Reflection Paper #2

Royal University of Phnom Penh

Institute of Foreign Languages
Department of English

MA in TESOL

TESOL 2003: Teaching Methodology

Reflection paper #2: How I Can Motivate My Students

Instructor: Dr. Keuk Chan Narith

Student: Mr. Ly Seyha

Motivation is an inner drive that pushes to achieve something. It is also one of the

most crucial aspects in teaching and learning. Honestly speaking, motivation was not my

problem while I was a student since I always felt motivated to learn from the inner feeling.

However, not until started my career as a teacher does it concern me a lot. Nowadays, I am

still finding the ways to make students feel motivated in learning English. In my teaching

class, there are approximately almost half of the students who do not feel motivated to learn. I

can say so because I have observed the student’s attitude and their daily activities towards

learning. They do not to pay full attention to the lesson, and they seem just carelessly talk and

play with each other in the class. In order to deal those concerns, I come up with several

methods.

Nothing motivates students than the intrinsic one. Some students come to school with

motivation, but some are not. Since the first day of the class, I always ask the students about

the expectations toward the teacher and about themselves as well. By doing so, the students

and teacher know each other well, and what we want to get from each other. For me as a

teacher, I can have chance to provide what they need so that they would not feel bored in

learning. More than that, extrinsic one also plays a vital role. In this regard, I also keep

students motivated in learning by giving some incentive and encouragement. Usually, I give

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them verbal praises when they do the great jobs. Moreover, they always get the certificates

when they perform well in the class.

I have tried to make way to alter my traditional English class where students have to

come for exclusively learning to the fun and learning one. Students are motivated when they

enjoy learning and having fun. Therefore, I always integrate the learning activities with the

fun games. It is not only that, but I also observe the students’ preferences. For example, I

know that most of my students like listening to songs. Hence, in order to meet what they like

and to get them learn something from the lesson, I play the music and have various activities

with it such as completing the song lyrics or putting the song lyrics in the correct order.

Participating in those activities, the students really enjoy in learning.

The last method that I use to trigger students to learn is to let students learn by

themselves. I always reduce the teacher-control activities in my class. In this sense, I let them

have some control over how they do activities. It is more motivating when they are given to

have some choices. For example, when there have the group presentations or the group

projects, I always let them choose their own topic to meet their own interests. As a result, it

really encourages them to work harder and produce more collaborative work.

In conclusion, building students’ motivation is not an easy task, yet as an instructor I

have to do my best to keep motivated in order that they will learn to most from my English

class.