it", "... because my parents want me to have decent marks in my certificate and therefore make me study well", etc.And such motivation has nothing to do with progress in most cases.
Thank you very much for the comment, and you are right with the exception of students at schools and higher educational establishments, since English is included into their curriculum, they study it, BUT most of them have little motivation, so my aim is to help them find it.
Plus many people nowadays study English, because it is trendy, but do not have a curtain idea, why they should do it themselves, so here again we'd better help them =)
Yes,our goal is to help.But from time to time I feel I'm not primarily a teacher but a psychologist\psychotherapist treating various motivation and self-identification disorders;)
Students usually combine extrinsic and intrinsic motivation to some extent. Everybody wants to get good grades and feel motivated at the same time. It's an ideal picture. We, as teachers, should explain to our learners the rationale of learning languages or guide them to come up with the conclusion. I remember I invited the polyglot man into the classroom and he gave my students the clear picture of the reasons "why's".
Victoria Kamchatka
Inviting a polyglot is a good way to help students find real motivation! Sometimes I invite English-speaking people from different counties to my students, for when they feel the taste of using the language to communicate, when their native language is of no help, they feel great urge to study!
Thank you for the comment! =)
OxanaKhrushcheva
True, and I believe it is part of our job - to be a psychologist, for we face different problems of the kind, apart from motivation.