SLL assignment_a review of research on the role of motivation in second language learning
Motivation in the language classroom
Transcript of 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.
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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.
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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,
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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
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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?
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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
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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!!).
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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.
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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
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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.
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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?
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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).
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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
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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.
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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?
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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):
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‘... 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...’
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References
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Brophy , J. (1998). Motivating students to learn. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Brown, J.D. (2012). EIL curriculum development. In L. Alsagoff, S.L. McKay, G. Hu, W.R.
Renandya (eds), Principles and practices for teaching English as an international
language (pp 147-167). New York: Routledge.
Covington, M. (1998). The will to learn: A guide for motivating young people.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Day, R. R., & Bamford, J. (1998). Extensive reading in the second language classroom.
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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.