HOW CAN WE MOTIVATE ESL STUDENTS?

   Today, I would like to talk about all those motivation techniques. I will try to give some suggestions and the things on how to motivate our ESL students. This will be our subject for today.

   

   Firstly, you know motivation is important because if your students' motivation level is high in class, then they will learn the topic itself easily. They'll enjoy the moment and participate your activities and this will make you happy and more enthusiastic to teach. They will be eager to learn as well. I am sure that you do not want to hear short and unsatisfactory answers given by your pupils in your class. On the contrary, every teacher wants to hear long and creative answers given by their own students. Every teacher wants to see eager students to learn and do something good in his / her class. In this case, the role of motivation seems important. Right? The answer is obviously " Yes! ". Let's give some suggestions about that then!

1-) You can use as many references as to pop culture as you can.

      

Let's say that you studied on " Simple Past Tense " last week and you want your pupils to practice on this topic this week. What can you do in this case? For example ; you can talk about the dress that Beyonce or Katy Perry wore to an awards show that happened in the past. You can discuss Tarkan's latest album for instance. Also, you can talk about a football match that came true between Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray for example. As a result, the topic that you want to talk about had better be interesting and charming for your students. Otherwise, it will be really hard to connect with your students.

2-) You can create a little friendly competition environment in your class.

Children really like competing with one another. In this case, you can create a competition environment in your own class. For this, there are some funny games that you can apply. For example ; you can give your students 3 minutes to write down as many words as they can related to a topic, like " animals " or " foods ". Later, you can said to them that whoever finishes a written exercise first or has the most true answers, gets a gift or a chance to choose a video so as to watch or a song in order to listen to in class.

3-) You can address their skills and exploit their talents.

We, human beings, are talented at one thing or another. In this case, you need to discover your students' talents as their teacher. For instance ; if you have a student that can play a guitar in your class, you can tell him / her to bring his / her guitar to class and play a song while the rest of the class sings the lyrics in English. Maybe, you have a student who can draw pictures very well. He / she can draw pictures of cartoons and short stories you read out loud to the class. If one of your pupils has a beautiful voice, he / she can sing a song in English. Maybe, some of your students are talented at theater and they can play and characterize any English story in front of the class.

4-) You can benefit from role play activities.

Role play activities are really useful to apply in class. For example ; one of your students can be a doctor and the other one can be a patient. A conversation occurs between a doctor and a patient in this case. As a good example, you can hide some items and want your students to find the items by talking to each other and trying to predict where they are. Also, they can dramatize an interview of a customer and a shop assistant.

5-) You can make reading age suitable.

For this, I suggest you to choose an interesting book or story for your students but at the same time age - appropriate for them. You should be careful with your materials if you want your students to be excited about a reading homework, assignment. Your materials had better pique your students' interest. Otherwise, they may be bored and give up. Just try to make a funny reading for your pupils!

6-) You can play songs to improve their listening comprehension. 

When it comes to motivate your students, you can also play songs that they like, or can relate to. They hear the harmony of the song but at the same time try to understand the lyrics themselves. As you see, playing songs is just one of the best ways in order to motivate your students. They accompany the song and motivate themselves with the help of the song.

7-) It would be great to have video lessons.

We can have video lessons with the help of technology. We, teachers, can choose short interviews, music videos, cartoons, documentaries, film trailers on YouTube or any other website. Just benefit from technology! Now, I am a university student and we still have video lessons. :) We have an amazing American teacher and he always benefits from technology. Especially, some of my friends take his course this semester and they tell me that they learn about different cultures and countries with the help of Mr. Kimble's ready - made music videos and movies.

8-) Integrating technology into the classroom makes your students motivated. 

You can benefit from a variety of websites to use. Here some websites to use are ;

• WebQuest
• MakeBeliefsComix
• Storybird
• Kid in Story Book Maker
• ZooBurst etc.

9-) You can play games with your students.

ESL games motivate your students. On the other hand, there is something that I suggest you to choose funny games that will challenge them. Any type of quiz show game or a guessing game should get your pupils motivated. Once again, you can benefit from ;

• Passive Voice Quiz Game 
• The 6 Clues Guessing Game
• Wh - Questions Games etc.

10-) You can also use realia in class.

Using real life objects is also very useful because your pupils will be able to see them in class. Those kind of real objects are effective with teens who are lacking in enthusiasm. By using real objects, our aim is to make the learning experience more memorable, unforgettable.

Let's give some examples then! 

• Island Survival
• Recycling Race
• Tell me about yourself
• Giving direction etc.