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    106 views32 pages

    Harmer - CH 5 - Being Learners2

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    harmrt

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    of 32
    Being learners Learning a language involves. for our students, challeng' ier be a good teacher, The age factor ‘The age of the students in feat of us will bea major deciding factor ih how Wwe teach thn and wat we ask them £0 do. People of citferent ages have different needs. competence and cognitive skills: wre might expect children of primary age to acquire muuch of a foreign language through play, for example. whereas for adults we Con reasonably expect a gree use of abstract thought. ‘One of the most common heliefs about age and language learning is that young cies learn faster and more eHectively than any cther 20¢ group, Most people can think of ‘examples which appear to bear sh out — such as when children move to a different coun and appear to pick yp a new language wrth remarkabe ease, However, we shal ee tis ot atways tue of children, even in that station: indeed, the story of child language fly may be something of a myth. | tvis certainly true that children who earn a new language early havea facility with the 5 broaunciation which sometimes denied cde eamer: Lynne Cameron, fox examie, | Suggests that children reproduce the accent af thet teachers wath deadly accuracy (2002 1 11) Carol Read recounts how she hears young student of hers saying Listen, Que row. ‘Attention, plessel in sacha perfect ination of the teacher tht the thought of parody passes though ny heed! (2003: 7). However, apart from pronuncition ably it appears that elder children fthatis, chide. from about the age of 12 and through adolescence) actualy do beter at language teamers than their younger counteyparts, given the fight circumstances (Lightbown and Spada 2013: 92-98), I ot being suggested tha jung chisren cannot aqute second tanguages succes ‘A we hve ata 3814, many of them achieve significant competence. especially in bilingus!stuations. But English i Increasingly being taught at younger and younget 998 ‘and while this may have great benefits in terms of citizenship, demacracy, eternce ard ‘muliculturalsn, for example, uch early learning does not abweys appear to offer the Substantial success often claimed for it- especially when there is inettective transfer of ‘and methodology ftom primary to secondary school. The relative superiority of iver children as language leamers (especialy in formal educational settings) may have something to do with thelr inereased cognitive abiitie’ ‘Which allow them to benefit from more abstract approaches to lonewage teaching. >! Ee iso have something todo ith the way they are taught ar, quite simply, thenumber of fous tat are given to English at the afferent ages. What this suggests Is that we realy aa esr teaching be auzesl. wel have to thnk arly bout oUt te QR ca ve forte enteroie. andthe te of v Smnie getter, Soging songs ard dong ats na att work the 'be extremely enjayable for younger leamers, but unless there is sae ie to eapund on & for aparoprate ingustcerdapmene Rt may ot be enovoh eee equi sate cote: the“crkical period hypothesis (Ps, Ths the baer (st pase pall and Roberts (1859) and poplotsed by entenbetg (1967) tat there isa ‘critical period” for language learning, which ends sometime: ataund puberty. This belief _wauid seem to be supported by the observation that older children. and others ‘post-puberty, ‘generally seem to have greater dficuity in approximating native-speaker pronunciation than young childeen do although this may sometimes be ¢ deliberate (or even subconscious) retention of their cultural ang linguistic identity, But the idea that there is an optimal age for language learning becomes less tenable when, swe have seen. older children show Caneavet os acta lnjalawiies er eve eees a apertTecpon pubescent eumesin gene ae mecesrly ntti language eet Ay, ey have compensatory mechanisms such as their ability to think about what they are doing and ar Oeedes etecta| lae gene a ae ae eee Cys wig Oe ey eet In what follows, we will consider students at different ages as ff all the members of each sang sea ava eee olan Seige upemoeee r and outside the classraom. Comments here about young children, teenagers and adults can meagan ‘pe TSE cee 5,2) an pant 25.3), Younglearners Various theovsts have described the way that children develop, and the various ages and. stages they 90 through. Jean Piaget suggested that children stark at the sersorimoto ang then proceed through the intuitive stage and the cancrete-operational stage before finally reaching the formal operational stage, where abstraction becomes increasingly possible, Lea Vygotsky (see page 112) emphasised the place: in chile language development, He suggested a Zone of Prowinal Cevelonment (ZPO) where chidren are ready to learn something nevt provided such new knowledge i e lntraduced in stages ina helpful way) by 3 gomeane who Is more knowle ‘than the leamer and who. thus. can provide seaffowing). i ale Both Erik Erikson (1963) and Abraham Maslow (1966) saw develope ts ‘bound up in the ctu on seven While Reuven Feuerstein suggested that chi ‘ en Feuer tes cognitive help ofa modifier ~ much ike oo ren, tron file uBRE Tents mbt enaeg (TR eppens in ter jay and other enjoyable activite: aeag inte soycal world what they 4, Near and foueD, et or Icarning and onderstanding things. | re tanguage skits without analysing (or being able to analyse) why or | how they ube them. lke to da well and enjoy being praised. have Rely iaginatons ‘annot, sometimes, tell the difference between fact and fiction, ave short attention span: they can't concentrate on the same thing for along time wil talk (ang participate) 2 oti they are engaged. ften do not understand the adult world, but they don't say I don’t understand! They just “go along” with It {1s vey goad at imitating peoples they pick up the teacher ‘not decide what ofan by threes (ot how to dot se sellcentted ad ike paying by themes. | ‘= comfortable wth the ea that tere ae rues and routines for things. | older, children, above: | {0 taking vente othe a6 world sound them | {an tell the dtecence between fet su feton have [sometimes strong) views about w! 25k (2 tt off questions, he way) jonation, etc. hat they like and don’t like, | pane sland shteet concepts and Symbols, and can generate lve #srong sense of what i ight and fai, 7 Otipite the obvious difference between: | cutee acgatt ¢ t-wnd at 202.8. younger eames in general Mt SIGH = we can make some recommendsto% Beinglearers Ail ofthis reminds us that once a decision has been taken to teach Englsh to younger learners, there is 3 need for highly skilled and dedicated teaching, This may well be the most ficult (but rewarding) age to teach, but when teachers do itwell (and the conditions are right), there is no reason why students should not dety some ofthe research resuts we ‘mentioned above and be highly successful leamers = provided, of course, that ths success is ‘ollowed up 23 they move to a new school or grade \We can alsa-draw some conclusions about what a classroom for young children should look segunda alte ink kel we inate Gnscon onc GBRBUAD. with windows the children ean see out of, and with enough room for diferent activites to be taking place, We might expect the students to be working in groups in erent parts ofthe elasstoom, changing their activity every ten minutes o¢ 50. Because children love eiscovering things, and because they respond wellto being asked to se eid ty ray well be invaved in paste ie ative, in alng things n crowing things, m games, in physical movement or in songs. A geod primary classroom mixes ‘tay and learning in an atmosphere of cheerful and supportive harmony. And. in common wih their ives outsige the classraor, the young learnersvwill have acces to (and use) various, computer and mobile devices (see Chapter 1). Teenagers Ichas become fashionable to eal the teenage brain a ‘work in progress" (Connor 2006). This is because it seems that many of the outward sigas of physical change that adolescents undergo are mirrared inside the brain, where significant developments are also taking place. (One of the changes that occurs isthe (temporary) phenomenon of "synaptic pruning’ of the frontal cortex. Ths isthe part of the brain rere toes place. During the process of readjusting its functions and processes, the adolescent's limbic system, where emotions and ‘gut reactions’ ¢¢Cur, appears to have undue prominence. One result of this, amongst others, is that teenagers experience @ESSEERIGHD. vitich overrides the more tational pre-frantal cortex reasoning. As Simon Pearlman puts ft, Some challenging behaviour from teenagers is understandable, peshaps inevitable ened maybe even desirable’ (Peariman 2009: 34), ‘esse Woodward points cut that teenagers get bored by activities that last too long. or by slow-paced lessons, They may have some prablems with authority (especially f they hove brotiems at home). havea highly developed sense of what is right and fal. and get intated if ‘they:do not see the reason for activities (Woodward 2011). this at sounds too negative, we need to remind ourselves that adolescents also have huge reserves of (temporary) energy: they often have passionate attachments to interests Such at music and sport: and they are frequently deeply involved in and with the lives of their peer group, This passion can ab mtn Uo caves hey bellave Ivar oS Wk usta on They. ‘can be extiemely humorous = teenage classrooms are often ful of laughter = and very he king. As the thelr capacity for abstract thought and intellectual i ced. Far from being problem students c i tudents may be the most enjoyable i ns. nd they deal with csr Succestl teachers of teenagers make every efoto be fas ane VERS Rt Ait behaviour calmly and appropriately (see 9.3), Where appropiate, Hay TT thee their activities short and fast-paced. A lot will depend on ae i ae stl picepton one cmtnent ond PSRGOTO NT Tene Akey ingredient of successful teaching for thi youp Is = to one wes They may not understand the importance of studying as ut if we can relate what we are doing ~ and the topics we concentrate on ~ to their own live, {and perhaps their view of their ideal L2 self (see 5.3.1), we can hope a their genuine ‘engagement in what is happening in the classroom, For example, we will want to get then, ‘to respond to texts and situations with their own thoughts and experiences, rather than just enswering questions and doing abstract learning actwvities, Athough adolescents are (perfectly capable of abstract thought, we might want to say that in general “if what is ber ‘Taught does not have @ direct connection to their real lives ... they simply switch off" (Cha, Gomes 2011: 31}. ‘Tessa Woodward (2011 |b) suggests that teachers shauld take into @ teenage class at leas ‘two or three times as many activities as they might need, and that they should have clea: ideas about what early finishers in groupwork can do (see 10. 44). Finally. a5 Fati Greenaway suggests, involving teenagers in decisions about what they are ‘90in9 is likely to encourage their engagement (Greenaway 2013) far. as Lindsay Miller anc ‘colleagues in Hong Kong report in their article about establishing a self-access centre in # secondary school in Hong Kong, ‘the teachers from the. School .... made the decision to ‘tablish 2 SAC. but they made another more important decision, that wasto include ther {tegen inthe development ofthe SAC. Ths resultedin a cuture of "Sell-access Language Tea i0a” (SAUL) being promated very quickly within the school and a sense of ownerhinct Se SAC ameng the students (Miler, Tsang Shul-Ching and Hopling 2007, 227). Adults adult learners, ‘Aduks have many advantages as : a They can ergage with absiact hone bet + They have a whole range af lie experiences * They have expectations about the leaming patterns of learning, * Adults tend, on the whole, to be more se they are often prepared to struggle an despite by Eee «agus come into classrooms with a rich range of experiences which alow teachers to Use ‘y wide range of activities with them. i «unlike young children and teenagers. they often have a clear understanding of why they aré learning and what they want to get out oft. Many adults are more able to ststan 9 level of motivation by holding on ta @ distant goal in a way that teenagers find ificult. vporactesties which ean sometimes make learning and teaching problematic: * They can be ciitical of teaching methods. Their previous learning experiences may have predispased them to ane particular methodological style. which makes them uncomfortable with unfamiliar teaching patterns. Conversely, they may be hostile to certain teaching and learning activities which replicate the teaching they received earlier intheir educational careers. + They may have experienced fallure ar eriticism at school, which makes them anxious and under-confdent about learning a language. + Many older adults worry that their intellectual powers may be diminishing with age. They are concerned to keep their creative powers alive (williams and Burden 1997: 32). + Adults are more likely to miss lessons than younger learners for @ variety of reasons. + Even when adults are successful at leaming grammar and vocabulary - and dealing with language skis ~they ‘may stil experience significant difficulty mastering pronunciation and oral fvency (Sampson 2010}. Mark McKinnon and Sophie Acomat, discussing stuclents around the age of sixty. suggest ‘that whilst iti simply not true that ‘senior leamers cannot work as effectively as younger leamers, nevertheless we do slow down a3 we age in Our response to auditory stimuli, and. cider learners sometimes react move sowily than thelr younger counterparts. They suggest that senior leamers are not especially good at responding to instructions and, cfucialy, that in many cases speaking and listening cause therm the most stress (McKinnon and Acomat 20103). They go on to suggest that we should be more accommodating af our older learners’ preferences for different teaching techniques and approaches, rather than just pushing our own, perhaps younger. view of what effective leaming is. We need, they say, to include a variety of recycling activities to help our learners’ shart-term memory retention, and ‘use pairwork and groupwork for peer support (McKinnon and Acomat 201 0b). ‘What, then, can be done to maximise the advantages of adult learners and minimise: ae on disadvantages, especially of significantly older students? Herbert Puchta, in ae mate ave sad about eaching adolescents, argues hat we need to build cate Ce but that importantly we need to find (Puetea 2013; 51), Moa ee Above al. path k ‘Serious, for as Li oe = | Learner differences Se alt ti hn oe ma ‘that ta static mental capacity, yet pegple’s ablizies to leam can alter quite cramatiaiyn certain situations, However, ome schools ia the USAatil use ether the Modem language Aptitude eat | (QHA) (Cato ans Sapon 2002} or the Pour Language Aptitude Battery (Prmsier, esd | apf taafield 2004: there ae oer similar tests, which alm to predict whether indivi | Can and wil lear languages successtuy. ‘The problem with these tests b that they have no predictive power about the kind et contac india wi have wth a foreign lenguage, the Kind of learning experiences, they wll hae, othe students need to learnt. The fact is that many diferent peoplew?) ee ae: pene gener! education and cognitive skils seem to be able tole" pages rea given the righ cit it Sr eae nie ahen the he creunsanees, Ard itis these cumstances Instead of tying to s3y # someone aged esr ne napa ied Koes paris mipen vere Peto, Rtasbeen sive access ache ge a hoes these luce succes leaner tyes and preferences. Leamer styles ea dere : ma ato ey mene gee ea fotening sng tener coenreee cucrensteg-ti gene ah sD Eben tat stow nem te annem ancothen antigens Sonera aaewmen cata Pa puoi Get 200th totathen gees Sth arciously and gevoeceY eovseearpueeeeeanaan nas Putpuca mi 14: 533), When thest +e Up with earner ion and perceptual Ie highly se , ns ectionmaking, ge so woot the vale ot i design, tempts to describe difere™ eet rae tate te 5306. teaching these have had a signe” ——EE— sed according to lamer preference, canbe a very supportive too! (2013a: Part A) te ee the variables that have bee suggested? i renual preferences Eachof ws rectstoarange of ersory input in the Warld of NUE Perc ri ime prograsming) these are described as Visual (relating to what we s¢e), Cee ee ec encase ‘Btnese stems to experience the world. nevertheless have one ‘preferred primary system {level and Norman 1997; 31), or suggests Marjorie Rosenberg, intrest situations we (eet use a primary and (sometimes) a secondarysystem in which we percelve, process sndstore information” Rosenteera 20132: Part A) Personality factors Fethaps we are more extroverted o” more introverted. lf the former, ‘the theory goes. we are much more likely to speak out and collaborate with others than introverted learners who are reluctant to do-either. ‘Multiple intelligences (MI) ln his book Fames of Mind, Howard Gartner suggested that \we do net possess a single inteligence, but arange of ‘nteligences’ (Gardner 1983). ‘nual, he lsted seven of these: musial/rtythmicat, verbal/ linguistic, sual spatial. bodily Ainaesthetic ogical/mnathematica,intvapersonal and interpersonal. All people have all of these inteligences, he sid, but in each person one (or more) ofthem is more pronounced. Ths allowed him to predict that atypical accupation (or ‘end state’) for people with a suengpth in logis} mathematical intligenes is that ofthe scientist, where 3 typical ‘nd state for people with strengths in val [spatial inteligence might well be that of ‘the navigator ~ and so on, Gardner has since added an eighth inteligence, which he calls ‘atualitic intelligence (Gardner 1993) to account forthe ability to recognise and classify pattern in nature: Daniel Goleman has added a ninth: ‘emotional inteligence’ (Goleman 1996). Thisinciuces the abalty to empathise, control impulse and self: motivate, and the term emotional inteigence has entered common usage wien deseribing, especially, people ‘sho appear not to have. ie. someone might be said to lack" emotional intelligence eat what iti, soften not discussed in such descriptions}. ‘How we process things The'e are many descriptions ofthe different i ° ‘woys that people _Besrently process information. Rasenberg (20332) makes a difference between ‘global bth 0 ‘material in.a holistic manner’) end ‘analytic’ learners (those : 1 cs andi work best alone, a5 groupvfork could be perceived conwergers versus divergers verbalisers versus imagers holists versus serialists deep versus surtace learning activists versus reflectors Pragmatists versus theorists adaptors versus innovators assimilators versus explorers field dependent versus field independent Globalists versus analysts assimilators versus accommodators imaginative versus analytic learners On-committers versus plungers common-sense versus dynamic learners Concrete versus abstract learners random versus sequential learners ‘ute 1 Déerentleamer descriptions (rom Coffield et af 2004: 136) What allthe many researcher Go. of course, i to use what they have found out to hy i initiators versus reasones pe intuitionists versus analysts entroverts versus Introverts sensing versus intuition thinking versus feeling Judging versus perceiving left brainers versus right brainers meaning dikected versus undirected theorists versus humanitarians activists versus theorists pragmatists versus refiectors ‘organisers versus innovators lefts/analyticsjinductives|successive Processors versus rights/globalsj } deductivesjsimultaneous processors executives)hierarchicsjconservatives versus legislativesjanarchies) erent levels of success, Or rath: Ss, they themselves would “advise yon any ofthe Fearing style instruments 89 S8€ above, there are so many # between them, butit isa? 1104 Sse theoses| receive, there is very it Multiple ing i MK Visoat Relligences ang Newratiaguistic Ory and Ki i a Bh quot {ve use most of ou brass most ot te time... because cut brains ae densely imerconnicted, id we exploit this intereonnectity to enable out primitive evolved imate brains to ive in cprcomplexinodem human oid. hough brain imaging delineates azoa of higher (ane owet) ‘etalon in response to particular task, thinking involves coordinated interconnectvty from pot sides of the brain, not separate lett- andaight-brained thinking. High imelligence requires >gher loves of inter hemigpherie and other copnected actvty. The brains interconnects ‘pedes the senses, especially vision and hearing. We do not leam by ane sense alone hence ‘Yak learning styles do not. reflect how our brain actualy learn. not the individual ciferences we ‘oboerve in classrooms. Neuroimaging studies da not support multiple intelligences, in fact. the oppoate is ine (Geake 2008: 13) would seem, therefore, that in the eyes of many, discussions about learner styles are valueless: however, this may not be entirely the case, lim Scrivener, for example, wonders ‘whether, when considering preferences and personalities, etc. ‘thelr main value isin offering tus thought experiments along the lines of "what if this were true?” = making us think “about the ideas and. in doing so. reflecting on our own default teaching styles and our own current understanding of learner differences and responses to them’ (Scrivener 201 2: 106). Here s something that most people can agree on that many of us have some ‘ingrained patterns in the way we teach (Rosenberg 201 3b: 6). I there is a mismatch between these ‘pattems’ and the way our students prefer to study, it may make it more difficult for them to eam successully. Theresa strong possibilty, therefore, that we may have got things the wrong way round Instead of trying to pigeanhale student characteristics {which may, 28 we have seen, be 2 ‘ruitiess task anyway), it would be much better to encourage the students themselves to think about what they respond to successfully so that they can choose the strategies and activities ‘which best suit them - and which they like most. This is the approach we will consider in 5.5.1 and, indeed, the whole purpose of encouraging our learners to be autonomous s far the students to discaver what ‘works best for them. We will, of course, listen to their opinions and may indeed modify our teaching on the bast of these {see 5.5.4), but that isa farcry from the suggestion that we can identity different learner types in any scientific way and base ‘our teaching upon it However, because the idea that there might be a clash between teacher style and learner preference does have a ring of truth about it, thinking about diferent learners might Dtovoke us nto considering our own teaching habits and, as aresult, might encourage us 0 consider carefully, aur ‘ingrained patterns: through the eyes of our students. When that happens, samething will have been achieved. Motivation ae ‘now that it is easier to teach students who are motivated than students who ‘rut whats maivation and where does come kort? flafen wiioms and Robert Burden suggest that motivation is a ‘state of cognitive arousal’ 2 ees ‘decision to act’, as a result of which there Is ‘sustained intellectual andj en ses so that the person can achiewe same ‘previously set goal’ (williams and ea 120). Jane Arnold adds an atfective element to her definition: ‘the basic idea | generally be reduced tothe state of wanting to do sornething enough ta put out the a t—_ itive (setting goay, effort necessary to achieve it. There tendsto be a miure of ue san ia cate 9 s the afeciv (mobizing the energy to reach them): (Amold 2015 Ts ad Burden suggest thatthe strength of 27 pee a peaieo eee individual places on the outcome he or she wish 3 et meh eo ts etn for'a student who beleves he can’ leam the language i ight, He can't WES Be Change, this belie” [2013:30).Zokén DByei says thatthe human mind Delng = 16d Utorateg rural network, motivation constantly interacts with cognitive and emotional Gsves and complex motivational constructs usually include cognitive and affective components (Daenyei 2014: 519) Understanding the nature of motivation \Witers on motivation make a oifference between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Extringe rotivation comes from outside the learners themselves and may, for example. be pravoteg by the need — or the desie - to pass an exam, or by the fact that the learner has a tripto 3 foreign country and needs to get their language up te a communicatively efficient level Intinsic motivation is described as ‘passion for learning’ and a “sense of competence wile performing challenging tasts’ (Oxford 2013: 98), Students who are intrinsically motivated are driven by a desire to succeed in class and by what happens In the lesson. As we shal see, teachers have considerably more power to influence intrinsic motivation than its extrinsic cousin. ‘Ge upon 2 time it was suggested that cur motivation as students was either instrument! (oe ace leaining because we think it will have an instrumental benefit — we will get 3 new > erbe able to live somewhere new, for example) or integrative (we believe that the langue Speaking community who speak the language we are learnt “cereaaccrmaty wo sak the ange we ae learing have qualities which we! | ing to Robert Gardner. integrative motivation Wo" (ut athe time andi. far greater rmetiva negrative mativat could be (C31dher IBS) Nae than the more prosaic instrumental motivate: Of their L2 self and at maki? ook at what teachers can do nt Fell 53.2 learrett it atiour students were highly motivated, lite would be considerably easier = at least at the stat ol anew Course (see 5.3.3). But frequently they ate not. Keiko Saku and Neil ouie (2012) discus the feelings of Japanese university students of Englah and find that the ‘dart side’ of motivation ~ ‘unmativation’= is sometimes present in that situation, ignether this nanifestsitself as a kind of aggressive negativity or simply as a lack of interest in languagellearning: Hae tg maton or unrotnation) fected by he prope and laces rnd them? This is what we will consider in the next section. What affects motivation? Students’ attitudes are influenced by 3 number of people and places. Mast important of these for younget learners, perhaps, are their families’ atitudes tothe leaming of foreion tanguages. such learning seen aa priority inthe household, then the student i key, more often than net. to reflect these attitudes. But flanquage learning is uninteresting to the fhm. then the student will need te have thelr own strang feelings in orderto counter this The students’ peers will aso affect their feelings. If language learning is seen as an imnportant and prestigious activity by the other students around them. they are far mare likely to view tne activity postive than i their colleagues tink the whole exereie is unnecessary For older students, the influence of family is. perhaps; ss lelyto affect thet feelings but the attitude ofthe people around them wil havea strong bearing on how they feel. In 2 country where foreign language speaking is seen as something postive. there clearly a much greatex chance that students wil be pleased to be learning. Conversely, societies where foreign languages ate seen 25 largely ielevant can have a negative effect on any. individuals desire to learn ~ of, more importamty, their ability to sustain that motivation. “Younger students as ive sw in 11; have a natural cutosty, and tis can greatly aflect their intial motivation. But as we get older, previous Fearning experiences can have a strong Impact oa how motivated:we ate Inely to be, and can have a progressively corrosive effect upon that curiosity. The belit that we can o: cannot learn languages, as lane Arno suggested (see $.3), extremely powerful and can ether spurx forward.ar had us back ‘Danuta Wisnieasta points out that some people seem to bebere that inthe contemporary world young people are willing to fazn foreign languages, especialy English, and we believe they should find English classes interesting’ but research shows that ‘adolescents are very often unmotivated to lean, are disaffected and disengaged (sniewska 2013:.213). This lack of motwation ike the ‘unmotivation identified inthe Japanese university students ‘by Sakui and Cowie (see 5.3.1). may have something to do with issues suchas class size, ‘the compulsory nature of the learning, and the attitude ef the schoo! er university they re studying in. itis certain tre that many young people fall to see the importance offering another language and do not enjoy the conditions in which it takes place or the way itis done. But ‘we should not despair! In the first place, many other students are excited at the prospect of having an ‘deal L? sel” (see 5.3.1), and secondly, there isa fot we can do both to provoke [Positive motivation and. more importantiy, help to nurture and sustain it. What teachers can do about student motivation ‘Mativation is not the sole responsibilty of the teacher. It couldn't be. for the reasons we pects etre ere cere enero anion es eee afiect. Cleary, based on what we have sad 30 fa felingsandiemorore ae oa = ae with haw mathated or unmotivated a students. This is wry 550 1 027 E Melp seedorts create the vicon'of their ideal 2 sell, and to remind them ©! 2 0S as Spprepriate jane Amoid believes that requenty using language aC ter serrcreem sone way change imitng belies that students may rove [0 1% 2). ang er the teacher as the double taskof ensuring thet the abllty to speak the language sjaractve and, nportanty. explaining that if they are wing to work they Can Tach they oals (2013: 27). motivated. this feeing does not necessarily last, untess we do our Best fo sustain thrGuh tethities and encouragement, through clear goal and tasksetting, and though activites which maintain out students’ self-esteem. This ongoing process is, Of Course, Greatly helped bythe establishment of good classroom rapport (see 6.1.1) and by teachers taking a ‘personal interest in their students and peesonalising lessons so that the lives of the stucers are reflected in what happensin the less (Neale 2011) ‘One ofthe ways of provoking excitement and sett esteem is by increasing the students expectation of success. Howeven if ths expectation snot met, students may well become dernotivated since continu failure has an extremely negative effect-on sef-beliet. Achievement One ofthe rot important tasks ateacher has isto ty to match what the studeritrare asked to do with the possiblity that they Can actually achieve it. Such goal Setting isa vital sl. 8 complex because doing something which is too easy is not an ag or ei eid eso wie edie something wihich was, below they started, just outside thei tau onthe Zane of Pol Delmet 2P0=see 8.1) much unin abot teaching reflects this. We beieve that students learn best when they are in the zone, re20" aesent eh ea ieroved lumerical achievement, The aig KBerhaps dfin motivational ‘whale gr ees nc aia e Setar emer ile motaton seal 28th scents © do wil hayes << ind tobe evens oe SHER. Powers the meen 8 SeRsiderab tne canna eet ae the materials je effect on Cone othe keys ta sustaining student motivation fstomake the materia and actives doen iy retort oursanderts ines angumerests bs Westal Seal LEE aT ve moive esng the kinds of devices they (and we) are famine with, Such 2s mobile phone: | wood cablets, But itis not just this. We abo want t try to make -what we offer and talk about aaeraertathe word thestudents lve in and. where possible to the students ideal 12 sell hs suggests that even ifwe are obliged to use materials that are themselves nor especially iereseng, we needto find ways of relating what i in them to the students tnemsches thee 49.2) We canase them what they think of the material. We can ask them to cvange Oe aformation ina text for example, so that it relevant to their lives. orchange the ‘haractes in a dialogue so that they recognise the kindof people who are talking. “;rether key to sustaining motivation Isto vary the activities wre use with our classes. This ssparth so that we con cater for different learner preferences and strategies (se 5.2.1), Dut $is0 0 that our lessons do not become predictable, and thus uninteresting, Good teachers balance their students’ need for routine (which engenders feelings of comfort and security) with a more appavently anarchic mix of unexpected activities. Attitude However ‘nice’ teachers are, the students are unlikely to follow them willingly (and do what is asked of them) unless they have confidence in thelr professional abilities, Students need to believe that we know what we are doing. This confidence a teacher maystart the moment we walk into the classroom forthe fist time - because of the students" perception of our attitude tothe job, Aspects SUCh as the way we dress, where we stond and the nay we talkto the

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