STRATEGIES TO

MOTIVATE IN THE
LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

2009
 What`s motivation for you?

 Motivation is a set of reasons that

determines one to engage in a
particular behavior.
 What`s the basic need of
motivation?

 Accordingto some theories,

motivation may be rooted in the
basic need to minimize physical pain
and maximize pleasure.
 Is it its only function?
 It may include specific needs such as
eating and resting.
 Or desired object, hoppy, goal, state
of being, ideal.
 Or it may be attributed to less-
apparent reasons such as altruism
and morality.
“Motivation is the factor that determine a person’s desire to
do something. In Second Language and Foreign Language
learning, learning may be affected differently by different
types of motivation. Two types are sometimes distinguised:
a) Instrumental motivation: wanting to learn a language
because it will be useful for certain “instrumental goals”, such
as getting a job, reading a foreign newspaper, passing and
examination.
b) Integrative motivation: wanting to learn a language in
order to communicate with people of another culture who
speak it.”

(Further reading: Gardner and Lambert 1972)”

 TYPES OF MOTIVATION

 INTRINSIC (comes from within): “I love it!”, “It’s

funny!”

 EXTRINSIC (comes from outside): “My parents will buy

me a motorbike, if I pass this subject”, “Speaking English
will be helpful for my career”, “English is a compulsory
subject”, “I would like to travel abroad and English will
be useful”
 STRATEGIES TO MOTIVATE

 SOME THINGS TO HAVE INTO ACCOUNT :

 The attitude of the teacher is crucial

 Solve their doubts after the lesson
 Give immediate feedback
 Provide communication
 Transmit motivation
 Good attitude towards student and subject
 Not all the strategies will work with all the students
Strategie 1:

“ ‘It’s a game, isn’t it, Mary Poppins?’

‘Well, it depends on your point of view. You see, in every job
that must be done there is an element of fun. You find the fun
and –snap!- the job’s a game. And every task you undertake
becomes a piece of cake…’”

Disney motion picture: “Mary Poppins” cited in DÖRNYEI, Z.

Motivational Strategies in the language classroom. Cambridge
University Press, 2001. (p. 113)
Strategie 2:

“ ‘ Mary was a friend I had in college. Without saying much,

she always made really good grades. It was a mystery to me. I
wondered how she did it, so I began observing her more
closely… Some of ther classes were not really interesting to
her, but still she wanted to learn and to make good grades. So
she pretended (and then actually believed) that what the
teachers were saying was extremely interesting. Then she
became excited about telling everybody about it…’”

MURPHEY, T. Language Hungry: An introduction to Language

Learning Fun and Self-Esteem. Tokyo: Macmillan
Languagehouse, 1998. (p. 21) In DÖRNYEI, Z. Motivational
Strategies in the language classroom. Cambridge University
Press, 2001. (p. 113)
 CREATE THE APPROPRIATE
MOTIVATIONAL CONDITIONS

 Demonstrate enthusiasm
 Take learning very seriously
 Create a good and pleasant classroom environment
 Create a sense of group
 They are all equal (Same activities, same mistakes)
ORIGINATE INITIAL MOTIVATION

 Motivated pupil in a group = Transmit enthusiasm

 Highlight aspects the students are likely to enjoy
 Encourage them to speak
 Mistakes are permitted!
 Look for interesting topics
 Explore the target language
 “Pen friends”
 E-mails and international chats
 Emphasise advantages
 Web page in the target language
 Increase expectancy of success
 Mention potential problems
 Offer assistance
 Increase goal-orientation (Group/Individual goals)
 Make teaching materials attractive
 Relate topics to students’ experiences/environments
 Tell students to outline and run part of the course
 Make students have realistic learner beliefs
 MAINTAIN AND PRESERVE
MOTIVATION
 Make learning stimulating and pleasant
 Break the monotony of the lessons
 Sporadically, do the unexpected!
 Focus on the motivational flow (Not only on the
information flow)
 Personalise tasks
 Include original, intriguing, exotic, funny, competitive or
fantasy elements
 Raise students’ curiosity
 Increase students’ involvement
 Take part in games
 Present tasks in a motivating way :
 Explain purpose and utility of the exercise
 Arise students’ desire = Project enthusiasm
 Provide appropriate strategies to do the task
 Work with them at the beginning of difficult tasks
 Provide immediate feedback and satisfaction

 Increase goal-orientedness :
 Select specific, short- term goals
 Draw up written agreement
 Help and reward them
 Observe students’ progress
 Respect the details of the “contract”
 Protect self-esteem and increase self-confidence :
 Provide opportunities of success
 Adjust the difficulty level of activities
 Include improvement options
 Provide regular encouragement
 Remove/Reduce anxiety-provoking elements
 Avoid social comparison
 Point out that everybody makes mistakes!
 Make tests and assessments clear
 Offer options to improve the final mark
 Teach learning strategies
 Show communication strategies
 Tell them strategies to study
 Retain a positive social image :
 Avoid humiliation, criticism or putting students in the
spotlight unexpectedly
 Make them work in teams
 Take into account team products in assessments
 Promote learners’ autonomy = Allow real choice
 Teacher role : Facilitator
 Cooperation among students
 Cooperation between students and teacher

 Increase self-motivating capacity :

 Raise awareness of the importance of self-
motivation
 Share strategies (Self-reminders)
 Encourage students to adopt, develop, and apply
self-motivating strategies
 ENCOURAGE POSITIVE SELF-
EVALUATION

 Promote effort attributions

 Pass along compliments
 Provide regular feedback about progress
 Provide regular feedback about areas they should
concentrate on
 Make progress tangible
 Offer rewards in a motivating manner
 Don’t over use rewards
 Non-material rewards should have visual representation
 Use marks in a motivating way
 Make assessment system completely transparent
 Grades must reflect effort and improvement
 Apply continuous assessment
 Don’t rely only on pencil-and-paper tests
 Encourage students’ self-assessment

 DON’T FORGET!:

 Don’t demoralise if a strategy doesn’t work

 Treat each student as a person, not as part of a whole
 Respect students
 You’re an ally, not an enemy!
 Remember that :
 Imposition can “sabotage” motivation!!!
 Discussion
 What language learning strategies you use
when learning English?
 How do you define intrinsic and extrinsic?
 How do you as a teacher weave strategy
instruction into English lessons?
 What’s your opinion about instrumental
and integrative motivation? Why?
 What are the differences of teaching
strategy between younger and older
learners?
 Is there a recipe in English
Learning?
 Remember there isn`t a perfect
method. The aim at the moment is to
understant:
 Why?

 For what?
 How?, and

 What to teach?

In this right order!!!!

Magazine Nova Escola/Antonieta Celani
Síria Clair Schneider
TKT Course
London School