KOTESOL: What to Do with the EFL Learner without Motivation?
Whenever the learning of a subject is required, there are bound to be some who have little or no interest in the subject that is being taught – and EFL in Korea is no exception. In the public schools, English is a required subject beginning in grade 3 and remains so into the tertiary level. Furthermore, parents require their children to take additional English classes outside of school and even before grade 3. When a student is placed in an environment where they are compelled to learn English for so many hours over so much time, one should not be surprised that motivation becomes an issue in the classroom. One should also not fret as there are a number of tools that the teacher can apply to increase learner motivation.
Put Interest into the Lesson
It is somewhat obvious that raised interest leads to raised motivation, but the teacher may unintentionally allow interest to fall or never really create the amount that could be created. The teacher needs to know what interests his or her students. Often the teacher merely makes assumptions about student interests, but the difference in student and teacher age can easily lead to mistaken assumptions. Students’ interests also vary greatly with differences in student age. The students themselves need to be tapped to learn their interests. This could be done in the form of a student survey. It could also be cloaked as an oral or written class activity or given as a homework assignment. Find out who their favorite singers and actors are, what they do on weekends, what they like to eat …
Variety is the spice of life. It can also be the spice of the English lesson. Rather than planning a single activity to span the entire class period, plan several. Remember that the younger the student is, the shorter the attention span. Three different activities or different action phases of the same activity may work well for the high-teen, but for the young learner, a change-up in activity may be needed about every five minutes. The activities, and the teacher, should be well organized. One activity should lead into the next, and the teacher should be well prepared. Do not rely on the same types of activities class after class. Change things up by providing variety through new and different activities.
Put Relevance into the Lesson
Interest alone is often not enough. Many students need to see a connection between the English lesson of the classroom and their life outside the classroom – no connection, no motivation. Keep your students well informed. Explain your lesson and course goals to them. Let them know why you are doing what you are doing and how it may relate to their lives. It is also important to let them know how an activity, a task or a project relates to their assessment in the course.
Have the students reflect on what they have done, how much their language proficiency has improved and the strategies that they have used to make the improvements they have made. In recent semesters, I have been building more and more reflective activities into my skills courses, having students keep reflective language learning journals and language learning portfolios, as well as having reflective in-class discussions on their personal language learning methods and practices. In-class activities and homework must not be perceived by the student as meaningless work. All coursework must have a language learning goal, and the students must be made aware of this goal. Personalize coursework as much as possible. Each student is different, with diverse interests, a wide spectrum of goals and different levels of English proficiency in the various language skills. Shape activities that allow students to speak and write about their own thoughts and experiences. Rather than have the entire class report on King Sejong, have them write about the person they most look up to. Allow them to write poems on a free topic with unrestricted word length. A lot of discussion can be generated out of a mere 4-word, 4-line poem (e.g., “Life: / birth / growth / death”). Furthermore, it can have a different relevance to each of the students discussing it.
Create a Non-Threatening Classroom Environment
Confidence is a common and significant problem for the Korean learner of English. There is the fear that they will make a speaking error in front of the teacher and peers, resulting in a loss of face. Accordingly, for the average English learner, any English classroom setting is a potentially threatening environment. To counteract this, the student will often resort to the easiest and most efficient method of not making mistakes in spoken English: no speaking! This, however, has obvious disadvantages. It is necessary for many teachers to convince their students that the English classroom is a non-threatening environment.
To do this, it is important to first inform students of the nature of language learning errors. The student needs to know that error-making is a natural part of language learning (L1 and L2), that it is a by-product of rule-formation, and that one can learn from their mistakes to improve their language proficiency. Students should also be informed that laughing at and making fun of students when they make errors is not polite, is not warranted and is not acceptable in the English classroom. A helpful atmosphere needs to be created where the students assist each other to recognize and correct each others’ language errors.
Grading student performance also adds to the threatening nature of a classroom environment. To lessen this threatening impression, the teacher may decrease the number of assessment recordings made in class, or at least do the assessment out of the view of the students. The type of activities done in class can also significantly increase the feeling of safety in the classroom. Rather than spending much time on individual work (where the entire class is listening to the student called on), small group work is much more stress free. The teacher can gradually add reporting back to the class as a final step of group work and gradually prepare students for short individual presentations before the entire class as a confidence-building activity.
Not a single one of these suggestions is guaranteed to significantly increase student motivation in the English classroom, but when applied together, the chances are much higher that student motivation will increase appreciatively – not only in the less-motivated student, but in the rest of the class as well. But remember: in order to motivate one’s students, the teacher must also be motivated. Students are very quick to pick up on a lack of genuine interest on the part of the teacher in teaching and in the students being taught. It may very well be that a lack of motivation on the part of the teacher is the cause of low student motivation. Teachers may also contribute to low student motivation through poorly prepared lessons, lessons containing material that is too difficult and by setting unrealistically high goals. For motivating students, the teacher needs to be on top of his or her game, and by following the suggestions above, teachers are more likely to keep students on top of their game.
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Monthly Chapter Meeting
Date & Time: December 14 (Saturday), 1:30 p.m.
Place: Chosun University, Main Building, Left Wing, Rm 4211
Featured Workshops
- Approaches to Teaching Listening By Stafford Lumsden (Sookmyung Women’s University)
- Experiencing Culture: The 5th Skill By Tory Thorkelson (Hanyang University)
Swap-Shop: Share your teaching ideas and activities with the group.
Admission: No Charge
Year-End Dinner, 6:00 p.m.; GIC (Jeon-il Bldg.)
Facebook: Gwangju-Jeonnam KOTESOL
Website: http://koreatesol.org/gwangju
Email: gwangju@koreatesol.org
Twitter: @GwangjuKOTESOL
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The Author
David E. Shaffer is the President of the Gwangju-Jeonnam Chapter of Korea TESOL (KOTESOL). On behalf of the Chapter, he invites you to participate in the teacher development workshops at their monthly meetings and special events. Dr. Shaffer is a professor of English Language at Chosun University, where he has taught graduate and undergraduate courses for many years. He is a long-time member of KOTESOL and a holder of various KOTESOL positions, including Publications Committee Chair. He is also a seven-time recipient of the KOTESOL President’s Award and a recipient of the KOTESOL Lifetime Achievement Award.