TeachingEnglish
Motivating teenagers
Submitted by raymondkerr on 3 July, 2009 - 07:05
Many teachers find teenagers the hardest group to motivate. What strategies do you use for students aged 13 to 17?
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Your concern is valid because the mindset of students at this age will be difficult to gauge. This is also a critical time in terms of career planning, as the students will be targeting a good academic percentage to get into a good college or to enter a professional stream. Apart from parental pressure to focus on academics, the pressure from the society also adds on to our dilemma.
The best we can do as dedicated teachers is to share with them the importance of the English Language for their professional and personal well being. We also need to make them aware that the English Language is not confined to speaking alone. Listening Skills and Written Communication are also pre requisites to start off one's career on a firm ground. I keep on sharing with them many experiences of candidates who learnt things the hard way purely because the communication aspect was totally ignored.
As teachers we need to gain their trust and they should look up to us as their trusted guide.
As far as motivating the students is concerned, teachers need to make each and every session lively by having a combination of various activities like role plays, games. quiz, team contests and individual and group activities. All participants should also be given surprise gifts periodically to send out a strong message that the whole class is being treated equally.
I don't think teenagers are hard to motivate. As a matter of fact, unlike children, they know their purpose for studying and so you only have to tap their interest. They are craving for more knowledge as compared to children and so the best thing to do is perhaps, give them challenging games. Also, i think motivating questions which they can easily relate to will arouse their interest for the upcoming lesson. Also, a teacher must also be enthusiastic as if he/she is also excited for the activity. Students will feel if you are just teaching them for the sake of saying that you have taught for the day and not because you want your students to learn new things for that day...
I have a class of unmotivated (demotivated, even) and disinterested students. Several factors are involved: firstly, they're placed -- owing to some strange and flawed school policy -- in a level that is way too high for their proficiency level. Secondly and unfortunately, they are not exactly the most hardworking bunch of students.
As a result, even games in the classroom fail to rouse them, as they now have the preconceived mindset that anything we do in class will be too difficult for them to understand.
As a new teacher, I wonder how teachers tread that fine line between giving their weakest students something to take away fom the lesson and yet fulfill the demands of a set syllabus? It is tempting to ignore the syllabus and tailor-make my lesons to the level the students are actually at; too bad I don't have that luxury of changing anything, much less set my own pace.
My question to the teachers out there: what would you do if you had a bunch of Beginner students who were placed in an Advanced class? By the way, you are also trying to prepare these students for a public exam that is approximately at the Intermediate/Upper Intermediate level.
Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.
I would agree they're the hardest group to motivate, for one their biggest influences are their friends or whoever is percieved to be cool. I think one strategy is first to find out what their goals life are; do they want to go to a good University? once you've found those goals, encourage them, show them how they can get there.
i agree you need to tap into their interests
How do you motivate this sector? They are very privileged and lack the bigger picture. That is, money is not issue (majority are extremely wealthy families) and hence studying at a university to get a good job to earn a good living is not on their agenda. They really are clueless as to why they are sitting in an EFL class.
Furthermore, it is the teacher's job to ensure that they pass. Cheating is not frowned upon in their cutlure - it is regarded as being brotherly by helping someone of your own culture. Motivation is one thing and classroom management is complex. The discipline strategies employed in other cultures do not have the same effect here. The existing BC behavioural discipline policy is too long-winded to have any serious impact - it takes weeks of pain and misery.
Also, the usual strategies taught to us in EFL training e.g. a communicative approach just leads to behavioural problems. Using a discovery approach will be criticised by students that the teacher is not explaining why they have to do something. Varying a lesson by not following the set book page by page will also be criticised instead of being appreciated.
So, not being effective by employing the above-mentioned techniques leaves the teacher with little option but to be an English teaching automaton.
I could go on and on. Anyone out there with a similar experience and some practical ideas?