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How to
Motivate Learners of English
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Motivation has been defined in different ways:
It is what makes us act; it is a desire to work towards a goal or to reach an objective.
If motivation is present, learning can be facilitated; but without it, effective learning
becomes difficult. Lado (1957) maintains that interest must be present if learning is to
be successful. In other words, when interest is absent, one can hear things said over and
over without paying too much attention to them.
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In this short article, my objective is to
present some important principles that can help teachers of English to have lively
classes. In the Congo, English is a foreign language. It is learned only in the classroom
context, and the national environment is far from supportive. Most teachers are not
knowledgeable of methods that will arouse interest or increase their students' commitment
to learn English. How then should they proceed to get the maximum participation?
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Make use of the learners' environment
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Foreign language teaching should always be
linked to the environment of the learners. A teacher who teaches English without alluding
to the immediate environment of the school makes the English lesson detached from the
learners' experiences. In order to remedy the situation, teachers can link the environment
of the school (and implicitly of the child) to any activity or exercise that they want to
carry out in the classroom.
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A child has a natural context in which he
organises the various activities that make up his life. If these activities are
"reproduced" in the language classroom, it is possible to motivate him/her to do
the task at hand. Therefore games and other daily activities should constitute the heart
of the English class. The only new factor will be the language itself. Used in this way,
English will no longer be feared and students will be more inclined to study it.
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Present the language in natural chunks
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In a foreign language situation, the teacher
remains the main source or model for the pupils. S/he should strive hard to use the
language as naturally as possible. If the teacher should use the target language
unnaturally, i.e. break a sentence into smaller units to help the students get the correct
pronunciation of a word or the intonation of a phrase, etc., s/he must not forget to
return to the whole sentence.
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Use appropriate visual aids
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Visual aids are important tools for the teacher.
Used appropriately in the classroom, they enable the teacher to avoid long and confusing
explanations. At the same time they help the teacher to have a lively class as students
associate real objects with their English equivalents. In this way, they can exchange
information with each other since they will be familiar with the topic and/or object under
discussion.
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Include cultural components
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Language and culture are interrelated. One
cannot study a language without noting the cultural aspects of the people who use the
language natively. However, cultural aspects can be a real hindrance because they may set
up barriers to comprehension. This is more evident to teachers who are not native speakers
of the target language themselves. For this reason, teachers should provide sufficient
background information to enable the learners to understand the cultural content that is
naturally present in the target language.
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Become an efficient manager
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A company's success is usually attributed to the
way in which it is managed. Likewise, the success of a language course reflects the
teacher's dexterity or expertise. In other words, the teacher should know how to talk to
his students if they are to fully participate in the lesson. In this respect, their
interests, needs, and experiences must be taken into consideration. The student factor, as
it is often called, should be carefully examined. Just as it takes a good factory manager
to obtain positive results in the factory, it takes a good teacher to instill in his/her
student a positive attitude towards the new language. The deciding factor here is the way
in which the teacher talks to his pupils. When the teacher is humane and sensitive, seeing
his students as capable of contributing something to the lessons, a warm and enjoyable
classroom atmosphere can be created and maintained.
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Adapt materials to local realities
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It is desirable that materials presented in a
foreign language class be varied and stimulating. Ideally, they should be adapted to the
needs of learners but most importantly they should be interesting.
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The teacher should know how to adapt existing
materials to local realities. Commercially produced materials usually aim at a wider
audience. Consequently, they cannot coincide with the needs and aspirations of a specific
group of pupils. Textbooks should be considered as tools, and teachers should know how to
exploit them. The teacher should avoid slavishly following the textbook writer's
instructions. S/he should contribute something personal to the materials used in the
classroom.
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If the above principles are taken into account
and implemented with care, teachers will be able to have lively English lessons.
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Felicien
Baloto is a teacher trainer at the Ecole Normale Sup‚rieure of the University
of Brazzaville. |
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Return
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- Baloto, F. 1991. The impact of the socio-cultural environment in the teaching and
learning of English in secondary schools in Brazzaville. Unpublished PhD thesis, Cardiff
University of Wales.
- Gardner, R. C. 1985. Social psychology and second language learning: The role of
attitudes and motivation. London: Edward Arnold.
- Lado, R. 1957. Linguistics across cultures. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
- Wright, T. 1987. The roles of teacher and learner. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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