Teach English in Dajin Zhen - Huanggang Shi

Before we start this topic it is essential to understand what the word „motivation” means. There are different theories about learning motivation but the simpliest way to describe this definition is the following. A student is motivated if she/he makes an effort to attain her/his goal. There are internal and external factors that stimulate the energy and the power of the students in the classroom. Students need to be opened and intrested to the topic of the lesson. But let’s see what can make students intrested! First of all, we have to define what is the drive to learn English. Why does the student follow the English course? The best if it is the student’s decision to take part in an English course. She/he would be more motivated. These students feel fun to learn English and they enjoy it. They desire to know more and more and to enrich their language skills. Dealing with self-motivated students is easy and smooth. Obviously, dont exist just intrinsic-motivated students! The other type of motivation factor is the extrinsic motivation. In this case, the students are engaged in a behavior to earn a reward or avoid a punishment. Students can learn English because they can get praise from their parents or from the teacher. Or if we have a client who learns Bussiness English , after a long working day, it can be an obligation for his/her to follow the course. The efficiency of the students moves on a wide spectrum. Extrinsic rewards can be useful tools to increase the motivation, but especially with young learners, teachers should use them carefully and guardedly. Sometimes external factors can decrease the instrinsically motivated behaviors. There are learners who can struggle with motivation. But what can a teacher do to make higher the motivation in a classroom? For sure the teacher has to use the combination of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. First of all, the lesson should be primarly based on the intrinsic motivation of the learners. How can we accomplish to find the instrinsic motivation? Mostly the teacher has to find the needs and the intrests of the learners. The teacher has to create a brief analysis about the English level, about personal intrests and about the requests of the students. Students have to enjoy the lesson, the teacher has to make them cuorious about the topic of the lesson and make them fun and intrested in the same time. To reach the goals there are some great methods that teachers can use like using warmers, or using English games. Sometimes students can not realize while they are playing that they are learning on the same time. They start to product and create English sentences, they start speaking, they start communicating in English. In my oppinion, playing games is always the best „icebreaking” method. Even when we start the first lesson with the class, the most important always to create and estabilish a rapport between the students. There are a lot of get-to-know-you or introduction games. Students should reach the feeling of flow, when they feel they are concentarted and full-involved to the activity and they enjoy that. A teacher always works with his/her personality to increase the motivation of the students. A teacher has to be kind and patient with the learners. A good teacher is lively and entertaining and has to create a good rapport and interaction with the class. A good teacher can correct mistakes but without offending the students or decrease the level of the self-confidence and the motivation of the students. A good teacher supports the students, praises them and gives them useful feedbacks. I think if these factors come true in an English lesson, the motivation of the students will be higher and more powerful. For the theoretical overview I used a literature review, a journal article about external and internal motivation.The title is "Motivation and Motivating in the Foreign Language Classroom" written by a Hungarian researcher, Zoltán Dörnyei (The Modern Language Journal,Vol. 78, No. 3 (Autumn, 1994), pp. 273-284).