3 Tried and True Ways to Motivate Students to Learn a Language

Getting students to love what they learn in a language course is the holy grail of ESL instruction.

But here are three tried and true strategies I’ve used in America, Korea, and China for the last 20 years or more:

Project-Centered Instruction Is King

Provide opportunities for students to practice what they are learning, and then have them test their prowess through a learning project.?

Before I start designing or delivering a unit of instruction, I always create and exciting, relevant, and rigorous project at the end of it–one that incorporates all the language, content, and 21st-century soft skills they learned in each lesson.

Make sure to provide plenty of opportunities for students to practice these skills in class.?

For example, you could have students do pair work or group work, or you could have them give presentations to the class.

This will explicitly show the students the endgame they should be striving for, and how they could take what they learn and apply it outside your classroom in meaningful ways.Always Pursue Questions, Not Simply Learn a Language

Pursue Questions, Not Merely Learning a Language

When composing the curriculum for your course, use Wiggens & McTeigh’s practice of centering your instruction around “essential understandings” and “enduring questions” about the topic at hand.

Your language learning objectives could be grounded in a skill for speaking & listening, specialized vocabulary, or maybe it's about a grammatical rule.

But you need to entice & intrigue your students by wrapping that language item they'll learn in a context that appeals to them in a way they will apply it for the rest of their lives if possible.

Let's say you want to teach them how to use future tense, you could give them the project of making New Year's resolutions, or SMART goals in some aspect of their lives that matter most to them.

The essential understandings might be:

• SMART goals is an effective way to guide, measure, and achieve success.
• Helping verbs like "will" help express an action that will occur in the future.

Possible enduring questions you & your students might pursue during the unit:

• What are goals, and why do we make them?
• How does my native language express actions that occur in the future, and what are the similarities and differences native English speakers use?

When you do this, your students have greater freedom to relate & apply what you are teaching to other interests they have or other disciplines they are studying elsewhere.

In my experience, any teacher should always aim to provide concepts and ways of thinking and learning that they can use long after they have forgotten me or my class.

Give Your Students Choices & Opportunities to Shine

Differentiate instruction to meet the needs of all learners. ESL students come from a variety of backgrounds and have different learning styles.?

They also have different & multiple intelligences that can help them express, and apply what you teach them.?

And finally, your students can have varied interests and passions that you can tap into in order to motivate them.

No matter what,? It is important to differentiate your instruction to meet the needs of all learners.?

For example, I often gave students a variety of ways to show what they learned and the language they acquired by giving them project alternatives that centered around kinesthetic, mathematical, logical, and musical/artistic intelligences.??

They still had to present or write in English for the projects, but they often felt more engaged and excited when it was within an intelligence they were competent with.

Understand: Your unit and lesson planning will be for nothing unless you are fully capable of a relevant, rigorous response to your students' eternal question…

“Why am I learning this, and what’s in it for me?”

But with the research-based practices, you will be far more likely to give them both what they most need & want.

Brandon

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Thanks for stopping by.

I empower university students to reach their true potential by mastering their mindset and academic English communication skills while learning to navigate the culture of American academia.

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