Reflection on How to motivate young learners to learn English as a second language.

The lecturer started her presentation discussing the characteristic of young learners. One of these

characteristics is their need to be motivated. This need makes learning easier and meaningful. From there, she

elaborated on the meaning of motivation, showing its types. Finally, she concluded emphasizing internal

motivation as the most effective type of motivation, supporting her claim with experts' findings.

Students have a range of motivations, Students may come with high motivation, or may come with low

motivation. It is the teacher's responsibility to support and increase the motivation of students so that they be

attentive and continue to take part in class. Truely, it is a hard job yet very necessary to have a successful class

and great outcomes. Some ways of motivation are giving positive feedback, providing autonomous learning,

and giving rewards.

The presenter did a particularly respectable job covering main points of the subject (motivation, its types

and finally the strategies to foster motivation in Young Learners). I want to add that most educational

authorities around the world agree on one or two motivation strategies and that’s because they are more

applicable in class. Other motivation strategies are much more effective yet simply neglected. This neglection

is the result of the difficulty to apply. There are rewards need parents' approval, paperwork, and huge budget.

Two of these motivation rewards are summer camps and sport teams' membership. We can see such of these

strategies in other countries but rarely in Saudi Arabia. To be clear, I am not talking about talented students

who are given scholarships to support their progress in the same fields they show interest in. I am talking about

middle to low level students that make progress in any subject. Why not attaching having good grades with

the possibility of winning a seat in a summer camp under the supervision of the ministry of education. In the

case of low-level students who are good athletes. What if they know that the greater, they achieve academically,

the bigger chance to join school team and from there on can reach the national. I think it is a great strategy of

motivation or what we call a win-win situation.