Just a Little More Intrinsic Motivation Focus

Hello, and thanks to everyone who visited the blog and this post I put up last week.  It is obvious that many of you out there feel passionate about this very often overlooked subject.  I went back to see Esma and lo and behold the brilliant girl was back again.  I did feel though that I had had something to spur her on by showing her this blog and her name up in lights all over the internet.  When I explained what I had written she smiled coyly and told me, "David, don't worry, the old Esma is back."  I laughed out loud and we got on with a very enjoyable and successful lesson.  I suppose I can walk away from this experience with the knowledge that yes, motivation is intrinsically lodged in our inner-self, but with a little coaxing and cajoling, it is possible to be influenced by extrinsically driven forces, namely, the teacher.
I have added some more information that I found I had used with my team when I was HoD back in 2007.  I had forgotten that I'd written up the document based on the excellent, 6 Principles of Language Learning & Teaching (5th edition)-H.Douglas Brown, a publication that I would later refer to a great deal during my MSc TESOL R & D.  So, a happy man goes on his way, and here you are with a mixture of Brown and a few ideas of my own for the classroom:

INTRINSIC MOTIVATION in the CLASSROOM

Most research in linguistics and ESL over the past thirty years and now again in these recent times has found that students will respond and perform much better if their motivation is more intrinsic than extrinsic.  Here are some pointers for teachers to remind themselves of this fact:

·         Think about the interplay in the classroom between intrinsic and extrinsic motives

·         Think about what you can bring to the classroom to stamp your own identity within the prescribed syllabus

·         Allowing students to honestly express themselves through journal work in self-reflection (uncorrected!)

When thinking up activities:

·      Does the activity appeal to the genuine interests of your students? Is it relevant to their lives?

·      Do you present the activity in a positive, enthusiastic manner?

·      Are students clearly aware of the purpose of the activity?

·      Do students have some choice in (a) choosing some aspect of the activity and/or (b) determining how they go about fulfilling the goals of the activity?

·      Does the activity encourage students to discover for themselves certain principles or rules (rather than simply being told)?

·      Does it encourage students in some way to develop or use effective strategies of learning and communication?

·      Does it contribute – at least to some extent- to students ultimate autonomy and independence (from you)?

·      Does it foster cooperative negotiation with other students in the class?  Is it a truly interactive activity?

·      Does the activity present a “reasonable challenge”?

·      Do students receive sufficient feedback on their performance (from each other or from you)?

Ten Golden Rules:

1.    Set a personal example with your own behaviour

2.    Create a pleasant, relaxed atmosphere in the classroom

3.    Present the tasks properly

4.    Develop a good relationship with the learners

5.    Increase the learners’ linguistic self-confidence

6.    Make the language classes more interesting

7.    Promote learner autonomy

8.    Personalize the learning process

9.    Increase the learners’ goal orientedness

10. Familiarize learners with the target language culture