云南省禄劝第一中学 陈坤伟
Introduction
English is a most important language and a tool if communication in today’s world. As a tool of communication, English teaching should make students efficiently communicate and for this reason, the teachers must guide students to acquire the knowledge on hearing, speaking, reading, writing. But how to guide students to succeed and how many factors will influence their success. This is what all the teachers of English should think about. Motivation, in my opinion, is one of the most important factors that affect students’ success. Therefore, who can motivate students to learn English, he will succeed in teaching English. But the key problem is how to make students do this. The following passage shows us the way ot motivate students to learn English both outside the classroom. It will help us to find a way to success in learning English.
Key Words: students, motivation, ways to learn English in and outside the classroom
The motivation of the students is one of the most important factors, which influence their success or failure in language learning, for it is “some kind of internal drive that encourages students to pursue a course of action”(Harmer 1983). If the students perceive a goal they wish to achieve , or the necessary to reach the goal. Goals may be different. Long-term goals might have something to go with what they want to be or what they want to do in the future. Short-term goals might refer to doing in the future. Short-term goals might refer to the temporary language, such as to finish the curriculum, or pass the entrance-examination. “At this point, motivation can be separated into two types, extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation.”(Harmer 1983)
I. Making students have extrinsic motivation
Extrinsic motivation has relation to the factors outside the classroom, such as their parents’ attitude to the language, the necessity of the mastery of the foreign language, and the attractions of the language itself. For instance, a student is motivated to learn English when he finds it necessary to learn the language well in order to get more information than before or to get a better job in the future. All these factors have an effect on extrinsic motivation and this kind of motivation can work effectively in learning. This is because many of the factors have something to do with the student’s attitude to the foreign language. A student’s attitude is influenced not only by teachers’ behaviors but also by the things around him. The helpful environment, especially, outside the classroom, has been paid no attention by some English teachers. Language teachers, I think, should try to create this kind of environment to stimulate the students little by little
Luckily, the current policy in China makes it possible to offer the students more opportunities to communicate with foreigners or to work in joint stock companies. The present situation is helpful for the students to have more idea of the English –speaking countries, such as their history, literature, scenery, sports and so on, so as to change the students’ attitude to the foreign language. It is worthwhile for the teachers to do the following things:
1. To give the students lectures on the culture of Great Britain, the United States and some other English –speaking countries
2. To set up a foreign language library in which books and magazines are for the students to read.
3. To have English parties regularly. It will be better if some foreigners are present at the parties.
4. To have free talks with the students about the necessity of learning the foreign language.
II. Making students have intrinsic motivation
The other kind of motivation is intrinsic motivation, which plays by far the larger part in the success of most of students as language learners. Many students bring no extrinsic motivation at all in the classroom. They have no desire to integrate themselves into the culture of the English language community. They do not know how important it is to learn English well, either. They learn English only because English is one of the curriculums at school and their parents want them to do it . For them what happens in the class will be of vital importance on determining their attitude to the target language. IN other words, students’ success in the language learning depends on how they are taught, and on what experience they have in learning the English language.
Children have some disadvantages as well. Their span of attention or concentration is considerably less than that of adults. They are easy to be affected by the comments from the teacher. Therefore, teachers should take the good advantages and try to prevent the disadvantages from affecting the learning. They should like to give some concrete suggestions as to how to motivate middle school learners of English. These suggestions are based on my own experience of teaching Senior I students in Luquan No1. Middle School.
1.Giving the students a meaningful introduction and the background related to the objectives of the lesson. This will help the students to be ready both linguistically and psychologically. For example, when THE EARTHQUAKE, lesson 26 in Senior I is taught, the teacher can offer some information about the earthquake which happened in Tangshan in 1976 by asking the question?
a. Have you heard of the earthquake that happened in Tangshan many years ago?
b. Do you know how many people died in the earthquake?
The teacher should try to elicit ht answers from the students as far as possible and only give the information if no students can do so. In this process to describe the earthquake. In this way the new words, expression and structures are likely to be remembered more easily, and the students will get to participate in the activities in the next stage.
2.Creating effective information gaps
Creating effective information gaps between the teacher and his students, between one students and his partner. For instance, before the students read the materials in the same lesson, the teacher can create the gaps between the students and the teacher with some questions.
a. Do you know why the earthquakes happen?
Then write some key words on the blackboard and ask them to listen to the tape or read the passage to find out the answers. These gaps will encourage the students to be active in the following activities to discover what they want to know. In closing this gap the students have to use the language, listening, speaking. reading or writing. Meanwhile, whey will get the valuable experience of succeeding in communication with others in the language, not the experience of being forced to learn the language. These feelings are good for the students’ motivation.
3. Having various activities in the teaching process
The present teaching in China in the class us mainly teacher-centered.
Teachers do most of the talking and always shave the whole class under their strict control by lecturing, questioning, correcting students and often supplying correct answers to the exercises. IN such classrooms, the teacher is obviously the most authoritative person. Students always act according to what the teacher wants them to accomplish and not what they themselves want to accomplish.
Such kind of teachers’ role has, in fact, encouraged students to depend too much on teachers without thinking independently. So it appears that sometimes, even if students have understood the text they are reading, they do not have the courage to speak out when called upon, for fear that they may not be right. As a result, the long-term practice of teacher-centeredness in education has actually lessened the opportunities for students to analyze and judge things for themselves, and has possibly encouraged their laziness in thinking. Giving up their natural instincts for active thinking, they may spend most of time copying form the blackboard, following teacher-talk and rote memorization. Too much of this will harm students’ initiatives and reduce their enthusiasm in study. Finally, the teacher’s authoritative classroom behavior will always keep the learners in the state of ignorance, creating among learners a feeling of inferiority that may possibly prevent them from relating trustingly with teachers. So we should have various activities. First, it will keep the attention of the students. The teacher-oriented class is changed into a student-oriented class, in which the students will be given more chances to practice the language. Second, the various activities, such as reading, listening and talking, will help them to improve their receptive and productive skills and use the language in the real situation. Finally, the students will play the parts of organizers, actors or audience instead of the examination in front of the teacher. They will not be nervous any more. On the whole, various activities will not only make the students interested in the lesson but also help them improve the skills of using the language.
4.Giving the challenge of the right level to the students
Many experiments has turned out that both complete failure and complete success may demotivate the students. It is important for the teacher to set the goals and tasks a little beyond the students’ current competence, so that most of the students can be successful. Their estimation of the value of the ask to them and the chances of success are clearly vital components of the motivation. So the teacher should increase the frequency of he feedback and adjust he level of difficulty and the contents so as to make the majority of the students succeed in the language learning.
5.Giving the right comments on errors or mistakes made by the students
Teachers’ attitudes play a big role in students’ successful learning.
Students are liable to make mistakes in their learning because their hypotheses about the new language are wrong or incomplete. Therefore, errors are not to be regarded as signs of failure, but as evidence that the student is working his way towards the correct rules. The teacher should point out the mistakes at the right time and help them .On the other hand, the students want to get comments from the teacher affirmative or negative in heir learning. And some of them value the comments very much. A good teacher will help students to discover the errors by themselves in a motivating activity.
III. Conclusion
In a short, motivation plays an important part in second language learning. Students might be helped to learn more successfully through building up their motivation. On one hand, the teacher should try to change the conditions outside the classroom and create a helpful environment to learn English by setting up a foreign language library, having English parties regularly and other things like these. In this way, students can get more knowledge of the difference culture and they might form affirmative attitude to the language, finding it necessary to learn English well, no matter what they want to be in the culture. On the other hand, the teacher should try to make his or her teaching more interesting and more effective through various activities. Only when the student finds the learning situation congenial with him can he be stimulated to learn the language. It is appropriate to the students’ level and his experience of success in learning that will keep him in high spirit n learning
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