Motivating students

Motivating Young Learners

Ⅰ. The importance of the teacher to learning in the classroom

This session is a plenary and interactive workshop that will consider how young learners learn and what the teacher’s role is in meeting their needs for success and making language learning a memorable experience. A variety of tasks will demonstrate how teacher motivational strategies can deal withthe multitude of factors that affect successful learning in the multidimensional primary classroom.Handouts will be given for these during the session.

AIMS:
Professional development:
λ    to provide ideas for training through participating in various class room activities to motivate and provide opportunities for speaking and interacting
λ    to consider what and how developmental ageaffects learning and language acquisition
λ    to consider different learners and learning styles and what methodology and motivational strategies would be appropriate to make it memorable
λ    to consider what teacher motivational strategies are and how important they are to learning and building confidence in learners to use the language

Ⅱ. Classroom learning and second language acquisitionYoung children are still developing and learning the skills of their first language through out primary school. They are acquiring an understanding of how it works, what words mean and learning how to connect the spoken and written through learning to read and recognize words. Everything is new and they challenge, question and test. As individuals, they learn at their own pace and in their ownway,exploring the world around them. Exposure and repetition are central to this process, which in the classroom mirrors life learning outside the classroom in the variety of different types of activities and means of practice that expose them to language. Cognitive learning skills are only just beginning to develop in these formative years and are being taught along with the language skills thatrequire them, such as writing.

No two learners will be alike in any class. Research has shown that not only do we all learn in different ways, we also have multiple intelligences (Gardiner,83). Studies in neuro-linguistic programming show that some of us are auditory learners who need to hear the language and listen, others are visual learners who have to see and visualize beforeunderstanding and feeling confident enough to try it out, while still others can only learn through doing, the kinaesthetic learner. The Chinese expression “I hear, I know; I see, I understand; I do,I remember” shows that to meet the needs of all three is to make it a memorable experience for all. But it doesn’t end there.

Our intelligences profiles add another dimension. These consist of combinationsof eight different primary intelligence types: linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily kinaesthetic, musical, interpersonal — the way we relate to each other,intrapersonal — our ability to self-evaluate, and the naturalist (Berman, 1995). This should not be seen as a problem, but rather as a distinct dvantage when thinking of activities to introduce to practice language and the fourskills. For example; logical — mathematical intelligences like number and sequence, puzzles, problems to solve. The others can be imagined and will be explored in the workshop. With this in mind, what goes on in the classroom needs to address the varied needs of all the students for successful learning.

Our goal as teachers is to encourage our students to become autonomous and independent.Amixture of methodology therefore, which is at times is student-centred and other times is teacher-centred to engage the interest of the various intelligence profiles in every class and help students develop their own strategies for successful learning. Language is limited and contextualized for them to focus on the meaning and enable them to formulate the rules through practice and generalizing as...