Motivation in the Classroom Children locked into classroom discussion are no different than adults locked into boring,

irrelevant meetings. If you do not understand how something relates to your goals, you will not care about that thing. If an adult cannot see the relevance of the material covered in a meeting, and has no desire to score political points, he will tune out or drop out. If a child does not understand how knowing the elements of the periodic table will help to address the concerns of his life, and he is not particularly interested in pleasing the teacher, he will do the same. Because we do not want our children to be motivated solely by a desire to please the teacher, what we need to address is how to make the content of the curriculum fit into the concerns of the child. Sometimes, this is easy. The child who wants to design a roof for the family doghouse will gladly sit through a lesson on the Pythagorean theorem if he understands that the lesson will teach him how to calculate the dimensions of the roof he needs. If a piece of content addresses a particular concern of a student, or even a general area of interest, that student will not tune it out. Most children, as they work through their years of school do, in fact, find areas of study they genuinely enjoy. But these areas are different for different people. The general problem of matching individual interests to fixed curricula is one that is impossible to solve. People obviously have different backgrounds, beliefs, and goals. What is relevant for one will not be relevant to another. Of course, we can force something to be relevant to students--we can put it on the test. But this only makes it have the appearance of significance, it does not make it interesting. Some children decide not to play the game this system offers. Instead, they continue to search for ways in which what is taught makes sense in their day-to-day lives, becoming frustrated as they realize that much of what is covered is irrelevant to them. If children are unwilling to believe that their own questions do not matter, then they can easily conclude that it is the material covered in class that does not matter. What is left, then, if the content has no intrinsic value to a student? Any teacher knows the answer to this question. Tests. Grades. When students don't care about what they are learning, tests and grades force them to learn what they don't care about knowing. Of course, students can win this game in the long run by instantly forgetting the material they crammed into their heads the night before the test. Unfortunately, this happens nearly every time. What is the point of a system that teaches students to temporarily memorize facts? The

only facts that stay are the ones we were forced to memorize again and again, and those we were not forced to memorize at all but that we learned because we truly needed to know them, because we were motivated to know them. Motivation can be induced artificially, but its effects then are temporary. There is no substitute for the real thing.

COMMENTS Shalini Kumar, India Without motivation there is no synergy in the class. Imagine training a lifeless class! Sanjay Kulshrestha, India Without motivation nothing can be done. So motivation is essential to perform any task successfully.

Anna, UK Often pupils do not see the purpose of what they are being taught and so display an apparent lack of motivation. When the cause of lack of motivation is identifiable (and I think that as teachers we have a responsibiltiy to identify barriers to learning) it may be mitigated.

Regarding HES's wonderful dictionary definition of the word 'motivate' and the deductive reasoning that followed: it may be useful to consider whether the divide between the teacher's role to encourage and that to motivate (generate interest) is quite so rigid.

Sanjay Bhushan, India When a student is motivated, half the battle is won.

Joel, Czech Republic Of course you have to move students to learn, if this sounds familiar then you were at the same seminar I was at, motivating, moving, all in all one and the same, no? If motivating means creating the need in your students to learn and become actively involved in the lesson then I'm all for it.

Motivation is an integral part of the teachers job, we are the link between the text book and the real world, and yes it's a difficult job, some students don't need as much motivation as others, but we all need a little encouragement, a little motivation.

Kate, Czech Republic Sometimes I feel de-motivated that my pupils need so much motivation! Tjang Kian Liong, Bandung, Indonesia Many (or perhaps most) young students are not aware of the importance of using the present opportunity to learn seriously, they mostly focus on having fun and might avoid doing

serious work such as studying.

If the teacher can motivate them by tuning their minds to continually seeing the fact that they are responsible individuals who are building up their own values and future, I am sure the students will cooperate with the teachers to perform better in their studies.

Antonio Chen, Mexico. I strongly agree with the motivation idea and it is us, the teachers the ones who produce it out of the students curiosity and desire to learn. In my opinion, one of the factors that helps to motivate a student is the teacher's ability to clarify his pupil's questions and satisfy his learning demands.

Harshad Sanghrajka, UK Activities need motivation. Teaching is no exception. Students who are motivated are more successful. A.fetah Abdulah, Bulgaria Motivation is necessary for learning, teaching and working. Michael Along, China Anything can be learned well if you love it. A teacher's job is to help students enjoy their learning. What I mean is if they could enjoy their subject, they would find out answers by themselves.

Tina van Klaren, The Netherlands I believe that "tickling" a student's intrinsic motivation and getting his eyes to shine is one of the most wonderful achievements of a teacher's daily task. Accepting and encouraging his mistakes (and therefore the student himself) so that he may pleasurably open his window of learning wider is essential. Just be there for him and, when the student is ready, bridge those language gaps. (You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink).

Esteban Barraza, Argentina One may be tempted to assure the importance of motivating in our classroom. What is not clear, this is personal, how must this be done, and to what extent is motivation to be considered the major factor to learning in teaching English as a foreign language. Bob Majirioghene, Nigeria

Three teachers recently lost their jobs in my school because they were unable to 'carry the students along'. They knew what to teach but did not have the match to light the candle in the student's eye. Jackie Poulouktsis, Greece Of course motivating is important in teaching! Otherwise,lessons can often become just another routine affair, with teacher and students 'going through the motions'. The effect is stultifying and soul destroying...as all teachers know! If the students are reminded of the reasons for doing exercises etc and if they are shown how the skills and knowledge they are acquiring will be useful in their future lives, it can only help! For example, writing a good composition requires not only language knowledge, but also skills of organisation and clarification, summarising etc., which will help them in other areas of their life. Correct grammar will enable the student to express herself and make herself understood. The students must be aware of how wonderfully their minds are being stretched by learning another language. Topics which interest the students are perhaps the best way to get them really interested in the lesson, wanting to find out more. Quizzes and puzzles too. Reluctant students must be praised whenever they make an improvement or contribute to the lesson. This is where the family needs to co-operate with the teacher. Hossein Mirabdollahi, Iran I think motivation certainly plays a very crucial role in learning and teaching a foreign language and not only the teachers but also the community and the family can help increase motivation. If this happens the process of learning and teaching will be much easier and full of fun. Flopp, California USA Motivating and teaching are two different things. Motivating an audience of students can be important, especially if the material is boring and there's resistance to learning it, but it certainly isn't essential to the teaching process. Many lethargic speakers enjoy successful teaching careers because the material they cover is interesting by itself. And many motivational rhetoricians enjoy successful speaking tours without teaching anyone a single thing! They're two different things.

HOW TO GET THEM MOTIVATED? Some recent research shows that many students do poorly on assignments or in participation because they do not understand what to do or why they should do it. Teachers should spend more time explaining why we teach what we do, and why the topic or approach or activity is important and interesting Students who do not yet have powerful intrinsic motivation to learn can be helped by extrinsic motivators in the form of rewards.The rewards can be small and according to the level of the students. Small children can be given a balloon or a set of crayons.In my opinion, rewards for good work produce those good feelings. Teachers can help produce feelings such as care by sharing parts of themselves with students, especially little stories of problems or mistakes that they made but dont blame them for their mistakes. Provide explanation or solution for their problems so that they will secure talking and sharing their problem with you. Students will feel teacher concern about their progress and wants them to success. It is also a good idea to be approachable personally. Show that you care about your students by asking about their concerns and goals. One of the major keys to motivation is the active involvement of students in their own learning. Standing in front of them and teaching without involving them is a poor method of teaching. It is better to get students involved in activities, group problem solving exercises, helping to decide what to do and the best way to do it, helping the teacher, working with each other, or in some other way getting physically involved in the lesson. Attending to need satisfaction is a method of keeping students interested and happy. It could be as simple as allowing students to choose from among two or three things to do-two or three paper topics, two or three activities, such as choosing between learning reading or sing a song. Many students have a need to have fun in positive ways,in other words, they need to be noisy and excited. We can provide better learning by attaching images to the ideas we want to convey. Use drawings, diagrams, pictures, charts, graphs and so on. You also can bring relia to class to help students to understand better. The use of visual image can enhance their interest, avoid boredom and also their understanding which will help them motivated in learning the topic or even the subject