Teaching English: How would you motivate those students who are not interested in learning English?

I am sure you have come to this trouble anytime: a student who does not want to participate, who is not paying attention, who is disrupting... But DO NOT panic. Here you’ve got some proposals to apply in the classroom.

It has often been said that a student who really wants to learn will succeed whatever the circumstances under which he studies are. Nevertheless, motivation is some kind of internal drive that encourages somebody to pursue a course of action. It seems reasonable to suggest that if we perceive a goal which is sufficiently attractive, we will be strongly motivated to do whatever is necessary to reach that goal.

There are certain circumstances and attitudes that promote conditions which may be favourable to classroom motivation, such as:

TOPICS

When choosing a topic, pick one in which your students feel motivated (dinosaurs, tales, games, countries, food, monsters...). Moreover, the difficulty of the task should not be easy or impossible. Adequate it!

ERRORS

Do NOT punish because of their errors, make them understand that it is not ok, but they have made a great effort to do it. Instead of punishing and humiliate them in front of the class, give rewards to hard workers students. Even something apparently childish as a “Good Job!” stamp or sticker can encourage students to higher levels. You can buy stickers and stamps like this in Dideco http://www.dideco.es/producto/sellos-motivacion/

BEHAVIOUR

To control their behaviour, you can create a thermometer like this, and every time they do not behave properly, they put their little doll with their name on it down.

You can also create a behaviour chart, and if they behave properly, they get a star. At the end of the month, you count the stars and give them a proportional reward, for example, candies. You can explain that it is like the salary at the end of the moth.

Moreover, you can reward those students who always bring their homework in a chart, and every time they complete the chart, they get something out of the treasure box

TEACHER

Be kind, funny and friendly. I know it seems a little bit obvious, but some teachers do not act like that. Being kind means that you should show interest in your students’ feelings. Teachers can help produce these feelings by sharing parts of themselves with pupils, especially little stories or problems and mistakes they made. By doing this, students see teachers as approachable human beings and not as authorities figures. However, you should settle some distance: you are an educator, not a friend.

PARTICIPATION

Students LOVE participation, so do not stop them if they want to help you or others: let them be involved in activities. One way of doing this is designing a ‘Start Student’ every week. This student is in charge of collecting homework, closing the door, being sure that the class is in good conditions when they leave, ‘personal assistant’ of the teacher... Every students should be in this charge.

It is also a good idea to distribute students in cooperative learning, where every member of the group has a determined role. You can see further information about cooperative learning in this webpage: http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/Papers/CLChapter.pdf