Motivation in the language classroom

NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY, SINGAPORE

In Press

Motivation in the

Language Classroom Draft Booklet

Willy A Renandya

Renandya, W.A. (in press). Motivation in the language classroom. Alexandria, Virginia: TESOL International Association.

Draft Booklet ©Willy A Renandya

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 The What and Why of Motivation

Chapter 2 The Teacher

Chapter 3 The Teaching Methodology

Chapter 4 The Text

Chapter 5 The Task

Chapter 6 The Test

Chapter 7 Conclusion


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Introduction

Terrell H Bell, former U.S. Secretary of Education in the 1980s once said, “There are

three things to remember about education. The first one is motivation. The second

one is motivation. The third one is motivation” (quoted in McInerney and Liem,

2008:11). What he said is something that every teacher would readily acknowledge.

Motivated learners are more enthusiastic, goal-oriented, committed, persistent,

confident and successful in their learning. They are willing to work hard to achieve

their goals and do not easily give up until they achieve those goals. This is true

whether we talk about motivation in general education or in language learning

contexts.

In second language learning (L2) contexts in particular, teachers know from their

experience that motivation plays a key role in learning. They know that students with

higher motivation are likely to be more successful than those with lower motivation.

They also know that they themselves play a major role in creating and fostering

motivation in the classroom. Indeed, some of them are very good at motivating their

students, but others may still need to sharpen their motivating skills.

The aim of this booklet is to help teachers do what they normally do with greater

confidence and effectiveness. It also aims to help teachers explore classroom-specific

motivational factors that they have at their disposal and make use of these to help

their students become more engaged and motivated in the language classroom.

Chapter 1, The what and why of motivation, sets the scene by describing what

motivation is, why it is important in language learning and how what we know about

motivation from research that can be translated into the classroom. This chapter then

talks about the five elements of motivation (the 5 Ts of motivation) which form the

basis for discussion in the rest of the book. Chapter 2, looks at the first T, The Teacher,

and explores the central role that he/she plays in motivating students to learn.

Everything about the teacher, the way he/she does things in class, the way he/she

behaves and relates to the students, can be a great source of student motivation.

Chapter 3 looks at the second T, The Teaching Methodology, and examines the way

the teacher conducts the daily lesson. The choice of teaching methods, and the way

the teacher plans and implements his or her lesson can have a profound impact on

student motivation. Chapter 4, looks at the third T, The Text, and presents practical

strategies to make the teaching materials we use more stimulating and motivating in

the classroom.

Chapter 5 looks at the fourth T, The Task, and offers practical tips of how teachers can

make tasks cognitively, affectively and linguistically engaging. Chapter 6, looks at the

final T, The Test, and examines how we can make our test less intimidating and more


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motivating by considering more learner-friendly assessment procedures which can

help teachers assess and assist students in the learning process.

The last chapter, Conclusion, summarizes the key points of the 5 Ts of motivation and

provides practical tips on how practising teachers can implement the ideas presented

in this book.


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Chapter 1 The what and why of motivation

Motivation is a topic that is close to every teacher’s heart, one that comes up very

often when they talk about their students. Those who have had years of teaching

experience would say without hesitation that student motivation is central to any kind

of learning, and plays a particularly important role in language learning. Teachers

know who is motivated and who is not so motivated, and associate the former with

greater success in language learning (Hadfield and Dörnyei, 2013). They believe that

motivated students achieve more success because they tend to work harder, and are

more enthusiastic and goal-oriented. They don’t give up easily and persist in their

efforts to achieve their goals and perhaps more importantly, they find learning

enjoyable. Unmotivated students, on the other hand, need constant encouragement,

don’t try hard enough, don’t enjoy learning, have low self-esteem as learners of the

target language and negative attitudes towards language learning.

This chapter first discusses what motivation is and why it is important in language

learning. It then talks about five classroom specific factors, referred to as the 5 Ts of

motivation, which form the basis for the discussion of motivation in the rest of the

book.

What is motivation?

Motivation is concerned with the questions of why people choose to do, or not do,

something, how much effort they are going to put in to do the activity and how long

they will be participating in the activity (Dörnyei, 2001). When students choose to

participate enthusiastically in a language lesson and are willing to extend sufficient

efforts even when the activity is challenging, we know that they are motivated to learn

and are likely to take in more and remember more from the lesson. Those who are not

as motivated are generally less enthusiastic about participating in the lesson, and they

often do not put in the required effort and give up easily when the task becomes

harder to do.

The definition of motivation above is quite simple and easy to understand. But when

we take it one step further and try to flesh out the sources of student motivation, we


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are likely to have a wide range of answers. Teachers I have worked with say that the

following are important sources of student motivation.

Students’ attitude towards the target language. Students who have a positive

attitude towards the target language, its culture and community, and who

appreciate the social and economic benefits associated with being proficient in the

language, tend to possess a higher level of motivation.

Their perception about the immediate utility of the target language in the

community. Students feel more motivated if what they learn in the classroom can

be put to immediate use outside the classroom.

Their sense of competence in the target language. Students’ motivation goes up

when they feel that they have the required skills and abilities to perform a task.

Their perception about the enjoyment level of the lesson. Students become more

motivated when they find the lessons intrinsically interesting and enjoyable,

where they learn things that they like and want to learn, and not because they

have to.

Their classroom learning environments. When the classroom is stress-free and

students can participate without fear of being ridiculed when they make

pronunciation or grammar mistakes, they tend to be more motivated to learn.

Their teacher’s personality and teaching effectiveness. Students tend to have

higher motivation if their teacher is warm, humorous and caring, and can teach

well.

Reflective Break

Which three sources of motivation above are the most important in your

own classroom?

Please list two or three additional sources of motivation you think are

important in your school?


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Why is motivation important?

Teachers have a high respect for motivation because it often “makes the difference

between learning that is superficial and shallow and learning that is deep and

internalized” (Gambrell, 1996, p. 15). Students who are motivated and engaged are

better at utilizing their cognitive resources to learn more effectively and efficiently.

They do not just sit passively waiting for knowledge to be delivered by the teacher;

instead, they actively process the lessons in ways that allow them to develop a deeper

and more robust kind of learning. When learning a new word, for example, they will

not just attend to its meaning, but will go deeper by noticing how the word is spelled,

what part of speech it belongs to, what kinds of words it collocates with, how it is

different from or similar to the other words that they already know, and seek

opportunities to use this word in real communication.

Although motivated learners are every teacher’s dream, the reality is that we can’t

expect every student to be equally motivated; some are more motivated while others

are less so (Winke, 2005). In places where the target language is often perceived to

be unimportant for students’ daily communicative needs, it is often hard to convince

students that they need to learn English. To make matters worse, English lessons are

often perceived to be hard and uninteresting.

Reflective Break

Do you agree with the statement that without motivation, not much learning

can happen in the language classroom? Please explain.

Are your students generally motivated to learn English? Why are they

(un)motivated?

What do you normally do to keep their motivation level high?

Dynamic View of Motivation

Motivation is perhaps the single most important factor affecting the outcome of L2

learning. Indeed, DÖrnyei (2001) says that given sufficient motivation, most L2


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learners can acquire a working knowledge of the language. He further maintains that

L2 learners’ ultimate success or failure is determined by their sustained “enthusiasm,

commitment and persistence” (p. 5) in the long and drawn out process of language

learning. But whose responsibility is it to ensure that students’ motivation and levels

of engagement remain high during the learning process?

The answer seems to depend on whether we see motivation as a fixed or dynamic

construct. When we see motivation as a fixed entity, we simply describe our students

as being either motivated or unmotivated. In other words, we see motivation to learn

as being essentially a ‘student problem’ (Johnson, 2008). The students are responsible

for their own motivation and there is not much we can do to change it. However, if we

believe that motivation is a dynamic construct and can change depending on the

learning situation in the classroom or school, then it should no longer be seen as a

student problem, but should be viewed more as a ‘teacher problem’ (Johnson, 2008).

When we see motivation as a teacher problem, we acknowledge that there are many

classroom-specific factors that the teacher can exploit in order to foster student

motivation. This however is not to say that students have little or no responsibility to

work on their motivation levels. They do, because ultimately motivation is the

responsibility of the individual students.

The view that motivation is dynamic and changeable is more in line with recent

theorizing on motivation (DÖrnyei , 2001, 2012; Linnenbrink & Pintrich, 2002). As

Linnenbrink and Pintrich (2002) point out, “motivation is not a stable trait of an

individual, but is more situated, contextual and domain- specific” (p. 314). Thus,

students may be motivated in a science class, but not in a language class or vice versa.

Within a language class, students may be more motivated in a reading class than in a

conversation class. We also often see students showing a higher level of motivation

when taught by Teacher A, for example, but not so when taught by Teacher B.

The dynamic view of motivation also means that during the course of their studies,

students’ motivation does not stay at the same level; it fluctuates, going up and down

in response to changes in internal as well as external factors (DÖrnyei , 2001). What

often happens in L2 classes is that students start off with some initial motivation


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which gets strengthened as time goes by because they find the lessons cognitively and

affectively fulfilling; but it is also possible that the initial motivation dies down because

they find the lessons uninteresting or frustratingly demanding. Sometimes, their

motivation drops to a low level simply because the prolonged learning activities tire

them out. It is rare to observe students whose levels of motivation remains high

throughout the whole semester, much less throughout the whole school year.

Reflective Break

Do you agree that motivation to learn is changeable and also temporal in

nature? Please explain.

Do you agree that the responsibility of motivating students rests mainly

with the teacher? Why or why not?

To what extent should students be responsible for their own motivation?

The 5 Ts of Motivation

In this booklet, we take the view that motivation is dynamic and sensitive to the

context in which the L2 learning takes place. Instead of looking at the myriad of factors

that can affect student motivation within the school context, we will focus on

classroom specific factors that teachers are most familiar with, are under their control

to some extent and which they can make the most impact. Research on motivation

tells us that the classroom environment, our behaviour and actions in the classroom,

our relationship with the students, the way we teach in class, and how we structure

our lessons, the materials we use, the tasks we ask our students to complete and the

way we assess our students all have huge implications for student motivation.

Renandya (2013) refers to these classroom-specific factors as the 5 Ts of motivation:

Teacher, Teaching methodology, Text, Task and Test.


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Table 1: The 5 Ts of Motivation

T1 Teacher A teacher who is caring, supportive, humorous,

enthusiastic, helpful and committed, who has a

genuine interest in their students’ learning and

general well-being and who has good rapport with

them, is more likely to be able to create a motivating

classroom atmosphere.

T2 Teaching

methodology

A teacher who uses a variety of teaching methods,

customized to the individual needs of the students

will be more successful in engaging them towards

achieving the L2 learning targets.

T3 Text Both oral and written texts used as classroom

materials should be interesting and relevant to the

students. They should also be pitched at or slightly

above their current levels of proficiency. In other

words, materials should be interesting and

comprehensible.

T4 Task Tasks that fall within students’ experience and skill

levels tend to be more motivating than those that

are too demanding. Also, tasks that allow students

to experience more success rather than failure are a

great boost to student motivation.

T5 Test Tests that serve as a learning tool, one that helps

students to see their progress in a non-threatening

manner can drive students to work harder and more

enjoyably to achieve their learning goals.

DÖrnyei (2001) writes, “the best motivational intervention is simply to improve the

quality of our teaching” (p. 26). In other words, good teaching can often lead to high

student motivation, which in turns drives students to become more enthusiastic, more

engaged and more committed to their learning. The 5 Ts of motivation above can be

used as a working guideline to improve the quality of our teaching, which can in turn


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help create a learning environment that stimulates, nourishes and sustains student

motivation. The next chapters will flesh out in greater detail each of the 5 Ts of

motivation.


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Chapter 2 The Teacher

This chapter discusses the first T (Teacher), of the 5 Ts of motivation and explores the

key role of the teacher as a motivating agent in the classroom. By the end of the

chapter, you will be able to explain why the teacher is an important source of

motivation and how teacher-related factors that can affect student motivation.

Qualities that effective teachers have

Almost everything about the teacher, including his or her personal characteristics, can

have a big impact on student motivation. Many studies on good language teachers

have identified general teacher characteristics deemed to be desirable and which tend

to generate positive appraisals of L2 learning in the classroom. The following

characteristics are often cited as being associated with good teachers and can have

positive influences on student motivation (Borg, 2006; Brophy, 1998; DÖrnyei , 2001;

Miller, 2012).

Enthusiasm

Enthusiastic teachers love their subject matter, and teach it with great passion. Their

enthusiasm is infectious and acts as an open invitation for the students to enjoy

learning the subject matter as much as the teachers enjoy teaching it.

Friendliness

Students appreciate having teachers who are friendly and approachable, those who

they can talk to not only about school work, but also about other things related to

their personal and social lives.

Care for students

Students remember their teachers who are caring and show sincere concern for their

learning and also their general well-being. Students also feel safe, knowing that the

teachers are there to help them when they encounter learning problems.


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Humour

Humorous teachers can make a dry subject interesting. Good teachers use humour

skilfully to make their lessons more appealing and make the key points of the lessons

more memorable by using anecdotes and hilarious stories.

Fairness

Students have a deep respect for teachers who treat every student fairly and who do

not practice favouritism. In class, these teachers give equal attention to every single

student without regard to their ability level, gender, race, ethnicity or social

backgrounds.

Patience

Students enjoy having teachers who are patient and do not show any sign of

unhappiness when students make the same mistakes frequently, and who are

available to provide extra help even after normal school hours.

Reflective Break

Which, if any, of the characteristics above are in-born? Which are

learnable?

Which of the above characteristics do you possess? Which do you think you

need to work on?

Please list two or three other characteristics that you feel are important

too?

In addition to general teacher characteristics above, there are L2-specific

characteristics that students value and expect good teachers to possess. : Effective L2

teachers, according to ELT experts such as Brown (2012) and Mckay (2002), are those

who:

can serve as models of good use of English


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can serve as models of successful learners of English

are knowledgeable about English

can explain grammar points efficiently

can code switch when necessary

understand the students’ L2 learning needs

are sympathetic towards students’ L2 learning problems

use socially and culturally appropriate teaching methods

Reflective break

Choose two or three of the characteristics of a bilingual teacher above and discuss

how they are related to student motivation.

Teacher’s communication skills

One teacher quality that is particularly important, and is linked to learner motivation,

has to do with teachers’ ability to use language to teach in class. We may possess

excellent content and pedagogical knowledge of the English language and may also be

an enthusiastic and caring teacher, but if our lesson is not delivered clearly and

coherently, students will have a difficult time digesting the lesson. In other words, if

our teaching does not have instructional clarity, our students will not be able to follow

the lesson well. As we all know, students can’t learn what they don’t understand.

The ability to instruct clearly, according to Wlodkowski (1999), is one of the defining

characteristics of a motivating teacher. According to Wlodkowski, we can improve our

instructional clarity by explaining points in a simple way, pacing our lessons

appropriately (not too fast and not too slow), using graphics and other visuals to

clarify difficult concepts, demonstrating or showing how something is done in addition

to verbally explaining it, and using examples to clarify student understanding. For a

more extensive list of ideas of how we can enhance our instructional clarity, please

refer to Wlodkowski (1999, pp. 58-59).


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Explaining things clearly is even more important in L2 learning. When working with

beginner or lower proficiency learners of English, we need to work harder to ensure

that they can follow our explanation in English. The following suggestions taken from

Kinsella (1999) and Richards and Lockhart (1994) can help our lower proficiency L2

learners more easily understand our explanations in the target language.

Use a slower rate of speaking. Teachers speak more slowly than they normally

would in other situations so as to facilitate comprehension.

Use clearer pronunciation. Teachers articulate the words more clearly and use

the reduced or weak forms less frequently to aid student comprehension.

Simplify vocabulary. Teachers could use simple, high frequency words. Instead

of saying “could you reiterate what you just said?”, the teacher could say

”could you say that again?”

Use simpler grammar. Teachers could use simpler and shorter sentence

structures and avoid long sentences with subordinating clauses.

Use visuals and gestures. Gestures and visual aids help make the teacher’s

explanation more comprehensible.

Increase wait time after asking a question. Teachers could give a longer wait

time so that learners could give more thoughtful answers

Use frequent comprehension and confirmation checks (e.g., is it clear? Can you

repeat what I’ve just said?). These checks help teachers ensure that students

can follow the instruction.

Pair lower proficiency with higher proficiency learners so that the latter can

help clarify things that are unclear.

Reflective Break

Which three strategies do you use to make your explanations in class more

comprehensible?

Which of the strategies above have you not used before? Do you think they

are worth trying?


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Motivational principles

In addition to being caring, enthusiastic and sympathetic teachers who can explain

things clearly in the classroom, effective teachers have deep understanding of

motivational factors that can enhance students’ learning experiences in the classroom.

They plan and deliver their lessons based on sound motivational principles and

deliberately infuse these principles in the activities and tasks in the classroom

regularly and consistently. Here are some principles derived from mainstream

motivational theories.

Expectancy of success principle

Students are likely to be more motivated when they have a high expectancy of success

in completing the task and when they value the outcome. This principle basically

means that students are more likely to do what they expect to accomplish successfully

and avoid tasks that they feel they may not be able to do successfully. But this alone is

not enough. They also take the value of the tasks into consideration. Thus, students’

expectancy of success and the intrinsic value of the task influence students’ decision

to do or avoid the tasks. This principle is informed by the expectancy value theory

(Brophy, 1998) and will be explored in greater detail in Chapter 5 – The Task.

Intrinsic motivation principle

Students who are intrinsically motivated, who perform tasks because they want to,

tend to work harder and achieve more success compared to those who are

extrinsically motivated, and who do things in order to earn rewards or avoid

punishments. This is based on Ryan and Deci’s (2000) self-determination theory.

Self-worth principle

Students become more motivated when they feel good about themselves as a result

of their being able to complete a task. Because of this they tend to do things that

increase their personal value and worth and avoid face-threatening activities as these

can undermine their self-worth. This self-worth theory of motivation (Covington,


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1998) is particularly relevant for adult learners of English who often have to

participate in potentially face-threatening activities.

Reflective Break Here’s a small quiz to help you figure out the extent to which you have applied

motivational principles above in your own teaching. For each statement

below, indicate whether you do it Often, Sometimes or Never.

Never = 0 point Sometimes = 1 point Often = 2 points

26-30 points = Excellent motivator

21-25 points = Good motivator

16-20 points = Fair motivator

15 and below = Need to use more motivational strategies

1. I listen to what my students have to say in order to find out more about their

needs, interests and learning preferences.

2. I encourage my students to put in more effort and tell them that success in

language learning is due more to effort than to special talents or abilities.

3. I strive to create a low stress classroom environment so that every student is

willing to participate without fear of losing face when they make mistakes.

4. I structure my lessons in such a way so that students can have more success

experiences in my class.

5. I capitalize on what my students can do, and not so much on what they

cannot do, when giving feedback on their speaking performance or written

work.

6. I promote cooperation rather than competition in my class.

7. I promote group cohesiveness by teaching students how to work optimally

using cooperative learning principles (e.g., positive interdependence and

equal participation among group members).

8. I believe that every student can achieve success and communicate my high

expectations to all of them

9. I use comprehensible language so that everyone, including the less proficient


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learners, can follow my lesson and participate fully in my class.

10. I respect individual differences and communicate this clearly to my students.

11. I use language learning materials that are relevant and interesting.

12. I design language learning tasks that linguistically, cognitively and affectively

engaging.

13. I make myself available for students to see me to discuss their learning

progress or difficulty.

14. I regularly highlight the values of language learning.

15. I provide sufficient modelling and scaffolding to ensure that students are

well-prepared before they perform a task on their own.

For a more extensive survey on good language motivator, please refer to

Dornyei’s 2001 book, pages 137-144.

In conclusion, this chapter has described the central role of the teacher in cultivating

student motivation in the classroom. When the teacher behaves appropriately,

explains things in clear and comprehensible language, communicates high

expectations to all students, understands and respects individual differences, students

may become more motivated to learn.


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Chapter 3 The Teaching Methodology

This chapter looks at the second T (Teaching Methodology) of the 5 Ts of motivation

and discusses how the teachers’ choice of teaching methods, and the way they plan

and implement their lessons can have a profound impact on student motivation. By

the end of the chapter, you will be able to have a deeper understanding of how your

teaching methodology can be used to engage and motivate your students.

Choice of teaching methods

Motivating teachers are knowledgeable about different kinds of teaching methods.

But more importantly, they have deep understanding about how these methods work

with different groups of learners in different learning contexts. They are not dogmatic

about certain kinds of methods and do not subscribe to a single method. They believe

that there is no single best method that will work with every single student.

They tend to be eclectic, using a variety of teaching methods that reflect their deep

understanding of the learning needs of their students, their short-term and long-term

goals, the availability of resources in the classroom and the socio-cultural contexts in

which learning takes place. They know that a communicatively oriented language

teaching approach for example may not be the most productive method to engage

students who study English in a remote area where the opportunity to use the

language for oral communication is minimal or even non-existent. Similarly, when

teaching young learners, a grammar-based teaching method may not be the most

engaging and goes counter to the very nature of children who enjoy a more

communicatively oriented lesson such as Asher’s Total Physical Response method

(Asher, 1977), where learners move about in response to oral instructions given by

their teacher or peers. In short, effective and motivating teachers are deeply learner-

and learning-oriented in their teaching. They teach with the primary objective of

helping their learners learn optimally in the classroom.


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Reflective Break

How would you describe your teaching method?

To what extent do you think your teaching method has helped you achieve

your teaching objectives?

How do you know that your students enjoy the way you teach them?

Instructional skills

Teaching is more than just making decisions about which specific teaching methods to

adopt. It is a complex process that involves making decisions about what we want to

teach, how we want to teach it, and how we know that we have been successful in

teaching it. What distinguishes effective from ineffective teachers often lies in their

skills in teaching their daily lessons. Effective teachers are very skilful in:

formulating the objectives of the lesson. Effective teachers think through the

objective carefully, making sure that the objective relates to the overall plan of

the language programme and is formulated in ways that are achievable and

measurable;

choosing and organizing learning activities. Effective teachers carefully select

and structure learning activities that support the attainment of the lesson

objectives in ways that engage students’ interest and attention and stimulate

their motivation;

evaluating how well the lesson went. Effective teachers use a variety of

instruments, both formal and informal, to find out how much or how little

students have learned from the lesson.

The following questions, adapted from Farrell (2006, pp. 24-25) can be used as a broad

guideline to develop a successful language lesson.

Planning the lesson

1. What do you want your students to learn in this lesson? What is your main

objective?

2. What materials and activities will you use to achieve this objective? Are


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they pitched at the right levels according to students’ experience and

skills?

3. Will you be using group activities? If so, how will you group your students?

4. How will you check your students’ levels of understanding?

5. How will you ensure that everyone learns optimally in accordance with

their different ability levels?

Delivering the lesson

1. Do you state the objective of the lesson clearly at the beginning of the

lesson?

2. Is there a good balance in the pace of the activities, between fast moving

and slow?

3. Do you build in some easy activities along with harder ones?

4. Do you include fun as well as serious activities?

5. Do you signal clearly when moving from one activity to another?

6. Do you use a variety of activities to keep students’ interest levels high?

7. Do you close your lesson by summarizing the key takeaways of the lesson?

Evaluating the lesson

1. Do you think the lesson objective was successfully achieved? Do you have

any evidence for this?

2. Did the lesson deviate from the original plan? What caused this to

happen?

3. Which tasks or activities worked well? Which ones didn’t well and why?

4. Was everyone on task and engaged throughout the lesson?

5. What changes, if any, will you make in the future? And why?

Reflective break

How do you know whether your lesson has gone well?

What are some of the things you do that keep your students engaged


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throughout the lesson?

Keeping students’ motivation high during the lesson

We may have planned and delivered our lesson according to standard procedures

described in the section above, but this alone is usually not sufficient to keep

students’ motivation consistently high during the lesson. As we know, motivation in

the classroom ebbs and flows. In fact, in many language classes, motivation tends to

flow initially and then ebbs quite considerably as time passes. One of the reasons for

this is that learning a foreign or second language takes time, and it’s often hard to

keep students’ enthusiasm and commitment high throughout this lengthy process.

What then are some of the strategies that teachers can use to keep students

sufficiently motivated and engaged in the language learning process? Discussed below

are several strategies that teachers have reported using to keep their students interest

levels relatively high.

Choice

The first strategy has to do with giving student some choice during the lesson. Choice

is a key element of motivation. Students may feel unmotivated because they often are

not given a choice in their learning process. Everything seems to have already been

chosen for them, e.g., the teaching materials are fixed, the tasks and activities are set

in stone. While we can’t give students total freedom to choose what they want to do

in class, we can give students some choices. For example, in a speaking class, we can

let students choose a topic from a list and give them the freedom to work in pairs, in

groups of three or four.

Variety

The second strategy is to add variety in our teaching. Our teaching methods may be

intrinsically interesting, but over time, students may get bored and lose interest.

Teachers should therefore have a large repertoire of teaching methods and

consciously vary them to avoid student boredom. For example, a teacher-led


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prediction activity is a popular technique that teachers use regularly during the pre-

and while-reading phases of a reading lesson. But this is just one of the numerous

other schema-activating techniques that we have available. There are probably more

than 50 activities of this type that teachers can use.

Novelty

This strategy can enliven students’ motivation. We can introduce a few surprises in

our lesson so that the structure and flow of the lesson becomes less predictable. Too

much novelty of course can have an adverse effect and bring too much

unpredictability.

Curiosity

People are naturally curious. But we often do not provide enough room for students

to be curious in the language lesson. For example, we tend to give the rules of certain

grammar points, instead of getting students to work out the rules for themselves. The

teaching materials we use are already packed with complete, self-contained

information, leaving no room for students to speculate, predict, hypothesize, or use

their imagination.

Reflective Break

Reflect on a lesson you just taught. If you were to teach the lesson again in

the future, how would you make it more engaging and motivating by

introducing the elements of choice and variety?

If you haven’t taught your own class yet, think about how your own

teachers have made their lessons motivating and engaging for you?

Select a reading passage you have used before. Please adapt it so as to

induce student curiosity in the contents of the text?

In summary, this chapter has discussed how teachers can structure and organize their

lessons using varied teaching methodology that is sensitive to the learning needs of

the students. It has also offered practical ideas of how they can keep students’


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motivation high during the lesson by introducing more choice and variety and building

in novelty and curiosity elements in their lessons.


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Chapter 4 The Text

This chapter is about the text (or teaching materials), which represents the third T of

the 5 Ts of motivation. The chapter first looks at the role of text or teaching materials

in language learning and then explores ways of how we can make our teaching

materials more interesting, engaging and motivating.

Roles of the text or teaching materials

The text or teaching materials (print and electronic; oral and written) include course

books and their accompanying resource materials (e.g., CD, DVD, webpage), teacher-

developed materials or any other supplementary materials that we use in the

language classroom. Instructional materials play an important role in the language

classroom. It is hard to imagine a language class without instructional materials

because many of the tasks and activities of a language lesson are often organized

around course books or other instructional materials.

What are the roles of instructional materials in language learning? First, instructional

materials can serve as a major source of language input for language learners. This is

particular true for those who learn English in places with limited resources . Second,

instructional materials often serve as major references of the structure and syllabus of

a language programme (Richards, 2001). This is because teachers often don’t have

access to the official curriculum document and often use the available instructional

materials (usually the prescribed course books) as their working curriculum. Third,

instructional materials can serve as a major source of language practice (e.g.,

grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and listening and speaking skills) both inside and

outside the classroom.

Given the important roles of instructional materials in the language learning process, it

is essential that the materials we use are interesting and motivating. Not much

learning can occur if the materials are linguistically, cognitively and affectively

unappealing to the learners.


26

Choosing appropriate materials: linguistic and cognitive factors

Instructional materials that enable students to process the information effectively and

efficiently are more likely to be more motivating. Such materials normally are both

considerate and compatible (Grabe, 2009). A considerate text is one that contains

language and text features that are within the processing capability of the students.

The text does not contain too many words or expressions that are beyond the reach of

the students, the grammatical structures are not too complicated, and the contents

are organized in a manner that facilitates learners’ comprehension. A compatible text

is one that is well aligned with the learner’s background knowledge and cognitive

maturity. A reading passage that is cognitively demanding is likely to be hard to

comprehend. From a motivational point of view, a text of this nature can seriously

undermine learners’ self efficacy, which in turn negatively impacts their confidence

level.

Using these two criteria, we can use the following grid to determine the suitability of

the text for classroom use:

Demanding Language

Demanding

Contents

1 2 Undemanding

Contents 3 4

Undemanding Language

1. Demanding in terms of language and contents

2. Demanding in terms of language, but not contents

3. Demanding in terms of contents, but not language

4. Undemanding in terms of language and contents

Numbers 1 is unsuitable unless for very high proficiency learners. Experienced

teachers would either choose number 2 or 3 depending on the profile of their

students and their level of language skills and cognitive sophistication. On the surface,


27

number 4 may seem unsuitable for language learning. But those of us who have

worked with lower proficiency learners in low-input environments know too well that

this is exactly the kind of materials that may get students excited about language

learning. Extensive reading experts (Day and Bamford, 1998; Jacobs and Farrell, 2012)

have suggested that one of the reasons L2 learners don’t read or listen very much,

thus depriving themselves of the opportunity to acquire the language via

comprehensible input, is because they can’t find the materials that are pitched at or

below their level. Materials that are undemanding in terms of content and language

can provide the springboard for these students to enjoy reading and experience a lot

of language comprehension. When this happens, students will have the confidence

and the motivation to do more independent reading and listening in their free time

outside of class, increasing the possibility of them getting maximum exposure to

language input.

What we need to do is to select ‘just right’ materials for students who want to get

started on the exciting and joyful journey of extensive reading/listening. Just right

materials typically allow students to understand more than 95% of the contents of the

listening/ reading materials, enable them to listen and read with more than 95% of

comprehension without having to consult a dictionary, and to listen and read fairly

fluently without having to stop frequently.

Choosing appropriate materials: affective factors

Affective factors (i.e., factors that influence one’s feelings and emotions) are another

important thing to consider when choosing materials. Linguistically readable materials

do not guarantee that students will read them. Even if they do, they probably would

not give sufficient time and mental energy to go deeper into the materials. If we want

our students to learn more from the materials, the materials should be interesting and

relevant; they should be affectively engaging. ELT materials development experts

such as Tomlinson and Masuhara (2004) contend that “Materials should engage the

emotions of the learner. Laughter, joy, excitement, sorrow and anger can promote

learning; neutrality cannot” (p. 6). This type of materials allows learners to process the


28

contents and language of the materials more deeply, resulting in the kind of learning

that is durable and long lasting.

Krashen (2011) also speaks of the type of materials that promotes optimal language

acquisition. According to him, input materials should be more than just interesting;

they should be compelling. When we read a compelling novel, for example, we get so

absorbed by the events in the story that we can’t put it down until we get to the very

end. Experience and observations show that language learners tend to read more and

enjoy more from what they read when they find compelling reading materials. They

soon begin to read in quantity and as a result get the most language learning benefits

from being exposed to a large amount of comprehensible language.

Unfortunately, instructional materials (especially commercial course books written for

the general market) can be bland and affectively sterile. Learners often find the

contents of the materials far removed from their personal experience and are

therefore unable to make affectively meaningful connections. What can we do to

make our materials more affectively stimulating? The first step would be to evaluate

our materials to find out if they are affectively engaging. We can use the following

guides to gauge the affective dimension of instructional materials that we use with

our students.

Are the materials emotionally stimulating and engaging?

Do the materials help the learners make personally meaningful connections

with their own lives?

Do the materials help the learners make connections with the lives of the

people in their surrounding?

Do the materials provide positive learning experiences and promote students’

self-esteem and self-confidence?

Do the materials provide ample opportunity for students to learn what they

really need or want to learn?

Do the materials help learners see the connections between what they learn in

class with what they need in the real world?


29

The next step involves making changes to the materials in some ways or in some

cases, replacing the materials with new ones so that the materials become more

interesting and relevant in ways that meet students’ linguistic, cognitive and affective

needs. Described below are some common techniques for adapting materials that can

increase the motivation level of the materials.

Techniques Examples

Adding/expanding Teachers may add additional texts (e.g., video materials)

or activities that are more engaging (e.g., asking students

to post their personal response to the text in the class

blog)

Deleting/reducing Teachers may delete or reduce some texts and/or

activities

Reorganizing Teachers may reorder different parts of the text and

activities (e.g., putting the most exciting part at the

beginning)

Modifying Teachers may make some changes (e.g., changing the

setting or characters so that students can make

connections)

Replacing Teachers may replace the text and activities completely

with new ones. They can also change the genre of the

text, e.g., replacing a prose text with a dialogue or poem,

a traditional printed text with a multimodal text. Another

idea is that teachers can invite the students to find

materials on the internet that they find interesting and

engaging.

Reflective break

In your experience, which of the above techniques for adapting materials

is the most useful in making your instructional materials more engaging


30

and motivating?

What other techniques have used to make your teaching materials more

stimulating?

To conclude, this chapter has discussed the roles of teaching materials and what

teachers can do to make these materials more comprehensible and interesting. By

making teaching materials linguistically and cognitively more appropriate and

affectively more stimulating, teachers can expect students to be more engaged and

motivated to learn from the materials. One way of making teaching materials more

relevant involves changing the materials in some ways. Teachers can add, modify or

replace parts of the text, change or reduce the activities, or even replace them with

new ones.


31

Chapter 5 The Task

Tasks are a central element in the language classroom. It is hard to imagine a language

classroom in which all that the students have to do is to listen to the teacher talking or

explaining some language points non-stop for the whole lesson. This chapter looks at

the task, which represents the fourth T of the 5 Ts of motivation. It examines language

learning tasks in relation to the expectancy-value theory of motivation. This theory

says that students can become more motivated when they experience success in

completing classroom tasks. Repeated failure on the other hand lowers students’

motivation. The next part of the chapter offers practical ways to make our tasks more

engaging and motivating.

Expectancy of success

When tasks are too hard and students’ expectancy of success is slim or sometimes

close to zero, they will not even attempt to do the tasks no matter how useful or

interesting they may be. We therefore need to be mindful that one important feature

of a good task is that it should be designed in such a way that it allows students to

experience success. The more success the students experience, the more likely they

will be motivated to do the tasks.

One motivation theory that is particularly useful from a teacher’s perspective when

designing language tasks is the expectancy-value theory (Day and Bamford, 1998;

Feather, 1982). As the name suggests, student motivation is seen as having two

components: expectations and value. Students will strive to do the task if they know

that they have a good chance of successfully completing the task, and will avoid a task

that they feel they cannot accomplish successfully. Expectancy of success alone

however is not sufficient; students must see value in what they are doing. They will

undertake tasks that they value and avoid those with little or no value. Thus, student

motivation to accomplish a task becomes higher if and only if the task raises students’

expectancy of success and is seen as something valuable in their language learning

process and/or in their lives.


32

The following questions can be used to help us assess our tasks in relation to the

expectancy-value theory of motivation:

Do you provide clear rubrics for accomplishing the tasks successfully?

Do you model success in accomplishing the task to the students?

Do you provide sufficient assistance before, during and after the task?

Do you allow students to seek assistance from their equal or more capable

peers before, during and after the task?

Do students understand the goals of the task?

Do you explain clearly the linguistic and communicative value of the task (e.g.,

more accurate grammar, more sophisticated presentation skills)

Do you explain the socio-cultural and other instrumental value of the task (e.g.,

students will be able to use English with people from other cultural groups

comfortably without committing social faux pas)

Reflective Break

Reflect on a task that you have used before with your students. To what

extent did the task reflect the expectancy-value theory of motivation?

What do you normally do to help your students experience more success

in language learning?

Increasing the interest level of tasks

Tasks can be of value to students’ learning, but unless they are interesting and

enjoyable, students will not put in sufficient effort to complete the tasks, or worse,

they will simply put the tasks aside and not be bothered doing them. In other words, if

the tasks are perceived to be boring, (and we know that many of the school prescribed

tasks and activities are not the most exciting in the world), students will simply switch

off. Listed below are some features of interesting and enjoyable tasks. When the tasks

that we design for classroom use are both interesting and enjoyable, and well-aligned

with the expectancy-value theory of motivation, there is more than a fair chance that


33

our tasks will be both useful (i.e., they have direct impact on language learning) and

motivating (i.e., they create the necessary conditions for students to be cognitively

and affectively engaged). Here are eight ideas to make our tasks more motivating for

our students.

Optimal challenge

Tasks can be too easy or too challenging from a linguistic point of view, which we

know students will not find exciting. Tasks should be designed in such a way that they

provide an optimal challenge, i.e., they stretch students’ linguistic knowledge to a new

level of sophistication. Tasks should also provide optimal challenge from a cognitive

point of view. This is particularly important when we work with older learners of

English. Borg (2006) for example reported that we tend to use tasks that are

cognitively undemanding with cognitively mature learners of English. This of course

can undermine student motivation.

Providing choice

What is interesting for the teachers may not be so for students. One way is simply to

find the kinds of tasks that are interesting for the students. Teachers can design a

simple questionnaire at the beginning of the term to get an idea about what the

students find interesting to do. To meet the different needs of the students, it is

possible for the teacher to give students choices in terms of the kinds of tasks they

want to do during lessons. For example, in a post-reading task, students can choose to

summarize the contents of the reading passage by drawing a mind map or picture,

writing a poem, or doing a role-play that captures the gist of the passage.

Optimal learner involvement

Tasks that engage the affective, cognitive and social dimensions of learning are more

likely to be motivating. When the task makes students feel appreciated and

comfortable during task work and when the task allows them to express their

thoughts and opinions in a cohesive and supportive group environment using

whatever language they have available without feeling intimidated, they will learn

most from the task.


34

Healthy competition

Adding an element of competition in the learning tasks can be very motivating as

people are naturally competitive. We don’t however want to create unhealthy

competition in which some students win and others lose. Those who lose may feel

resentful, and if they lose frequently as is the case with those with lower ability levels

in our class, they will soon lose interest in learning. One simple way to solve this

problem is to create a healthy competition where everyone wins something. Instead

of one person or one group being the sole winner, we can create as many winners as

there are students or groups in our class. If we have 5 groups competing for a

problem-solving language task, we can have the award prizes to the most creative

group (i.e., the group thinks out of the box to come up with a solution), the fastest

group (i.e., the group finishes the first), the most resourceful group (i.e., the group

makes use of rich online resources to solve the problem), the most artistic group (i.e.,

the group uses artistic means to present their solution), and the most cooperative

group (i.e., every group member contributes equally).

Clear and tangible outcomes

We need to create tasks that have a clear and tangible outcome. For example,

students may be asked to create a brochure that features the strengths and

achievements of their school and have this final product posted in the school website.

Once the students understand what is expected of them in terms of the task outcome,

they will become more engaged and do the utmost to produce the final product.

Generous use of humour

Humour is sadly often missing in our language classes. Humour can make our lesson

more lively, interesting and invigorating. Tasks that encourage students to build

humour into their finished product can be more motivating. For example, when giving

a presentation on a well-respected political leader, students can also be asked to

include some humorous elements that capture the more humane side of the leader

(e.g., the person enjoyed playing computer games more than attending English

lessons!!).


35

Curiosity

Certain kinds of tasks tend to arouse students’ curiosity and provide a perfect

condition for students to use their newly learned language skills to satisfy their

curiosity. A whodunit type of task, where students are given some facts and clues

surrounding a crime and then asked to identify the main culprit can be intrinsically

motivating.

Personal connection

Tasks which allow students to make personal connections to the material are more

likely to be engaging and result in students willingly spending more time and mental

energy to complete the task.

Reflective Break

Which of the above strategies are more likely to be interesting for

children, teenagers and older learners of English?

Have you used other strategies not listed above but worked well with

your students? Please explain and provide an example or two.

In conclusion, this chapter has discussed how we can make tasks more motivating by

considering the expectancy-value theory of motivation. When students can see the

value of a task and can expect a reasonable degree of success in completing the task,

they tend to be more willing to put in the required effort to do the task. This chapter

has also presented practical ideas of how we can make our tasks more cognitively and

affectively stimulating. Tasks that have clear and tangible outcomes, enable students

to make personal and meaningful connections, engage them cognitively and

affectively are more likely to increase student motivation.


36

Chapter 6 The Test

In many parts of the world, schools tend to give too much attention to testing and

examinations. Our teaching is often overshadowed or even dictated by tests and

examinations. We teach in order to prepare students for the tests and examinations.

In some places, the situation has become so bad that people actually talk about a

culture of learning where testing has become the dominant mode of learning in the

classroom. Not surprisingly, such an examination-oriented classroom becomes a

source of frustration, fear of failure, feeling of anxiety, and a fertile breeding ground

for the development of an excessive spirit of competition (instead of healthy

competition and cooperation) and other negative feelings and attitudes towards

learning. Simply put, tests can be a source of low student motivation.

This chapter looks at how the last T of motivation, the test, can be made less

intimidating and more motivating for our students. It first discusses a group of

learning- and learner-friendly assessment procedures known as alternative

assessment and how they can increase student motivation. It then looks at key

features of alternative assessment procedures (e.g., project work and portfolios) and

links these to student motivation. Finally it looks at some of the potential problems of

using these assessment procedures.

Alternative assessment

There are two ways we can assess student learning: with tests and without tests

(Genesee and Upshur, 1996). The former is known as traditional tests while the latter

are often referred to as alternative or authentic assessment. Both serve useful

pedagogical purposes, but as was mentioned above, traditional tests can negatively

affect student motivation with their focus on the product rather than process of

learning. Alternative assessment on the other hand is considered more learner-

friendly and can be more motivating because the goal is not only to test but also to

teach students (Jacobs and Farrell, 2003; McTighe and O'Connor, 2005).

Alternative assessment instruments such as project work and portfolios can enhance

student motivation because they reflect closely what we teach and how we teach in


37

class both in terms of contents and also assessment formats. In this way, students can

see clearly between what they have learned and how they are assessed. In addition,

alternative assessment instruments mirror more closely how language is used in real

life; thus, they are more motivating. Students can see the real value of these

assessment procedures and are more likely to work hard to perform well.

Furthermore, these procedures are administered on an on-going basis, rather than

concentrated in a single day or week during at the end of the term of the language

programme. In this way, the assessment results provide cumulative, and thus more

credible, information about students’ true language abilities. Lastly, and more

importantly, these assessments take examination fear and anxiety away, and help

students become intrinsically motivated as they learn how to develop their language

skills in a stress-free classroom environment.

Reflective break

Please add one or two additional benefits of alternative assessment

that can increase student motivation.

There are many alternative or authentic assessment instruments that language

teachers can use to assess and assist student learning. I describe three procedures

that are quite popular with second language teachers: dialogue journals, portfolio and

project work.

Dialogue journals

These are written conversations between students and teachers (and perhaps also

between students), which can provide an opportunity for students to share their

learning experiences with their teachers. Students can write about the difficulties they

face when they try to put their thoughts in speech or writing, what strategies they use

to overcome these difficulties, what aspects of a lesson they enjoyed most, and what

aspects of the lesson they struggled with. The teacher can provide feedback, guidance

and advice to the students on an on-going basis, and also use the information from

the journals to develop more appropriate materials and methods. Dialogue journals

can be done weekly or bi-monthly, depending on time availability.


38

Portfolios

These are purposeful collections of students’ work that document their progress over

a period of time. For example, in a writing class, students keep writing samples they

have done over a term. They then choose pieces of their writing samples that show

clear progression from the beginning, middle and end of the term. For each stage of

their progress, they write a reflection highlighting important milestones in their

writing journey. Portfolios provide an excellent opportunity for students to be more

reflective in their learning and are an excellent tool to help them become more

autonomous in their learning.

Project work

In second language learning, project work is an extensive task that has both process

and product orientations, and one that provides students with an opportunity to use a

variety of language skills they have learned to complete the project. Producing a short

video clip featuring unique characteristics of students’ hometowns is an example of

project work. Working in small groups, students first do some research on the internet

to find relevant information about their hometowns, they then discuss what they

found, decide which characteristics they want to feature in the clip, write a storyboard

and then start filming. The teacher provides on-going support by helping students with

both language and technical aspects of the project. Project work of this type captures

students’ interest and is more motivating than the traditional type of assessment

which is normally more product-oriented.

Reflective break

In what ways are dialogue journals, portfolios and project work can

increase your students’ motivation?

What sort of teacher support is needed to help students complete a

language project meaningfully and successfully?


39

Problems with alternative assessment

The rather rosy picture I painted above about the benefits of alternative assessments

over traditional tests may give the impression that all is well with these more

authentic forms of assessments. Just like with any other new initiatives in education,

there are people who get excited and whole-heartedly embrace the new ideas; but

there are others who are not completely convinced and tend to take a cautious stand.

The table below lists both the potential problems and their possible solutions. What is

important to remember is that alternative and traditional assessments can be used

hand in hand. Traditional tests could still be used in high-stakes examinations (e.g.,

primary or secondary school leaving examinations), while alternative assessments

could be the predominant modes of assessment to support classroom language

learning and to motivate students.

Potential Problems Possible solutions

1 Alternative assessment

procedures are time-

consuming

The preparation and administration may

be time consuming initially, but as we

become more familiar with the

procedures and incorporate these in our

normal, regular teaching, we can do this

faster and more efficiently.

2 They are less reliable in terms

of consistency in scoring

Consistency in scoring is just one type of

reliability, which is of key concern in

traditional tests. Information obtained

from alternative assessments are

dependable and trustworthy because it is

not based solely on one test

administration, but are derived from more

frequent observations obtained from

multiple sources (e.g., portfolios, projects,

weekly journals).


40

3 They do not yield the kind of

numerical data that stake-

holders often demand

This is true to the extent that stakeholders

are more used to receiving and reporting

numerical data from traditional test

results. However, once stakeholders

understand the educational benefits of

alternative assessments, they will be more

open to the more qualitative descriptions

of students’ performance in school.

4 The marking is too subjective One way to overcome this problem is to

use marking rubrics that are carefully

calibrated. Selective double marking can

also be used to reduce the amount of

subjectivity when awarding final grades.

5 Teachers do not have the

necessary skills to design

alternative assessments

In-service training can be developed to

help teachers understand the rationales

for and procedures of alternative

assessments. What is more important is a

change in their mind set so that they are

more willing to embrace these newer

forms of assessments.

Reflective Break

Keeping the pluses and minuses of alternative assessment in mind, and

noting the constraints in your teaching contexts, do you think it is worth

trying out some alternative assessment procedures? Please explain your

answer.

In summary, this chapter has argued that alternative assessment can be a viable

option for assessing our students. It is more motivating because its goal is both to test


41

and teach students. In other words, it focuses both on the product and process of

learning. In addition, as alternative assessment procedures mirror more closely how

language is used outside the classroom, students can see more clearly the link

between what they learn and what they are tested on.


42

Chapter 7 Conclusion

We began this book by defining what motivation is and why it is important in L2

learning. We then discussed five classroom-specific factors, the Teacher, the Teaching

Methodology, the Text, the Task and the Test (referred to as the 5 Ts of motivation),

which can influence student motivation. The key message of the book is that these

are factors that we can to some extent control and change to improve the quality of

our teaching. When we take these factors into considerations when we plan and

deliver our lessons, we can expect our students to be more engaged and motivated in

their learning.

How can we implement the ideas presented in this book? I offer below some practical

suggestions.

1. First, find out whether you are a motivating teacher. You can do this by filling in

the short questionnaire at the end of Chapter 2. Then ask your students to fill in

the same questionnaire (but you need to first change the word ‘I’ in the

statements to ‘My teacher’) to find out if your perception matches your students’.

If there is a discrepancy, you could invite some students for a focus group

discussion to find out the sources of the discrepancy. Even if there is a good match

between your perception and your students’, it’s still worth having a focus group

discussion so that you can learn what else you need to do to further motivate your

students.

2. Do a self-observation by video-taping your own lesson. Watch the video and

critically reflect upon your lesson. Use the following questions to help you reflect

on your lesson:

Are the students engaged throughout the lesson? What are some of the possible

causes of this?

Are there occasions when the students look bored or uninterested in the lesson?

What are some of the possible causes of this?

Do I teach enthusiastically throughout the lesson? Do my students respond

enthusiastically too?


43

Do I use a variety of teaching methods? Do they have positive effects on my

students?

Do I use positive and affirming language throughout the lesson?

3. Invite a more experienced teacher who is known to be an excellent L2 motivator to

observe your class. Then ask him/her to give you an honest feedback on your skills

in motivating your students.

4. Observe a colleague who is known to be a highly motivating teacher and find out

the strategies he/she uses to keep student motivation and engagement levels high

throughout the lesson.

5. Keep a teaching journal and write about your successful and unsuccessful

experiences in motivating your students. Reflect on these experiences and link

them to the five factors (the Teacher, the Teaching Methodology, the Text, the

Task and the Test) discussed in the book.

6. Plan and carry out an action research project on student motivation. The following

can be used a rough guideline for your action research:

Identify a problem: Why do some of my students seem to be unmotivated in

learning English?

Hypothesize a possible cause: Are the reading texts and tasks I use not appealing

to them? Are there any other possible causes?

Collect data: Use a range of texts and tasks in your next three lessons and collect

data by interviewing some of these students right after each lesson.

Analyze the data: Transcribe the interview data and find out the kinds of text and

task that seem to be more appealing for these students.

Act on the findings by making some changes in the way you select texts and tasks

in your next lessons.

Finally, I hope that you will continue to reflect on your own teaching practices in order

to find ways to become more effective L2 teachers. I’d like to end this book by

reminding us of the quote by DÖrnyei (2001, p. 26) in Chapter 1 (reproduced below):


44

‘... the best motivational intervention is simply to improve the quality of our teaching’

This quote echoes what Otto Jesperson (1904, p. 9) said at the turn of the 20th

century:

‘Teach in the right way, then there will be life and love in it all...’


45

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Acknowledgements: I am grateful to Flora D Floris, George M Jacobs and William

Littlewood for their most constructive and insightful comments on the earlier draft of

this booklet.

Motivation in the language classroom

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