Teach English in ZhAngma - Huai'an Shi

In education, it is thought that motivation is vital to help learners to perform well in their learning process in order to develop their abilities in academic setting. As a result, we teachers must be aware of motivated strategies such as energizers, games, activities that can make the learners more active, fun as well as profitable. The learners may normally have various purposes such as future career prospects, travel purposes, to study or live in an English speaking countries, to improve grades or success in exam, etc. Whatever it is, motivated learners are able to be more successful than a student without motivation. While learning ITTT TEFL course, I got the point that adult learners usually have made their own decision to attend classes and they have already motivation to get something in learning process. However, young learners have rarely made that decision for themselves and mostly lack in motivation. It seems to me that lack of motivation in education can undermine the process of their learning. According to my teaching experience, most students in Myanmar want to learn a new language and improve their English 4 rounded skills. However, the worst thing they used to do is that they often stop learning before the end of the course they are doing. Difficulties in learning new language make them give up their chances and afraid of going on. The reason is that most of the EFL teachers including me mainly focus on completion of the course than the students’ motivation. In the classroom, some lessons especially grammar lessons make the students confused and bored. As a result, they are not able to invest their interest longer though they understand that it can be profitable for their life or learning process. So, students are not able to absorb the lessons easily and boredom makes them slowdown in concentration. At that time, teachers have to use some strategies and teaching methods to make the classroom lively such as singing time, playing game and other activities because boredom is one of the enemies of the students that interrupt in their learning process in the classroom. When I teach young learners grammar, they are normally not able to concentrate their lessons more than 30 minutes. Instead I comprehend that I cannot carry on the lessons without motivation. To get to the objectives of the lessons, I have to create pleasurable atmosphere with the help of fun activities such as board game, drawing game, coloring and pair-up conversation, etc. Here, I would like to express that ITTT TEFL course gives me some supportive ideas how to reduce TTT (Teachers Talking Time) as well as to promote STT (Students Talking Time). Actually, students become bored when TTT rises instead of their participation in their learning process. It also can make the students decline their absorption. As it is clear that motivation affects the learning process of students notably, the students with great motivation can learn the lessons more effectively and successfully so that they are able to considerably improve their skills. In contrast, those who are lack of motivation become bored and they have no idea how to overcome boredom which can distract their interest and observation. The study said that there are two types of motivation: extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic motivation means giving rewards after accomplishing a specific task or punishment for not completing a task. Intrinsic motivation supports the satisfaction of becoming a master or getting achievement in their learning process. By applying these strategies, teachers can create the motivated classroom environment not only for the good learners but also for the low motivated ones. In addition, fully participating in the learning process depends on the students’ desire mentally and physically. As the mention above, motivation follows the goals or objectives that students set in their future careers and plans. Therefore, the essential task of EFL teachers is to help the students to reach their goals through using effective motivated ideas in the classroom. Furthermore, EFL teachers must know how to encourage the students’ behaviors that is conducive to learning. For example, the created topic should be interesting and engaging or challenging to arouse the learners’ curiosity. In my experience, I have used some tips to motivate students. I usually set up my lesson plans with funny activities when the lessons are difficult and less interesting. Sometimes, I try to manage the tasks into small parts such as different group works or pair works to complete the whole task. Additionally, I provide them more positive feedback than negative ones. At this point, fairness is a kind of motivation that is important and also a need to be careful in the classroom. By using these tips, they can build their self – esteem and confidence. Moreover, they can also retain their motivation. Honestly to say that learners are not always motivated internally, sometimes they need situational motivation, which is discovered in the context of the environment created by the teacher. Nevertheless, it is also difficult to achieve learning goals without motivation which can have greater effect on the students’ learning process and behaviors. To conclude, according to the tested research, motivation is the key to success and it can also make behaviors develop towards specific goals, lead to increase workload and energy which can support us to grasp our achievement. Consequently, EFL teachers must considerably create and apply motivated strategies to accomplish the objectives of the learning process in an effective way.