WAYS OF MOTIVATIONG LEARNERS

One of the most difficult and important aspects of teaching process is how to

motivate our students. How can I arouse the interest and enthusiasm of my

learners? How to inspire students in learning and improving English. No doubt

that it’s the job of the teacher to keep them motivated and to ensure

opportunities for students’ success.

“Motivation is one of those ideas

like justice or world peace: we all

know it’s a good thing but it’s not clear

how to get there” said Tom Ward, a

freelance teacher trainer. It's clear that

students who aren’t motivated won’t

learn effectively. They won’t retain

information and participate at the

lessons. De-motivation – a reduction of

somebody’s enthusiasm or feeling less

interested in working or studying. But a

student may be un-motivated for a

variety of reasons (causes):

1) changes (in personal life and

society);

2) lack of interest (they may feel

that they have no interest in the

subject);

3) lack of goal and confidence in

life (they have a vague sense that

whether “English will be useful

for their future” or not, they

don’t have a clear idea of what it

means);

4) find the teacher’s methods un-

engaging;

5) can be distracted by external

forces (f.e. financial situation);

6) lack of concentration (it may

even come to light that a student

who appeared unmotivated

actually has difficulties in

learning and needs special

attention).

But at first let’s clear up what

motivation means.

Motivation – the driving (internal

or external) force that stimulates

desire and willingness in people

to do something with

enthusiasm, to be continually

interested in a subject, or to

make an effort in order to attain a

goal.

According to different

definitions motivation is psychological

feature (inner state) that arouses an

individual to act towards a desired

goal: it elicits, controls and sustains

certain goal-directed behavior.

“Desire is the key to

motivation”, said Mario Andretti. But

Gardner defined motivation as a

“combination of effort plus desire to

achieve the goal of learning the

language plus favourable attitudes

towards learning the language”.

It’s the process whereby goal-

directed activity is instigated and

sustained. During my teaching career

I’ve come to the conclusion if learners

are well motivated they are eager to

learn more and more. In order to get

this aim a teacher and a learner should

realize the matter why to teach and

why to learn. Goals are related to who

we want to be. Therefore it’s important

to set and sustain certain goals, to make

program in achieving them and to use

challenging material. So, without aim

it’s impossible to understand the

meaning of motivation or get to

motivation. If the teacher looks for the

effective ways in teaching English, he

himself will be motivated and can

motivate the learners. Motivated

students are more excited to learn and

participate. Teachers believe that

motivation is the key to successful

language learning.

Speaking about learner’s

motivation one should mention that

there are two types of motivation. Why

do we do the things we do?

Psychologists have proposed a number

of different ways of thinking about

motivation, including one method that

involves looking at whether motivation

arises from outside (extrinsic) or inside

(intrinsic) the individual.

WHAT EXACTLY DO WE

MEAN WHEN WE SAY

EXTRINSIC OR INTRINSIC

MOTIVATION?

Extrinsic Motivation

Extrinsic motivation: refers to

motivation that comes from outside an

individual. Extrinsic motivation occurs

when we are motivated by external

factors to perform a behavior or engage

in an activity in order to earn a reward

or avoid a punishment, rather than for

the fun for it. The possibility of a

reward will be enough to keep the

learner motivated in order for him or

her to put forth the effort to do well on

a task.

Examples of behaviors that are

the result of extrinsic motivation

include:

studying because you want to get

a good grade;

cleaning your room to avoid

being punished by your parents;

participating in a sport in order

to win awards;

competing in a contest in order

to win a scholarship.

In each of these examples, the

behavior is motivated by a desire to

gain a reward or avoid a negative

outcome.

Intrinsic motivation

Intrinsic motivation refers to

motivation that comes from inside an

individual. The motivation comes from

the pleasure one gets from the task

itself or from the sense of satisfication

in completing or even working on a

task. Learners who are intrinsically

motivated want to learn for the sake of

learning. Intrinsic motivation involves

engaging in a behavior because it is

personally rewarding; essentially,

performing an activity for its own sake

rather than the desire for some external

reward.

Examples of behaviors that are

the result of intrinsic motivation

include:

participating in a sport because

you find the activity enjoyable;

solving a word puzzle because

you find the challenge fun and

interesting;

playing a game because you find

it exciting.

In each of these instances, the

person’s behavior is motivated by an

internal desire to participate in an

activity for its own sake.

You see that extrinsic and

intrinsic motivation can also play an

important role in learning settings.

As you have seen, extrinsic

motivation and intrinsic motivation

are both important ways of driving

behavior. In order to comprehend how

these can be best utilized, it is

important to understand some of the

key differences between the two types

of upper mentioned motivation.

The first step in tackling the

problem of motivation is that the

teachers need to understand and

appreciate the role of importance of

motivation in any learning. It is a

complex phenomenon and includes

many components: the individual’s

drive, need for achievement and

success, curiosity, desire for

stimulation and new experience, and so

on. These factors play important roles

in every kind of learning situation.

The teacher has to activate these

motivational components in the

students but that is the precise problem.

Speaking about motivating

primary-aged learners they need

stimulation from the start of the lesson

to the final minute. From the moment

they enter the classroom, to the minute

they leave, something needs to be

happening. This is partly because at

this age (3-11 years) our students tend

not to be goal orientated. There is no

ability to see the future or to

understand whether their English is or

is not improving. At this age level,

young learners are generally unable to

see past the activity they are engaged

in, so as teachers we need to encourage

immediate motivation. This motivation

must come from the task we as a class

are doing at the present time. They will

learn more if they are enjoying what

they are doing. So remember not let

your students get bored. They need to

be engaged and active. The next key-

elements will help to keep our young

learners interested in the lesson.

1. The Importance of Planning

The secret of good motivation is

planning. Remember the old saying: “If

you fail to plan, you should plan for

failure”. When you are planning, think

about what your young learners will be

interested in doing. We need to

understand and accept how quickly

your young learners will lose interest in

what they are doing and how easily

they may become distracted. Longman

has produced some excellent rules on

planning activities for young learners,

which we really like. They explain in

really simple terms what each teacher

needs to think about when planning

activities for this age of learners. They

are bullet pointed below:

Tips from the Top Motivating

Young Learners

Plan for the learners’ activities,

not for the teacher’s activities;

plan for an average of 5 minutes

for each activity;

remember that children can’t sit

still being passive for more than

two

or three minutes;

activities where children are

actively involved can be longer

than five minutes;

be careful to sequence the

activities so children do not

become overexcited or

excessively bored;

stirrers are activities that excite

children. Any activities that

involve singing or moving

around the classroom will be

stirrers;

settlers are activities that calm

children down. Most “paper and

pencil” activities – writing,

copying, colouring, drawing –

will be settlers.

don’t imagine you can have a

quiet classroom by using only

settlers, the children will quickly

become frustrated and de-

motivated;

remember to balance head-up

activities and head-down

activities. Head-up activities are

when children are looking at the

teacher, the board or at other

children. Head-down activities

are when children have their eyes

on a book or a piece of paper;

remember to balance individual,

pair, small group and whole class

activities. Children need to learn

to operate in many different

social situations.

finally, plan for time. Remember

that in a large class, distributing

papers, cards, coloured pencils or

books takes time. Think carefully

about how you will organize

these administrative things

because they can turn a good

plan into an unsuccessful lesson.

Share your plans with the

children. Tell them what they are going

to do during each lesson. You will get

better co-operation. If we get our

planning right, this can go quite a long

way to helping us become successful

teachers.

2. Praising the pupils’ efforts

Young learners really respond

well to praise when they have done

something well, or made an effort to try

something new or something that they

find particularly challenging. If you can

reward this then you will see

motivation levels increase. One way to

achieve this is through a Star chart. It

is really simple and easy to set up.

Draw up a chart with all your

students’ names down one side.

Explain to students how you are going

to award stars and what you are going

to award them for. At the end of each

activity or task, or at relevant points

during the class, mark a smiley face or

a star on the chart for your special

performers. Remember to reward with

consistency, while taking time to

support those who may not be able to

achieve quite so well. Getting a star can

really be a great motivator for younger

learners – you’ll see the results in

beaming faces and renewed efforts in

future activities. You may choose to

reward students with a favourite game.

It is also important for you to be

consistent. If the lesson aim has been

achieved, let them know that you are

pleased with their progress. Praise is a

wonderful stimulator and can really

help to encourage your young learners.

3. Reinforce and Repeat with

Fun Activities

Young learners like familiarity,

so if you find a popular game or

activity that your youngsters enjoy,

don’t be afraid to use it frequently. This

will help to ensure that there is some

continuation from lesson to lesson, and

you will be able to see if students have

learnt the work.

4. Vary your material

Even though students do like

familiar activities, it is still important to

vary your material.

After all, students will get bored

with doing the same type of activity

day in day out. So use a variety of

different materials: TV / video

programmes for visual stimulation,

games for active participation.

Alternatively, use colourful images

from the Internet or use paints and

colouring pens/pencils to get students

doing interesting activities in English.

Speaking about senior students

we hear the utterance “my students are

so unmotivated”. Teenagers are clearly

different. This is an age at which

everything changes. They aren’t

usually the most talkative of age

groups. Naturally, this can leave us as

teachers feeling frustrated and

discouraged by their perceived lack of

interest. Nevertheless, teens aren’t that

different and by no means unreachable

in terms of motivation. How can we

make our lessons motivating? I think

that it’s the job of the teacher to keep

students motivated. The primary thing

is interest. Those people who have an

interest in teaching should be teachers.

“No one should teach who is no

in love with teaching”. Margaret E.

Sangster (1838-1912), US author said.

And also, on the side of the students,

you have to motivate and create interest

in students.

As Jerome Bruner, “the best way

to create interest in a subject is to

render it worth knowing, which means

to make the knowledge gained usable

in one’s thinking beyond the situation

in which learning has occurred”.

Teaching a class full of motivated

students is enjoyable for teacher and

student alike. Some students are self-

motivated, with a natural love of

learning. But even with the students

who don’t have this natural drive, a

great teacher can make learning fun

and inspire them to reach their full

potential. We have to apply techniques

which will have long-term success and

will generate the desired atmosphere

and motivate the learners.

Among the variety ways of

motivations I’d like to point out the

following effective ones to get your

students excited about learning.

1. Making sure their students

of the future benefits of

learning English

“When will I ever need this?”

This question, too often heard in the

classroom, indicates that a student is

not engaged. If a student doesn’t

believe that what they’re learning is

important, they won’t want to learn, so

it’s important to demonstrate how the

subject relates to them, draw

connection to real life. Really amaze

them by telling them that they may use

it in their future career, for educational

purposes and future travel.

Showing them that a subject is

used everyday by “real” people gives it

new importance. They have to

recognize linguistic benefits. And it’ll

help to increase the learners goal-

orientedness.

2. Being aware of students’

interests

The first step in capturing our

students’ interest is to find ways to

respond to what interest them. It’s good

at the start of the course to conduct

some kind of survey or questionnaire

on the topics they are interested in. It’s

great to get regular feedback from our

students in adjusting our plans.

Teachers should try to take into

account their interests while preparing

to the classes during the course.

No doubt every teacher from

time to time has no ideas about original

beginning of the lessons!!!

How to attract your students’

attention?

How to catch their eyes on

youself?

How to be interesting for them?

(your smart students)

10 Useful TIPS how to surprise

your students at the beginning

of the lesson

1. Begin the lesson with your

favourite poem and discuss it

with your students.

2. Discuss the latest music news

(cinema, sport and so on).

3. Watch interesting Video and

share your opinions.

4. Ask your students to wish each

other something pleasant.

5. Discuss a proverb and give some

examples from their life.

6. Discuss an unusual photo.

7. Make a creative picture from

photos and titles of newspapers

and magazines.

8. Give your students unusual

things and ask them to advert

them.

9. Ask them to continue a funny

story.

10. Give your students rhymes and

ask them to create a poem.

3. Clear goal setting

Students should always, at all

stages, know what they are going and

why they are doing it. This is necessary

not only so they will feel a certain

satisfaction about their achievement at

the end of the lesson, but also for good

motivation throughout the lesson.

Research has also shown that students

are more attentive to their work if the

teacher explains the goals of the lesson.

4. Encouraging students for

their own learning and

developing a good

relationship with the

learners

Let’s begin with a story about

stubborn donkeys, carrots, and sticks.

There are, the proverb says, two ways

of encouraging donkeys to move. One

is to dangle a carrot at the front end of

the beast and the second to apply a

stick at the other end. Which is more

effective depends on the nature of the

particular animal. So what ways of

motivating students to choose depend

on extrinsic and intrinsic goals.

(Extrinsic goals such as

financial success, appearance, pay,

promotion, feedback and popularity /

fame have been specifically contrasted

with intrinsic goals such as

community, close relationship, and

personal growth, responsibility.)

Or, to put this another way, the

soft skills involved in teaching can be

much more powerful than the rewards

students can see waiting at the end of

their course.

Students look at teachers for

approval and positive reinforcement,

and are more likely to be enthusiastic

about learning if they feel their work is

recognized and valued. You should

encourage open communication and

free thinking with your students to

make them feel important. With every

opportunity, encourage your students

that they are making progress in their

language learning. Point out to them

the areas in which you see progress and

improvement. For areas in which a

student struggles, try to portray a

picture of what success will look like.

Encouraging your students ti visualize

their success will aid them in

accomplishing those goals you set

before them. If your classroom is a

friendly place where students feel

heard and respected, they will be more

eager to learn and cope with tasks. It’s

important to praise students’ efforts

using encouraging words such as “good

job”, “nice work”, “well done”, “I’m

proud of you”, “You’ve done the best”

and so on.

5. Getting them involved in

order to develop

responsibility

One way to encourage students

and teach them responsibility is to get

them involved in the teaching process.

To stimulate learners to be active

participants and have sense of

ownership we have to give each of

them a job to do. Give students the

responsibility of tidying up or

decorating the classroom with posters,

pictures. Assign a student to erase the

blackboard or pass out materials.

Collaboration with the students is a

good way to develop responsibility. It’s

good to combine efforts with them

while preparing for the classes. For

example, you may ask learners to

create flash cards to reinforce their

vocabulary or make word puzzles to be

solved by others. You may ask them to

bring their art projects or unwanted

toys to use as fun resourses. Having

children involved in creating the

visuals that are related to the lesson

helps engage students in the learning

process.

6. “Pair work” or “Group

work”

One of the successful ways, if

the teacher is resourceful and skillful

enough, to impetus his / her students to

participate in the lesson is using “Pair

work” or “Group work” appropriately.

Competition is the great way to

motivate students. You can also group

your class into teams and set them to a

challenge.

Who can collect the most

authentic examples of the

grammatical structure you are

currently studying?

Which team can write the most

entertaining skit with this week’s

vocabulary words?

Whatever you are studying, there

is some way to add some competition

to the mix. Giving students a sense of

ownership allows them to feel

accomplished and encourages active

participation in class. Language is best

learned through the close collaboration

and communication among students.

This type of collaboration results in

benefits for all or both learners. In fact,

learners can help each other while

working on different types of tasks

such as writing dialogues, interviews,

drawing pictures and making

comments about them, play roles, etc.

You see pair work is learner-centered,

the teachers’ role is less dominant. The

teacher must monitor the learners’

performance in order to provide

feedback and help where necessary.

Researches on Second Language

Acquisition have shown that learners

have differences in mastering skills.

While one students is good in drawing,

another can be good in expressing ideas

verbally; a third other student can be

good at role play and imitation.

Besides, some students find it less

stressful to learn certain rules or usages

of language from their pears and

comrades than from their teacher.

Finally, communicative language

teaching requires a sense of community

and an environment of trust and mutual

confidence which “pair work” or

“Group work” can provide.

7. Avoiding error correction

It’s always asked whether we

should correct all students’ errors,

whenever they occur. The reasonable

answer is that if we stop at every single

error this will lead to a gap of

communication and students will be

too much afraid of making mistakes.

Hence, due to being too much obsessed

with making errors, students will be too

much reluctant to participate. Thus,

teachers should be aware of when to

correct errors and how to do that

without any hurt and humiliation.

Teachers’ task is to create a positive

atmosphere where making mistakes

isn’t a cardinal sin!

8. Using the L1 in the EFL /

ESL classroom

Should we or shouldn’t we use

the students’ first language (L1) in the

classroom? This is one of the questions

which most divides EFL / ESL

teachers, whether they are for it or

against it. The main argument against

the use of the L1 in language teaching

is that students will become dependent

on it, and not even try to understand

meaning from context and explanation,

or express what they want to say within

their limited command of the target

language (L2). Instead of punishing the

students for using L1, be supportive of

every effort at using English and it’ll

inspire them for further learning.

9. Giving positive feedback

Give feedback on what the

learners have done, not only the end

product and language but also the

process they went through, the way

they cooperated with each other.

Always find something positive to

comment on. So giving frequent

positive feedback will support students’

beliefs that they can do well and they

are valued members of the learning

process.

10.Increasing the learners’

linguistic self-confidence

From the start of class, your

students have to know what they need

to accomplish, and they have to know

that their success will be completely

dependent upon themselves. This will

get them to be self-motivated learners

and help them engage themselves in the

learning process.

11.Promoting learner

autonomy

Autonomy – it’s the readiness

and ability to take charge of

one’s own learning inside and

outside the classroom.

As Clay P. Bedford said “You

can teach a student a lesson for a day;

but if you can teach him to learn by

creating curiosity, he will continue the

learning process as long as he lives”.

Motivated students must

understand that learning cannot only

take place in the classroom. They need

to do extra study or self-study outside

the classroom. And it helps to make

students more responsible and aware of

improving English. Of course, there are

so many material available, both online

and offline, that will meet students’

individual interests. Getting students to

do website evaluations can be a way of

capitalizing on their curiosity. As to the

classroom, a useful proverb comes to

mind: you can take a horse to water

but you can’t make it drink. So we

can set up a classroom culture where

students are more likely to be

independent, though of course we can’t

actually make anybody independent. A

classroom where pair and group work

are prominent is more likely to promote

autonomy than lockstep teaching,

where everyone’s doing the same thing

at the same time. A teacher who

explains, or better still asks for reasons,

why certain tasks and activities are

done, is also going to help. There are

other general ideas: do your students

self-evaluable regularly? Do you talk to

them about what kind of learners they

are? You could always try a classroom

survey activity like this as a way into

discussion on the topic.

Find someone who…

likes to be corrected when they

make a mistake;

keeps a vocabulary book,

listens to songs in English and

learns the lyrics;

is good at explaining what they

mean when they don’t know a

word;

keeps a learner diary,

thinks it’s more important to be

fluent than accurate,

spends time on the workbook

every week,

records his / her own voice at

home,

chats / emails / surfs often in

English

looks up new words in a

dictionary while reading.

And when students go wrong

with their English, point them in the

direction they need to mend their error

rather than tell them the right answer.

12.Creating a desirable

classroom climate for

learning

Avoid monotony by changing

around the structure of your class using

a variety of learning activities. Teach

through different kinds of activities and

discussions instead of lectures,

encourage students to debate and

enrich the subject matter with visual

aids, like colorful charts, flash cards,

diagrams, videos, and so on. You can

even show a movie that effectively

illustrates a topic or theme. Videos

have always had enormous potential in

the language class and enhance

students’ motivation for learning

English. Nowadays using visual stimuli

is much easier – and much more

motivating. Your physical classroom

should never be boring: use posters,

models, seasonal themes to decorate

your classroom, and create a warm,

stimulating environment. The

classroom atmosphere can facilitate

good relationships and an atmosphere

conductive to learning. Displaying

students’ projects will increase their

self-esteem. Realia helps in teaching

English. It’s an authentic material that

helps the teacher to overcome

classroom artificially. The other easy

way into sensory stimulation is through

the ears. Like the man said, music has

charms to soothe a savage breast, to

soften the rocks, or bend a knotted

oak… or in classroom terms it can

shape atmospheres and can help in

teaching process. Learners respond

enthusiastically to songs. Using songs

in classroom has a whole range of

advantages:

creating a positive feeling for

language learning;

awaking interest during the

lesson;

stimulating students to greater

oral participation;

breaking the monotony of the

day, change dynamics;

contextual grammar learning

through songs, jazz chants is

integrated and communicative.

When singing a song the

students learn the grammar item

subconsciously and it breaks the

ice in introducing difficult and

strange grammar;

great effect of music (listening to

Mozart, for example, will raise

IQ, create fertile brains and

promote creativity.

Teachers can elicit students’

ideas about songs through activities

such as prediction, mind maps, word

splashes, etc. Students discuss

questions such as feeling in the song,

what will happen next, write their

responses in an interesting manner.

Students may write and present how

the song make them feel and then draw

a picture of their feeling while listening

the song. Teachers respond to this

presentation and ask questions. Then,

feedback is provided from the group.

Summing it up, the teachers have

to develop students’ positive attitudes

to learning using different ways and

techniques of motivation. Let’s mind

Edward G. Bulver-Lytton’s words that

“the best teacher is the one who

suggests rather than dogmatizes, and

inspires his listener with the wish to

teach himself”. Because where there is

a will there is a way. And our task, as

teachers, regarding creativity, is to help

children climb their own mountains, as

high as possible. No one can do it.

Bibliography

1. www.global-english.com

2. http://blog.english-attack.com/

3. www.teaching_english.org.uk/

4. http://teachcom/what/teachers-

change-lives/teachers-motivate

5. http://phychology.about.com/od/

motivation/f/difference-between-

extrinsic-and-intrinsic-

motivation.htm

6. www.britishcouncil.org.ua

7. English Teaching (Forum). –

Volume 44 Number 1, 2006.

8. English Teaching (Forum). –

Volume 43 Number 1, 2005.

9. English. - № 23 (623), December,

2013.