Children interests of English.....

[Salvador]

How can we do in order students be interested in learning English?
Make them feel interested in learning, not just go to class and forget everything when crossing the door.
Can you give suggestions? Or a web page to consult?

Have a nice day everyone!

[Frank]

Salvador, here are my 10 golden "rules" for motivating students that are part of the Cambridge Teaching Knowledge Test course:

Before you can accomplish these, however, a teacher must have excellent CLASSROOM MGMT skills. Without that, things can get quite chaotic even with the ideas below. In theory, the more interesting and interactive your classes are, the less traditional CM is needed. But, for learners that haven't had the opportunity to work with good teachers .. a bit of front-end CM is required until you get them working well as a group. Allways make sure you start the year (semester, whatever) with clear expectations, codes of conduct and rules that you negotiate with the learners.

Perhaps a good discussion here would be for each person to describe each of these in their own words....

1. Set a personal example (Be motivated as a teacher).
2. Create a relaxed atmosphere.
3. Present interesting tasks with variety.
4. Develop positive relationships with students
5. Increase learner's confidence
6. Make language class interesting
7. Promote learner autonomy
8. Personalize the learning process
9. Increase the learner's awareness of their goals
10. Familiarize the learners with L2 culture

OK, the elements above to increase learning motivation and participation may still seem somewhat vague. So, I will try to describe all that in my own words now (and hope others will also add to the discussion).

When you walk into that classroom ... walk in with ENERGY and zest. Let them see your brilliance as a human being. A lively interesting teacher is motivating .. good posture, smile, acknowledge those around you and be happy yet focused. Create magic with just your presence alone. They should be eager to see you each day.

It has been proven that we learn better in a stress-free environment. And also a English-rich visually stimulating classroom sends lots of positive reinforcing messages to learners, like ... English must really be important at this school, Wow my best work is being displayed and recognized, my eyes have lots of reinforcement of the importance of English. Be postive and supportive, and correct students appropriately (don't over or under correct).

Using a task-based language teaching (TBLT) seems to be more motivating than the more traditional PPP (Present, Practice, Produce) model. Jane Willis and David Nunan are leaders in this area .. just Google TBL, TBLT, Jane Willis, David Nunan for lots of really interesting info on how to cultivate a TBLT approach in your lesson planning. Mix up the activities, more challenging (at beginning of class) to more fun (at the end of class). Mix up learning styles too: visual, kinesthetic, auditory, reading, etc. Be mindful of finding balance in Multiple Intelligences, Multi-modal learning, differentiated learning etc. Google all of these terms. Your own self-guided discovery of resources will be more meaningful to you than links passed on from others. See Bloom's Taxonomy for ideas on how to use ACTION VERBS to make sure that learners are DOING rather than being bored.

Get to know and appreciated your learners. When we are seen as individuals and respected, we participate more. Be friendly and fair, yet firm with expectations as a teacher too. Set high but achievable expectations .. it says that you believe in the capabilities of the learners and they translate that into positive ways.

Don't demean or punish or single out learners in class. Actually, quite the opposite ... try to elevate their self confidence by showing appreciation for their efforts, lots of positive reinforcement and guiding .. be a mentor. facilitator.

Don't be a slave to your coursebook, learn how to modify activities and topics to meet the needs of your learners. You can still cover the basic functions, competencies, grammar, etc. while changing the topic and the activities/tasks to better match your learners' backgrounds and interests. Get to know your students to know what interests them. Give them choice sometimes.

Helping learners to be self-sufficient is empowering and motivating. You can promote learner autonomy by working with learners' metacognitive skills (ie. learning to learn). Teach them how to use reference materials (dictionaries, websites and other reference materials) with fun activities. Give them choice, have a welcoming and resourceful Student Access Center, etc. Teach them easy ways to write (using graphic organizers and text organizers), etc.

If you personalize the learning, students will be more engage .. as they will have a valid reference point from with they will learn .. all about constructivist teaching and learning. Topics about technology (cell phones, etc.) and pizza, might connect better with learners that topics about farming and cooking, for example. Be aware of gender, age, culture, local traditions, music, Internet likes, etc.

Helping learners to keep an eye on their goals helps them to feel better focused and moving or progressing with a purpose. I always end my classes with summarizing the progress made and what the "new English product" is that learners now have in the pockets. Keeping them mindful of longer-range goals like professional and personal opportunities is also important.

Familiarizing learners with native English speaking countries' culture can also motivate and engage. Try to mix it up though. English in international, so include India, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, etc, in those activities, not just the USA or Canada.

I'm interested in other people's practices and perspective, too. I'm always learning .... and THAT keeps me motivated and interested, hehe!

[Frank]

Any other thoughts?

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

Sounds like stuff that would work with any age group. Maybe just more so with kids since they have shorter attention spans.

Frank said:

Any other thoughts?

[Salvador]

Wow, I didn't espect that much informaction. I have to say thank you so much for taking time to answer me like this.
I just read it and it's very complete, I don't know what more I can add, but I will work with this. I'm sure it will work well.

Salvador

[Michael Nolan]

Concentrate on content--find interesting reading and listening materials that appeal to them. Then you have to make them see that English is more than just a school subject--it is a means of communication. Therefore, they need many opportunities to use "real" English.

You can often use technology. Students can chat or send emails to one another in English--or to people beyond their community. They can design web pages and write blogs. They can write and publish a newsletter.

Often content-based education can help. As students learn about ecology or history, they begin to understand that English is about a lot more than nouns and verbs.