Thestickorthecarrot_sept132008

LICEO CULTURAL BRITANICO - SEMINAR SEASON 2008 Prof. Gladys Noemí Baya and Myriam Martingano = September 13th, 2008

THE STICK OR THE CARROT? Making your classes eager to learn Abstract: Most teachers agree student motivation is essential if they are to succeed at learning. Unless they feel motivated, they will not even make the necessary effort... Is there anything we teachers can do to enhance our classes' motivation? Are all students motivated in the same way? How can motivation be sustained? And what can teachers do to sustain their own motivation? In this seminar we will work together to develop our understanding of motivation, and look for tips that enable us all to make our students really want to try and learn!

TASK 1: What is motivation? Tick the correct column: I agree

I disagree

Not sure

Motivation is the difference between success and failure. Motivation can't be acquired; it is just "there". All students are motivated to learn under the right conditions. Rewards and punishments are too often the only tools present in the motivational arsenal of many teachers. Student anxiety created by a tense classroom climate is a necessary element to encourage learning and motivation.

Now compare your answers with a partner! TASK 2: Says who? In only 5 minutes, your favourite radio programme “Psychology for the English Teacher” is starting on Radio Education. Today, a behaviourist and a cognitive researcher will be answering questions from callers on how you can motivate your classes best. Get ready to call and ask them for tips! After the programme, vote: who won the debate? TASK 3: Motivated learners "Most successful learners are not necessarily those to whom a language comes easily, they are those who display certain typical characteristics, most of them associated with motivation." (Naiman et al) LABEL THE PARAGRAPHS WITH THE OPTIONS IN THE BOX: HIGH ASPIRATIONS

GOAL ORIENTATION

PERSEVERANCE EGO- INVOLVEMENT TOLERANCE OF AMBIGUITY

POSITIVE TASK ORIENTATION NEED FOR ACHIEVEMENT

1. ______________________________________________ The learner finds it important to succeed in learning in order to maintain and promote his or her (positive) self-image. 2. ______________________________________________ The learner is ambitious, goes for demanding challenges, high proficiency, top grades. 1

3. ______________________________________________ The learner consistently invests a high level of effort in learning, and is not discouraged by setbacks or apparent lack of progress. 4. ______________________________________________ The learner is willing to tackle tasks and challenges, and has confidence in his or her success. 5. ______________________________________________ The learner has a need to achieve, to overcome difficulties and succeed in what he or she sets out to do. 6. ______________________________________________ The learner is clearly aware of the goals of learning, or of specific learning activities, and directs his or her efforts towards achieving them. 7. ______________________________________________ The learner is not disturbed or frustrated by situations involving a temporary lack of understanding or confusion; he or she can live with these patiently, in the confidence that understanding will come later.

Now let’s a watch a scene from the movie “Educating Rita” (1983; starring Julie Walters and Michael Caine) Which of the characteristics of motivated learners can you observe in Rita?

TASK 4: Sustaining motivation "Motivation is essential to success. We have to want to do something to succeed at it." Jeremy Harmer What can influence the motivation students bring to the task of learning? Check those items in the list below which you believe are likely to affect your learners’ motivation: 1. The importance that English is given in their communities 2. Their own attitude to learning in general and to language learning in particular. 3. The attitude of the people who are close to them. 4. The teacher plays a key role in the student’s sustained motivation. 5. Their confidence in the way teaching and learning take place in your classroom 6. Your confidence in the way teaching and learning take place in your classroom 7. Their personal interest in English as a subject they are studying 8. Their personal interest in the activities and topics they are presented with. 9. Their degree of choice of material to work with. 10. Their degree of choice of when or how to deal with a task. …………………………………………………………………………. TASK 5: “I, the motivator” Now we’d like you to reflect upon a moment in your teaching at which your students were especially motivated. Just follow the instructor’s guidelines! After the visualization: Using the list below as a checklist, reflect upon that teaching experience you’ve visualized. Identify: • 2 strengths in the task or the way you conducted it that contributed to enhancing motivation 2

•

1 aspect in which you would like to improve your skills as a motivator

Checklist of Intrinsically Motivating Techniques (adapted from Brown; 2006:80 - 81) a. Did your lesson appeal to your students' interests? Was it relevant to their lives? b. Did you present your lesson in a positive, enthusiastic manner? c. Were the students aware of the purpose of the lesson? d. Did students have some choice in: 1. choosing some aspect of the lesson? 2. determining how they go about fulfilling the goals of the lesson? e. Did the lesson encourage students to discover by themselves certain principles or rules (rather than simply being "told")? f. Did it encourage students in some way to develop or use effective strategies of learning and communication? g. Did it contribute -at least to some extent- to students' ultimate autonomy and independence (from you)? h. Did it foster cooperative negotiation with other students in the class? Was it truly interactive? i. Did the lesson present a "reasonable challenge"? j. Did students receive sufficient feedback on their performance (from each other or from you)?

Share your conclusions with the group! As you listen, think of: * something you have in common with the speaker OR * something you like about what the speaker is saying When each participant finishes, let them know what you thought of! TASK 6: Arousing learner interest Penny Urr (1991:281) lists the following ways of creating learner interest in doing a task. Working in threes, discuss: WAYS OF AROUSING INTERESTS IN TASKS 1. Clear goals 2. Varied topics and tasks 3. Visuals 4. Tension and challenge: games 5. Entertainment 6. Play-acting 7. Information gap 8. Personalisation 9. Open-ended cues Which of the items on the list are used most and which least in teaching situations you are familiar with? Can you single out those which (in your opinion) are under-exploited and you would like to try more yourself?

"Ten commandments" for motivating learners: (Brown 2006: 81) 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 selfconfidence. 3

6. Make the language classes interesting. 7. Promote learner autonomy. 8. Personalize the learning process. 9. Increase the learners' goal-orientedness. 10. Familiarize learners with the target language culture. TASK 7: What about me? When teachers focus on their students’ learning, they begin to see that if they want to improve their teaching and become more aware of the learning, eventually they have to work on themselves (Millet, cited in Arnold). As part of their professional training, teachers can benefit from working on their personal development. As they come to know themselves better, they will also be able to understand their students better and lead them towards more significant learning and growth. As Griggs puts it, “this awareness [of self[ and belief in human potential is a transformative power in itself. itself It lays a firm basis for learning and working effectively and connecting deeply with the self and with others:” In teacher development, it is often useful to set this concept within a broad spectrum of experience:

Being

Having

Doing

Areas for teacher development(van Lier, cited in Arnold; p. 4)

MATCH: Having relates to…



Doing relates to…



Being relates to…



…teachers’ skills and abilities to construct learning opportunities … teachers’ personal qualities, vision and sense of mission. … knowledge (of subject matter and pedagogy, of self and others) and resources teachers have available

So… let’s think of “being”... How motivated are you as a teacher? What aspects of your work motivate you? What aspects of your work de-motivate you? Who motivates you at work? Who de-motivates you? Jot down your ideas in the 2 columns below (your notes are private, you won’t be asked to discuss them at any moment):

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TASK 8: Dear Blog,… Dörnyei (2001:174) suggests the following self-motivating strategies for teachers:  Reflect immediately after a lesson on how it went and make mental notes on what to do differently next time.  Observe others as a learning tool.  Marshal inner resources and remember you’ve been through more than this and more.  Analyse why you feel so anxious about aspects of your work, and think through ways to overcome these feelings.  Embellish your teaching – keep changing what you do- so it’s more interesting for you to teach it again.  Rearrange the classroom layout for maximal attention from students.  Call teacher study groups to resolve problems cooperatively.

We are getting towards the end of the school year… Motivation is waning, and both students and teachers find it hard to keep doing their best… Why not make a “Last-Term Resolution”?

During the next 3 months, I’m going to motivate myself as a teacher by _______________________________________________________________ _____________ _______________________________________________________________ _____________ _______________________________________________________________ _____________ _______________________________________________________________ _____________ _______________________________________________________________ _____________ _______________________________________________________________ _____________ _______________________________________________________________ _____________ Make sure to clearly state: • What you are going to do • How you are going to do it • When you are going to do it • Why you’ve chosen to do it • How you’re going to know you’ve succeeded at doing it. After everybody’s written their resolutions…. Time to comment on other teacher’s texts! (your instructors will provide you with special slips for this). BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Arnold, J. (ed.) (1999). Affect in Language Learning . Cambridge University Press Brown, H. Douglas (2006). Principles of language learning and teaching – 5thed. PearsonLongman 5

Dörnyei, Z. (2001). Teaching and Researching Motivation. Longman Harmer, J. (2001). The Practice of English Language Teaching 3rd edition. Longman Urr, P. (1991). A Course in Language Teaching – Practice and Theory. Cambridge University Press You can find these notes online at: http://www.freewebs.com/gladysbaya/presentations.html

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