The OUP ELT team has published an article titled ‘6 Practical Motivation Tips To Help Your Students To Learn English”.
Generally, motivation occurs in intrinsic and extrinsic forms. In the context of a language learning environment, an intrinsic driver might be a desire to learn another language for the enjoyment it brings in communicating in a different tongue. Many external drivers in language learning typically revolve around the need to gain a certificate of language competence, either to allow for further study, or as needed for a job.
My experience as an English language teacher allowed me to work with students who had both intrinsic and extrinsic motives behind their language learning, and much like a placement test that determines where our learners’ knowledge gaps are from a linguistical point of view, I learnt that exercises and activities that informed me as to where my learners’ motivation lied was just as important as knowing what grammar form they struggled with. So, before we think about how we can motivate our learners, let’s look at how we can discover what motivates them.
1) Personalisation
Motivation is very personal, and so knowing your learners’ reasons for studying won’t just be to your advantage, but also theirs. Motivation to learn will be much higher if there is a genuine interest or significant reason to study. Below is an activity, adapted from Focus on Teaching Online by Nicky Hockly, that will help you to better understand what is meaningful to your learners.