Motivation, a key factor in learning English Motivation, a key factor in learning English VadilloI.ES
Ricardo San Martín Alfonso XI. Alcalá la Real
ricardario@interbook.net The title of this article has its purpose in a personal conviction of the truth that this assertion holds. My years as a student I remember him also for several years as an English teacher in me reaffirm that fact. On the other hand, it is not just a personal belief, a number of scientific studies conducted by educators and psychologists support my assertion.
also think so relevant figures for Oxford and Shearin (1994:12):
"Research shows motivation That Directly Influences How Often L2 Learning Strategies students use, how much students interact with native speakers, how much They Receive in the input Being Learned language (the target language), how They do well on curriculum-related Achievement Tests, how high Becomes Their general proficiency level, and how long They persevere and Maintain L2 language skills after study is over. Therefore, it is Extremely important motivation for L2 learning, and it is crucial to Understand What Our students' Motivations are.. "
In my article I present a reasoned explanation of some techniques that can help achieve our secondary students are motivated and tackle the study of English with a positive attitude.
The examples presented below are merely suggestions. Each teacher knows his students, who each have their own personality so, the teacher should find out what kind of motivation require their students. Enhance
values: There are students whose English level is not adequate for the course you are. The causes are varied, may come from French, a school where the level of demand was lower, and so on.
We motivate this student valued, not only knowledge but a desire to improve in English, their participation in class, creativity, cleanliness and order in the class notebook, etc. This set of values \u200b\u200bare so important in forming the student as a good command of English.
Thus, we will support your effort and interest in improving the course and, without doubt, that interest and our assessment of their attitudes will impact positively on their level of English proficiency. Success leads to success.
Make them protagonists of their learning: We remember what interested us, what kept us active, what we assimilate through several senses (hearing, sight, touch), so it is important that students are the protagonists of their own learning: we do take an interest in an issue if we ask them to help us find material on that grammar point and if we who practice the same hearings, written exercises, building drawings, etc.
students feel part of the class if we request that they put together a wall ('wall-chart') on the textbook topics (eg 'animals', 'There is / There are', 'Your town / city' etc.) can bring magazine clippings, make drawings, build models in cardboard, make 'posters', etc.
This material will serve the teacher to use in other classes and students will provide the satisfaction of seeing his work that will be valued from from class to class with your name on it.
educational games: They are highly motivated and have the characteristic, previously mentioned, to combine readability and grammatical content. Not be used in an indiscriminate, but its use must be accompanied and reinforced certain structures or functions given in English class and as a reinforcing material. As indicated Carrier (1980:6) in his book:
"Games and Activities Are invaluable to the teacher of a Foreign Language Because They Provide an Opportunity for students to use Their language skills in a less formal situation .../... Games Can Be Used to change the pace of a lesson and so Maintain motivation. "
is important that students know that the game is part of the class and not merely a game, of course were active, enthusiastic, but do not break the discipline of the class and finish the activity every boy or girl should have fun but also should have learned more English.
Active exercises: Students at this age (14-16 years) are full of vitality, activity, strength. We must provide them channel their dynamic exercises using 'fillers' and 'warmers': short activities, communication, and which require active student participation in class, and thereby preventing the student remains passive. Such activities are effective in getting interest to join and amenity in lexical and syntactic practice. They are usually very well received by students who thus achieved a double purpose: to have fun and learn English.
provide much 'input' understandable: According to the hypothesis of Krashen (1982:63):
"Optimal input is comprehensible. This is Clearly the MOST important characteristic input. It Amounts to the Claim That When the acquirer Does Not Understand the message, There Will Be no acquisition. "
Similarly, Krashen emphasizes the importance of providing appropriate 'input' to the students in our classes, ibid (1982:32):
"The input hypothesis states That we acquire a language by Understanding That input is a little beyond our current level of (acquired) competence.../... listening comprehension and reading are of primary importance in the language program, and that the ability to speak( or write) fluently in a second language will come on its own with time.../...Good second language teachers do this by adding visual aids, by using extra-linguistic context.../... It may be that all the teacher need do is make sure the students understand what is being said or what they are reading. When this happens, when the input is understood, if there is enough input, i + 1 will usually be covered automatically."
Así el 'input' auditivo lo podemos proporcionar por medio, no sólo de cintas de cassette, sino principalmente a tavés de las intervenciones teacher's oral classes. The teacher can motivate students by putting the 'input' level of English that their students have at the time of their interlanguage.
Provide opportunities to speak English: Perhaps one of the problems facing teachers in the English class is that we talk a lot and give little opportunity for students to express themselves in English. Montety (1977) said: 'Silent teacher, talking Pupils'.
is important to create a sense of confidence in students, in their capacity of expression. To do this we need to design activities where the student is not continuously adjusted, where we worry about its accuracy fluency grammar, ie, must prevail 'fluency' over 'accuracy'. They remain in fluency exercises which give the student an opportunity to talk about things that are familiar: 'My family', 'My house / My bedroom', 'These are my hobbies, etc. You can ask to start talking for half a minute and go increasing speaking time to a minute, minute and a half, etc. The teacher should applaud their achievements and take into account global aspects of the 'output' of the student. It is important not to interrupt while he is speaking. The teacher may be scoring the most serious and repeated errors and look for a moment, a posteriori, to indicate what should be the aspects of pronunciation or syntax to improve.
The student must have a sense that is able to convey their messages, they will not be perfect but they are included and therefore no communication.
positive atmosphere in the classroom: In previous pages we referred to the hypothesis of Krashen (1988:38). He talks of 'The Affective Filter Hypothesis':
"The research literature Indicates That Certain Are affective variables related to second language Achievement. Performers with Certain types of motivation, Usually, But Not always" integrative "and with good self-images do Better in second language acquisition. Also, the best for Language Acquisition Situations seem to Be Which Encourage Those lower anxiety Levels. "
We believe, through studies and consultation so that tells us the experience in our classes, students must Sert to taste in the English class, we learn more and better if the atmosphere that is created is one of cooperation, lack of anxiety and optimism, both students and teachers achieve better levels of effectiveness.
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achievable goals such as: It is essential to them, since the beginning of the course, a sense that cover objectives are easily achievable, and that its capacity is adequate to achieve better in English. As stated Dörnyei (1995:281):
"Develop students' self-confidence Trusting Them and PROJECTING by the Belief That They Will Achieve Their goal; Regularly Providing praise, encouragement ", and reinforcement, making sure the students Regularly That experience success and a sense of Achievement."
Show a personal interest in students: The Students must feel the interest of the teacher for teaching and, more importantly, should receive interest for the student teacher as a person. The student will take a positive attitude towards the teacher and the subject if you feel that it is interested in him / her as a human being, for your health, family problems, relationships with classmates and friends. As Finocchiaro says (1976:21):
"They [the learners] need to feel secure not only in their knowledge of the foreign language and culture but in the understanding and respect for teachers and peers.../... motivating means not only understanding the learner, his feelings, his aspirations, and his spiritual and creative needs but also his whole world that he brings with him into our classroom."
Es importante que los alumnos se sientan aceptados y apreciados como personas, independientemente de sus resultados en inglés.
Enseñar estrategias, no sólo conceptos: Los profesores de inglés, como los de otras muchas asignaturas, hemos estado más preocupados por transmitir contenidos gramaticales. Con el paso de los años, algunos vamos understanding that, without neglecting the former aspect, it must prroporcionar our students study methods and strategies to enhance their knowledge by making use of metalinguistic knowledge of both L1 and L2. All too often we find that discourage students are not progressing as well, not for lack of study and will work, but for lack of proper research methodology.
In a study of motivation and English learning techniques Otal Campos (1990) states that students use traditional strategies which affects a few achievements in learning English as L2, which, in turn, translates an increasing inhibition lack of effort and lack of study students.
importance of instrumental motivation: The study "s of Canadian psychologists Gardner and Lambert (1972) were instrumental in the field of motivation. Both distinguished between integrative and instrumental motivation. It is difficult for our students are motivated by the first, but we favor the second. In general, students who attend our classes are convinced that it has instrumental value of English in today's world, as well as the positive role that your domain can play in your future. However, the teacher can increase that instrumental motivation shows a reasoned if their students fields in which English is important, business, travel, further studies, science, technology, computer, research, etc..
Several studies, such as Gardner (1973) and (1991) show that instrumental motivation is a valid and effective way to encourage the study of L2 and achieve better results on it. In the words of Gardner (1973:240):
"Rather Than emphasizing the language Which is Being Acquired, I Think It Might Be More Meaningful to Emphasize the Usefulness of the language Which is Being Acquired."
In a subsequent investigation on the effectiveness of instrumental motivation the author returns to conclude, ibid (1991:69)
"Subjects Who Were motivated, integratively Either or instrumentally, tried harder to think of the correct answer and Apparently Were Successful in Finding it more .../... These results Demonstrate, That Both integrative motivation and instrumental motivation Influence second language dog learning. " Exercises
volunteers: They usually work with those students who wish up note or those others, too timid, those who do not like to participate orally in the English class.
should return corrected and comments that reflect the positive aspects achieved: "You've managed to improve your English expression", "topic interesting and well developed", etc.. They can also provide possible courses of action to the student: "Well the whole, however, you should review the use of modal verbs (eg * must to go, * can to play, etc.) The key is that we stay with the positive aspects achieved by the student and encourage him to continue working in English.
Another possibility is posting on the wall of the classroom for the pride of the authors and colleagues to show that they too can do similar work.
the end of each quarter bind work and are deposited in the Department to encourage groups next coming years.
Stickers 'Stickers' in English. I use it commercially can be found in stores educational material for England, USA and stick them to the work, exercises or tests. As motivating contain phrases like: 'Well done! "," Your effort "shows", "Grade A Student', 'Terrific', 'Good work', 'Stick with it', etc.
can be built (the students themselves can work together) in the class. Correct errors
general: We have seen how to motivate our students to the time of speaking English, as regards the writing, we must flee, called "red pencil effect", ie our tendency to return the exams, essays and dialogues in English that we should review plagued corrections in red. This technique, which requires an enormous effort of the teacher by the teacher, has shown that it is, in many cases effective and positive, because they transmit to students a sense of failure to give the feeling of a myriad of mistakes (as I said Corder We must distinguish between 'errors' and 'mistakes', the first really serious, the second minor and not affect the fundamental value of communication). Our corrections should be directed to the "mistakes" rather than "gaps" minor. On the other hand, is essential if we are motivated students, applaud their achievements and progress at the time of writing in English. A dialog or a composition in English can contain errors (which should be identified and corrected), but may have a number of positive factors that we can not forget: you can be witty, original, well structured, being part of a previously studied vocabulary, etc. All these factors must be weighed by the teacher and a written note at end of year will encourage the student to his later work. Students appreciate comments like: "I liked the theme. It's original," "well-developed ideas, review the errors in the order of the elements of the sentence (eg * interesting book)," "The set is acceptable. Cheer up, get better. "
is advisable to establish a code of corrections and return the exercises with errors marked by the code (eg WO = word order, Sp = spelling, T = tense, etc.).. In this way we will be giving clues to the student of what is wrong and what must be corrected.
know the values \u200b\u200band skills of each student: Each boy or girl in our class has about strengths and weaknesses in different subjects, also have a set of values \u200b\u200band skills that can be used in addition to English classes . for example, those students who can play guitar or other instrument can intervene in time to accompany the lyrics of a song in English, who likes collecting stamps can bring a presentation to the class and speak English about some of the issues and countries of his stamp collection, etc.. In this way we will be providing a channel to join their ability or enthusiasm for something to study and learn English.
The teacher as motivator: You should provide positive feedback to students, often to be encouraging his enthusiasm for the English to support their self ('self-esteem'). This can be achieved through small posters to be put on the walls of the classroom on a regular basis. The messages try to provoke students 'interest (eg' Dare to think! Dare to be great! ',' Effort always leads to personal satisfaction, that's to say, to success ',' Puede if you want to ',' Look at yourself in the mirror. That's the MOST important person in the world '.)
Principle one by one: Is a rule that marked me as a teacher of English: for every negative comment to be made by a student, also consider a positive for the male / to (eg "You improve the order of the elements of prayer, however, the exercise is well presented and structured," "You have to work more grammar, but I see improvements in the use of third person singular." )
we tend to stay not only the negative in every boy / a but to applaud and appreciate positive aspects is improving.
In short, motivated students Interested students will learn English, which will result in progress in the subject. That is, the first statement that success leads to later success.
To finish I would do with a quote from the great pedagogue Finocchiaro (1974):
"The Teacher Who Can Give Each student I have the feeling That is an important part of the group, That He is capable of learning and That He Can Achieve success, the teacher Who Can Demonstrate an Understanding of Conflict-both Environmental and linguistic, the teacher who etc Through Enthusiasm historical, art historical, historical and skill, Makes language learning a subject to look forward to, in the final analysis will be the one Who will forge ahead of historical less perceptive colleagues in promoting the desirable habits and attitudes needed for language learning."
