MOTIVATING STUDENTS
Motivation has been defined by various educationist and psychologist. Romando 2007, defined
Motivation as an internal drive that activates behavior and gives it direction. Gardner 1985, in
defining motivation argues that four elements needs to be present for a student to be considered
motivated: a goal, desire to achieve the goal, positive attitude and effort.
In my option, motivation can the described as the drive that causes an individual to behave or act
in a certain way. It’s the inner passion that pushes or makes an individual to strive towards
achieving a certain goal. It could be a goal he has set for himself or a goal that has been set for
him by a teacher or his parent.
One of the main responsibilities of a teacher is to motivate his students and ensure learning takes
place. Naturally students’ motivation has to do with desire or willingness of a student to
participate in an active learning process. But it also deals with the reasons why they should be
involved in a learning process.
Motivation could be intrinsic or extrinsic. A student who is intrinsically motivated carries out a
task for his/her own benefit, for self fulfillment and the enjoyment he/she derives in carrying out
such task. While a student who is extrinsically motivated performs a task to gain rewards form
teachers or parents and avoid punishment or embarrassment.
Distinguishing between Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
Intrinsic
Extrinsic
- Self motivation
- Good grades
- Curiosity
- Exams
- Interest
- Praise
- Creativity
- Awards
Its more profitability to ignite intrinsic motivation in students because it will help to build
students confidence and also reduce the level of students dropping out of schools. The students
will own the learning and put in their best to their fullest potential.
As a professional teacher, there are different ways to motivate students in a classroom. They
include:
- Teacher as a professional: As a teacher you need to recognise yourself as the
professional here. If you are not self motivated to teach English to different categories of
student, there is not how you can motivate your students to learn English. The
commitment and regard you have for your job will determine the level of motivation your
students will have. As a teacher, you need to be well equip with the basic fundamentals
you need to teach English. Your students should be able to look at you and aspire to be
like you.
- Classroom management: For students to be motivated, they need to feel safe, secure
and respected in class. A teacher should ensure there are rules guiding the behavior of the
students in class. The sitting arrangement should be set in such a way that students can
visually access the teacher. When a student can be seen and heard in class by the teacher,
it builds the students confidence and in turn helping to motivate the students.
- Rewards: Reward systems have been developed by teachers over the years as a form of
motivation. This is used as a positive reinforcement to appreciate learners for their effort
in doing a task well. Rewards can be in form of verbal praise, stickers or making the
student star of the week. Students have reported that through positive feedback (verbal
rewards) they feel proud, which in turn increase their enthusiasm for learning.
(Covington,2000,p.24)
- Student centered learning: Students perform better when they are given the opportunity
to dictate the process of their learning. As an English teacher, most of the students
activities should be student centered that way the students bring in their creativity and
task themselves to a productive work. The students will be properly engaged making
meaningful contributions to a task. This way the students feel important and they are not
shy to make mistakes. Learning English for foreign students can be a bit challenging so
they need every bit of encouragement and motivation they can get.
- Encouragement strategy: Every good teacher must understand encouragement is key to
every learning process. Students need to be celebrated no what how little their input is on
a task. Encouraging words like: great, excellent, fantastic, you English is getting perfect,
amazing sentence, that’s an awesome presentation etc. these will go a long way in
motivating students.
- Group and pair activities: students feel more comfortable when they work with their
peers in a given task or a group presentation rather than having to work alone. Pair
activities should be encouraged more often to help stronger students in English pull up
the weaker students. A good teacher should also rotate the pairing or group members to
give room for students with work with different people throughout their stay in the
classroom.
Above all intrinsic motivation is the best, when students understand why they need to
study English; they put in more effort in motivating themselves. Their reasons could vary
from learning to interact with students from other countries on social media, interacting
with international students when they go on tourism or even watching international news
on the television and understanding what is being said in English. Lastly the teacher
needs to be connected with the students, show them love and treat them with respect.
Create a friendly and accommodating atmosphere for the students to approach you freely
and keep encouraging them to see reasons why they need to learn English as the language
not just because English is globally acceptable but they could use it to build their career
and move on internationally.
Note: Photos were taken from my English teaching classes in Nigeria.
