GROUP 7

Nguyễn Huỳnh Kim Ngân

Võ Minh Thục Đoan
Ngô Nữ Hàm My
 Chapter 5: Describing Leaners

Part C: Language Levels Part D: Motivation

C2: D2:
Language, D1: D3: The
C1: External
Methodolody Task and Defining Motivation
Motivation Sources of Angle
Topic Motivation
 C: LANGUAGE LEVELS
Students are generally described in Advanced
three levels: Beginner
Intermediate
Advanced Upper intermediate

Between Beginner (including real +

false beginner) and Intermediate is Mid-intermediate
Elementary level. Intermediate
levels is often sub-divided into
Lower/pre intermediate
lower/pre,upper and mid-
intermediate
*What is real/false Beginner? Elementary
_If a student who has some knowledge of a
language but needs to start again from the
beginning ->That person is false beginner.
Real beginner is a sudent who has some Real beginner False beginner
knowledge of a language but he/she can use it
well
 => However,these terms are used indiscriminately.They depend
on different views about what students at certain levels are able to
do something.

_ Because of this inconsistency, the Council of Europe and the

Association of Language Testers in Europe (ALTE) has set the
Common European framework that is a document setting out in
detail what student “can do” at various levels to define language
competency levels for learners of a number of different
languages.

This is a series of ALTE levels ranging from A1(=elementary

level) to C2(=very advanced)
 Besides, The European Commission with the support of Cambridge
English Language Asessment built and developed the Common
European Framework of Reference(usually abbreviated to the CEFR
or CEF) which is an international standard for describing language
abilitys and very common reference framework in Europe as well as in
many countries around the world, including Vietnam.
 ALTE CAN-DO STATEMENTS
ALTE CAN-DO STATEMENTS has been produced to evaluate the
level of students as well as teachers
.
• ALTE standards are
just one way of measuring
proficiency among many
ways such as ESL
standards developed by
the TESOL Organization
in the USA and many
other exam systems have
their own level descriptors
=> Remember that
students’ abilities with Plateau effect is a force of nature that
particular level may be reduces the effectiveness of measures
different and the level over time. For example, when someone's
which they can reach exercise fails to be as effective as in the
past->teachers need to be sensitive to this
often has an effect on their
effect and take special measures to
motivation.
counteract it
 C1- METHODOLOGY
• Some techniques and activities are just suitable for Beginners not for
students at higher levels such as in speaking tasks.When a teacher ask
advanced students to get into pairs or groups to discuss a topic without
many instructions but when asking elementary students to have a
discussion in pairs/groups, we need to tell them exactly what they
should do → at advanced levels it is easier to organize discussion than
beginner level.

• In general,we will give students more support when they are at

beginner or intermediate levels than we need to do when they are at
advanced level.This does not mean we don’t care about advanced
students but because they might feel strange and patronising
 C2- LANGUAGE, TASK
AND TOPIC
✓ Students acquire language mainly from teachers so the
teacher should adjust their language to suit the level of the
students we are teaching such as using words and phrases
that are as clear as possible, avoiding using idioms or
confusing words for Beginner/Elementary levels

✓ Teachers should take special care at lower levels and give

them detail instructions.

=> Don’t ever force students to do anything which they are

clearly unable to do such a kind of thing.
 D- MOTIVATION
->Motivation is essential for most fields of learning to
success.Without motivation, we will not make the necessary effort to
reach the goals which we set before.

D1- Defining motivation

❧ Motivation is some kind of internal drive which pushes someone to
do things in step by step to achieve something.
*Difference between GOAL-MOTIVATION:
For example:You want to lose your weight.This is the reason/goal
but when you think you will become more beautiful after losing
weight and you decide to go to a gymnasium everyday because you
want to make your goal come true faster.That is the motivation
which push you to reach the goal.
 Motivation is divided into 2 kinds:
Extrinsic motivation: caused by some outside factors such as
passing an exam, the hope of financial reward...
Intrinsic motivation: comes from within the individual such as the
enjoyment of the learning process itself, a desire to make yourselves
feel better)
=> Researchers and methodologists think that intrinsic motivation
produces better results than extrinsic part.

D2- External sources of motivation

➢ The goal: one of the strongest outside sources of motivation, which
students perceive themselves to be learning for.
➢ The society we live in:outside any classroom there are attitudes to
language learning and the English language in particular
➢ The people around us: the great influence of close people’s
attitudes (family members, friends)
➢ Curiosity:we should not underestimate students’ curiosity because
this is initial motivation to show their interest in something
 D3: THE MOTIVATION
ANGEL
Borrowing the image of the
Angel of the North statue is
to mention the greatest
difficulties that teachers
have to face in terms of
motivation whose base is
built in 5 A stages :
❑Affect
❑Achievement
❑Attitude
❑Activities
❑Agency
AFFECT is concerned with the learners’ feelings so teachers play very
important role and have dramatic effect on making motivation for our
students .Because students will stay motivated and feel encouraged to
maintain what they want to do if they think the teachers cares about
them
_In contrast,when the learners think that the teachers have little interest
in them,they will feel discouraged to retain their motivation .
_Good teacher-student rapport needs to be built in an appropriate
and constructive way by listening to their opinions with respect and
intervening for correction,etc.
 ACHIEVEMENT
Success is always the motivation for people towards but if we get
success too easy ,we are likely to lose respect for our tasks, our
jobs or goals so success without effort does not seem to be that
motivating .
On the contrary, if success is too difficult to attain, the learners
will have a real sense of achievement →The teacher’s job is to set
an appropriate level of challenge for the students as well as guide
them how to get the right way .This means setting tests that are
not too easy or too difficult but involving what the students can
succeed in the learning tasks.
ATTITUDE:
The teacher have to make the learners
believe that we know what we are
doing, how confident and professional
we are from the very first moments
when we start to walk into the
classroom,where we stand,the way we
talk or dress,…because of the students’
perception of our attitude to the job.
The teachers also need to have well-
prepared lessons to teach so that the
students have confidence in us and
sustain their motivation →The learners
will feel that we really know about the
subject we are teaching ,otherwise the
class might become undisciplined
when the teacher seems not to be quite
sure what to do next.
 ACTIVITIES:

Teachers’ choices of what they ask

students to do is very important
because it helps to stimulate the
learners’ engagement with the learning
process.

Usually, students only enjoy game-like

activities but teachers have to know
that there are many kinds of learners
for instance,some of them may like
singing,writing poems or reading
texts,etc.Therefore, teachers need to try
to match the activities with their
student’s learning styles and then they
can evaluate whether the learners
respond well.
 AGENCY:
This is a term borrowed from social
sciences .It means if the students have
agency, they can make decisions
themselves about what is going on,and take
some responsibility for their learning.

For example,the way we might allow

students to tell us where they find difficult
to do rather than assuming they all have
the same difficulties.That does not mean
we let them have complete control of what
happen in the lessons but the more we
empower them and give them agency, the
more likely they are to stay motivated over
a long period

The teachers should be equally interested

in things done by the learners.
 SUMMARY
⇨ In summary, the motivation may not be the same for all
students and all cultures.For instance, in China ,the
learners can be evaluated by exams based on how much
they can memorize but in other countries ,the students
might be determined by their creation or their attitude
during the learning process.
→The teachers need to look carefully at who the learners
are,where they are learning and what their aspirations are.