Как мотивировать учащихся изучать английский язык

1. WAYS OF MOTIVATIONG LEARNERS
One of the most difficult and important aspects of teaching process is how to
motivate our students. How can I arouse the interest and enthusiasm of my
learners? How to inspire students in learning and improving English. No doubt
that it’s the job of the teacher to keep them motivated and to ensure
opportunities for students’ success.
“Motivation is one of those ideas
like justice or world peace: we all
know it’s a good thing but it’s not clear
how to get there” said Tom Ward, a
freelance teacher trainer. It's clear that
students who aren’t motivated won’t
learn effectively. They won’t retain
information and participate at the
lessons. De-motivation – a reduction of
somebody’s enthusiasm or feeling less
interested in working or studying. But a
student may be un-motivated for a
variety of reasons (causes):
1) changes (in personal life and
society);
2) lack of interest (they may feel
that they have no interest in the
subject);
3) lack of goal and confidence in
life (they have a vague sense that
whether “English will be useful
for their future” or not, they
don’t have a clear idea of what it
means);
4) find the teacher’s methods un-
engaging;
5) can be distracted by external
forces (f.e. financial situation);
6) lack of concentration (it may
even come to light that a student
who appeared unmotivated
actually has difficulties in
learning and needs special
attention).
But at first let’s clear up what
motivation means.
Motivation – the driving (internal
or external) force that stimulates
desire and willingness in people
to do something with
enthusiasm, to be continually
interested in a subject, or to
make an effort in order to attain a
goal.
According to different
definitions motivation is psychological
feature (inner state) that arouses an
individual to act towards a desired

2. goal: it elicits, controls and sustains
certain goal-directed behavior.
“Desire is the key to
motivation”, said Mario Andretti. But
Gardner defined motivation as a
“combination of effort plus desire to
achieve the goal of learning the
language plus favourable attitudes
towards learning the language”.
It’s the process whereby goal-
directed activity is instigated and
sustained. During my teaching career
I’ve come to the conclusion if learners
are well motivated they are eager to
learn more and more. In order to get
this aim a teacher and a learner should
realize the matter why to teach and
why to learn. Goals are related to who
we want to be. Therefore it’s important
to set and sustain certain goals, to make
program in achieving them and to use
challenging material. So, without aim
it’s impossible to understand the
meaning of motivation or get to
motivation. If the teacher looks for the
effective ways in teaching English, he
himself will be motivated and can
motivate the learners. Motivated
students are more excited to learn and
participate. Teachers believe that
motivation is the key to successful
language learning.
Speaking about learner’s
motivation one should mention that
there are two types of motivation. Why
do we do the things we do?
Psychologists have proposed a number
of different ways of thinking about
motivation, including one method that
involves looking at whether motivation
arises from outside (extrinsic) or inside
(intrinsic) the individual.
WHAT EXACTLY DO WE
MEAN WHEN WE SAY
EXTRINSIC OR INTRINSIC
MOTIVATION?
Extrinsic Motivation
Extrinsic motivation: refers to
motivation that comes from outside an
individual. Extrinsic motivation occurs
when we are motivated by external
factors to perform a behavior or engage
in an activity in order to earn a reward
or avoid a punishment, rather than for
the fun for it. The possibility of a
reward will be enough to keep the
learner motivated in order for him or
her to put forth the effort to do well on
a task.

3. Examples of behaviors that are
the result of extrinsic motivation
include:
 studying because you want to get
a good grade;
 cleaning your room to avoid
being punished by your parents;
 participating in a sport in order
to win awards;
 competing in a contest in order
to win a scholarship.
In each of these examples, the
behavior is motivated by a desire to
gain a reward or avoid a negative
outcome.
Intrinsic motivation
Intrinsic motivation refers to
motivation that comes from inside an
individual. The motivation comes from
the pleasure one gets from the task
itself or from the sense of satisfication
in completing or even working on a
task. Learners who are intrinsically
motivated want to learn for the sake of
learning. Intrinsic motivation involves
engaging in a behavior because it is
personally rewarding; essentially,
performing an activity for its own sake
rather than the desire for some external
reward.
Examples of behaviors that are
the result of intrinsic motivation
include:
 participating in a sport because
you find the activity enjoyable;
 solving a word puzzle because
you find the challenge fun and
interesting;
 playing a game because you find
it exciting.
In each of these instances, the
person’s behavior is motivated by an
internal desire to participate in an
activity for its own sake.
You see that extrinsic and
intrinsic motivation can also play an
important role in learning settings.
As you have seen, extrinsic
motivation and intrinsic motivation
are both important ways of driving
behavior. In order to comprehend how
these can be best utilized, it is
important to understand some of the
key differences between the two types
of upper mentioned motivation.
The first step in tackling the
problem of motivation is that the
teachers need to understand and
appreciate the role of importance of
motivation in any learning. It is a
complex phenomenon and includes

4. many components: the individual’s
drive, need for achievement and
success, curiosity, desire for
stimulation and new experience, and so
on. These factors play important roles
in every kind of learning situation.
The teacher has to activate these
motivational components in the
students but that is the precise problem.
Speaking about motivating
primary-aged learners they need
stimulation from the start of the lesson
to the final minute. From the moment
they enter the classroom, to the minute
they leave, something needs to be
happening. This is partly because at
this age (3-11 years) our students tend
not to be goal orientated. There is no
ability to see the future or to
understand whether their English is or
is not improving. At this age level,
young learners are generally unable to
see past the activity they are engaged
in, so as teachers we need to encourage
immediate motivation. This motivation
must come from the task we as a class
are doing at the present time. They will
learn more if they are enjoying what
they are doing. So remember not let
your students get bored. They need to
be engaged and active. The next key-
elements will help to keep our young
learners interested in the lesson.
1. The Importance of Planning
The secret of good motivation is
planning. Remember the old saying: “If
you fail to plan, you should plan for
failure”. When you are planning, think
about what your young learners will be
interested in doing. We need to
understand and accept how quickly
your young learners will lose interest in
what they are doing and how easily
they may become distracted. Longman
has produced some excellent rules on
planning activities for young learners,
which we really like. They explain in
really simple terms what each teacher
needs to think about when planning
activities for this age of learners. They
are bullet pointed below:
Tips from the Top Motivating
Young Learners
 Plan for the learners’ activities,
not for the teacher’s activities;
 plan for an average of 5 minutes
for each activity;
 remember that children can’t sit
still being passive for more than
two
 or three minutes;

5.  activities where children are
actively involved can be longer
than five minutes;
 be careful to sequence the
activities so children do not
become overexcited or
excessively bored;
 stirrers are activities that excite
children. Any activities that
involve singing or moving
around the classroom will be
stirrers;
 settlers are activities that calm
children down. Most “paper and
pencil” activities – writing,
copying, colouring, drawing –
will be settlers.
 don’t imagine you can have a
quiet classroom by using only
settlers, the children will quickly
become frustrated and de-
motivated;
 remember to balance head-up
activities and head-down
activities. Head-up activities are
when children are looking at the
teacher, the board or at other
children. Head-down activities
are when children have their eyes
on a book or a piece of paper;
 remember to balance individual,
pair, small group and whole class
activities. Children need to learn
to operate in many different
social situations.
 finally, plan for time. Remember
that in a large class, distributing
papers, cards, coloured pencils or
books takes time. Think carefully
about how you will organize
these administrative things
because they can turn a good
plan into an unsuccessful lesson.
Share your plans with the
children. Tell them what they are going
to do during each lesson. You will get
better co-operation. If we get our
planning right, this can go quite a long
way to helping us become successful
teachers.
2. Praising the pupils’ efforts
Young learners really respond
well to praise when they have done
something well, or made an effort to try
something new or something that they
find particularly challenging. If you can
reward this then you will see
motivation levels increase. One way to
achieve this is through a Star chart. It
is really simple and easy to set up.

6. Draw up a chart with all your
students’ names down one side.
Explain to students how you are going
to award stars and what you are going
to award them for. At the end of each
activity or task, or at relevant points
during the class, mark a smiley face or
a star on the chart for your special
performers. Remember to reward with
consistency, while taking time to
support those who may not be able to
achieve quite so well. Getting a star can
really be a great motivator for younger
learners – you’ll see the results in
beaming faces and renewed efforts in
future activities. You may choose to
reward students with a favourite game.
It is also important for you to be
consistent. If the lesson aim has been
achieved, let them know that you are
pleased with their progress. Praise is a
wonderful stimulator and can really
help to encourage your young learners.
3. Reinforce and Repeat with
Fun Activities
Young learners like familiarity,
so if you find a popular game or
activity that your youngsters enjoy,
don’t be afraid to use it frequently. This
will help to ensure that there is some
continuation from lesson to lesson, and
you will be able to see if students have
learnt the work.
4. Vary your material
Even though students do like
familiar activities, it is still important to
vary your material.
After all, students will get bored
with doing the same type of activity
day in day out. So use a variety of
different materials: TV / video
programmes for visual stimulation,
games for active participation.
Alternatively, use colourful images
from the Internet or use paints and
colouring pens/pencils to get students
doing interesting activities in English.
Speaking about senior students
we hear the utterance “my students are
so unmotivated”. Teenagers are clearly
different. This is an age at which
everything changes. They aren’t
usually the most talkative of age
groups. Naturally, this can leave us as
teachers feeling frustrated and
discouraged by their perceived lack of
interest. Nevertheless, teens aren’t that
different and by no means unreachable
in terms of motivation. How can we
make our lessons motivating? I think

7. that it’s the job of the teacher to keep
students motivated. The primary thing
is interest. Those people who have an
interest in teaching should be teachers.
“No one should teach who is no
in love with teaching”. Margaret E.
Sangster (1838-1912), US author said.
And also, on the side of the students,
you have to motivate and create interest
in students.
As Jerome Bruner, “the best way
to create interest in a subject is to
render it worth knowing, which means
to make the knowledge gained usable
in one’s thinking beyond the situation
in which learning has occurred”.
Teaching a class full of motivated
students is enjoyable for teacher and
student alike. Some students are self-
motivated, with a natural love of
learning. But even with the students
who don’t have this natural drive, a
great teacher can make learning fun
and inspire them to reach their full
potential. We have to apply techniques
which will have long-term success and
will generate the desired atmosphere
and motivate the learners.
Among the variety ways of
motivations I’d like to point out the
following effective ones to get your
students excited about learning.
1. Making sure their students
of the future benefits of
learning English
“When will I ever need this?”
This question, too often heard in the
classroom, indicates that a student is
not engaged. If a student doesn’t
believe that what they’re learning is
important, they won’t want to learn, so
it’s important to demonstrate how the
subject relates to them, draw
connection to real life. Really amaze
them by telling them that they may use
it in their future career, for educational
purposes and future travel.
Showing them that a subject is
used everyday by “real” people gives it
new importance. They have to
recognize linguistic benefits. And it’ll
help to increase the learners goal-
orientedness.
2. Being aware of students’
interests
The first step in capturing our
students’ interest is to find ways to

8. respond to what interest them. It’s good
at the start of the course to conduct
some kind of survey or questionnaire
on the topics they are interested in. It’s
great to get regular feedback from our
students in adjusting our plans.
Teachers should try to take into
account their interests while preparing
to the classes during the course.
No doubt every teacher from
time to time has no ideas about original
beginning of the lessons!!!
 How to attract your students’
attention?
 How to catch their eyes on
youself?
 How to be interesting for them?
(your smart students)
10 Useful TIPS how to surprise
your students at the beginning
of the lesson
1. Begin the lesson with your
favourite poem and discuss it
with your students.
2. Discuss the latest music news
(cinema, sport and so on).
3. Watch interesting Video and
share your opinions.
4. Ask your students to wish each
other something pleasant.
5. Discuss a proverb and give some
examples from their life.
6. Discuss an unusual photo.
7. Make a creative picture from
photos and titles of newspapers
and magazines.
8. Give your students unusual
things and ask them to advert
them.
9. Ask them to continue a funny
story.
10. Give your students rhymes and
ask them to create a poem.
3. Clear goal setting
Students should always, at all
stages, know what they are going and
why they are doing it. This is necessary
not only so they will feel a certain
satisfaction about their achievement at
the end of the lesson, but also for good
motivation throughout the lesson.
Research has also shown that students
are more attentive to their work if the
teacher explains the goals of the lesson.
4. Encouraging students for
their own learning and
developing a good
relationship with the
learners

9. Let’s begin with a story about
stubborn donkeys, carrots, and sticks.
There are, the proverb says, two ways
of encouraging donkeys to move. One
is to dangle a carrot at the front end of
the beast and the second to apply a
stick at the other end. Which is more
effective depends on the nature of the
particular animal. So what ways of
motivating students to choose depend
on extrinsic and intrinsic goals.
(Extrinsic goals such as
financial success, appearance, pay,
promotion, feedback and popularity /
fame have been specifically contrasted
with intrinsic goals such as
community, close relationship, and
personal growth, responsibility.)
Or, to put this another way, the
soft skills involved in teaching can be
much more powerful than the rewards
students can see waiting at the end of
their course.
Students look at teachers for
approval and positive reinforcement,
and are more likely to be enthusiastic
about learning if they feel their work is
recognized and valued. You should
encourage open communication and
free thinking with your students to
make them feel important. With every
opportunity, encourage your students
that they are making progress in their
language learning. Point out to them
the areas in which you see progress and
improvement. For areas in which a
student struggles, try to portray a
picture of what success will look like.
Encouraging your students ti visualize
their success will aid them in
accomplishing those goals you set
before them. If your classroom is a
friendly place where students feel
heard and respected, they will be more
eager to learn and cope with tasks. It’s
important to praise students’ efforts
using encouraging words such as “good
job”, “nice work”, “well done”, “I’m
proud of you”, “You’ve done the best”
and so on.
5. Getting them involved in
order to develop
responsibility
One way to encourage students
and teach them responsibility is to get

10. them involved in the teaching process.
To stimulate learners to be active
participants and have sense of
ownership we have to give each of
them a job to do. Give students the
responsibility of tidying up or
decorating the classroom with posters,
pictures. Assign a student to erase the
blackboard or pass out materials.
Collaboration with the students is a
good way to develop responsibility. It’s
good to combine efforts with them
while preparing for the classes. For
example, you may ask learners to
create flash cards to reinforce their
vocabulary or make word puzzles to be
solved by others. You may ask them to
bring their art projects or unwanted
toys to use as fun resourses. Having
children involved in creating the
visuals that are related to the lesson
helps engage students in the learning
process.
6. “Pair work” or “Group
work”
One of the successful ways, if
the teacher is resourceful and skillful
enough, to impetus his / her students to
participate in the lesson is using “Pair
work” or “Group work” appropriately.
Competition is the great way to
motivate students. You can also group
your class into teams and set them to a
challenge.
 Who can collect the most
authentic examples of the
grammatical structure you are
currently studying?
 Which team can write the most
entertaining skit with this week’s
vocabulary words?
Whatever you are studying, there
is some way to add some competition
to the mix. Giving students a sense of
ownership allows them to feel
accomplished and encourages active
participation in class. Language is best
learned through the close collaboration
and communication among students.
This type of collaboration results in
benefits for all or both learners. In fact,
learners can help each other while
working on different types of tasks
such as writing dialogues, interviews,
drawing pictures and making
comments about them, play roles, etc.
You see pair work is learner-centered,
the teachers’ role is less dominant. The
teacher must monitor the learners’
performance in order to provide
feedback and help where necessary.

11. Researches on Second Language
Acquisition have shown that learners
have differences in mastering skills.
While one students is good in drawing,
another can be good in expressing ideas
verbally; a third other student can be
good at role play and imitation.
Besides, some students find it less
stressful to learn certain rules or usages
of language from their pears and
comrades than from their teacher.
Finally, communicative language
teaching requires a sense of community
and an environment of trust and mutual
confidence which “pair work” or
“Group work” can provide.
7. Avoiding error correction
It’s always asked whether we
should correct all students’ errors,
whenever they occur. The reasonable
answer is that if we stop at every single
error this will lead to a gap of
communication and students will be
too much afraid of making mistakes.
Hence, due to being too much obsessed
with making errors, students will be too
much reluctant to participate. Thus,
teachers should be aware of when to
correct errors and how to do that
without any hurt and humiliation.
Teachers’ task is to create a positive
atmosphere where making mistakes
isn’t a cardinal sin!
8. Using the L1 in the EFL /
ESL classroom
Should we or shouldn’t we use
the students’ first language (L1) in the
classroom? This is one of the questions
which most divides EFL / ESL
teachers, whether they are for it or
against it. The main argument against
the use of the L1 in language teaching
is that students will become dependent
on it, and not even try to understand
meaning from context and explanation,
or express what they want to say within
their limited command of the target
language (L2). Instead of punishing the
students for using L1, be supportive of
every effort at using English and it’ll
inspire them for further learning.
9. Giving positive feedback
Give feedback on what the
learners have done, not only the end
product and language but also the
process they went through, the way
they cooperated with each other.
Always find something positive to
comment on. So giving frequent

12. positive feedback will supportstudents’
beliefs that they can do well and they
are valued members of the learning
process.
10.Increasing the learners’
linguistic self-confidence
From the start of class, your
students have to know what they need
to accomplish, and they have to know
that their success will be completely
dependent upon themselves. This will
get them to be self-motivated learners
and help them engage themselves in the
learning process.
11.Promoting learner
autonomy
Autonomy – it’s the readiness
and ability to take charge of
one’s own learning inside and
outside the classroom.
As Clay P. Bedford said “You
can teach a student a lesson for a day;
but if you can teach him to learn by
creating curiosity, he will continue the
learning process as long as he lives”.
Motivated students must
understand that learning cannot only
take place in the classroom. They need
to do extra study or self-study outside
the classroom. And it helps to make
students more responsible and aware of
improving English. Of course, there are
so many material available, both online
and offline, that will meet students’
individual interests. Getting students to
do website evaluations can be a way of
capitalizing on their curiosity. As to the
classroom, a useful proverb comes to
mind: you can take a horse to water
but you can’t make it drink. So we
can set up a classroom culture where
students are more likely to be
independent, though of course we can’t
actually make anybody independent. A
classroom where pair and group work
are prominent is more likely to promote
autonomy than lockstep teaching,
where everyone’s doing the same thing
at the same time. A teacher who
explains, or better still asks for reasons,
why certain tasks and activities are
done, is also going to help. There are
other general ideas: do your students
self-evaluable regularly? Do you talk to
them about what kind of learners they
are? You could always try a classroom
survey activity like this as a way into
discussion on the topic.
Find someone who…

13.  likes to be corrected when they
make a mistake;
 keeps a vocabulary book,
 listens to songs in English and
learns the lyrics;
 is good at explaining what they
mean when they don’t know a
word;
 keeps a learner diary,
 thinks it’s more important to be
fluent than accurate,
 spends time on the workbook
every week,
 records his / her own voice at
home,
 chats / emails / surfs often in
English
 looks up new words in a
dictionary while reading.
And when students go wrong
with their English, point them in the
direction they need to mend their error
rather than tell them the right answer.
12.Creating a desirable
classroom climate for
learning
Avoid monotony by changing
around the structure of your class using
a variety of learning activities. Teach
through different kinds of activities and
discussions instead of lectures,
encourage students to debate and
enrich the subject matter with visual
aids, like colorful charts, flash cards,
diagrams, videos, and so on. You can
even show a movie that effectively
illustrates a topic or theme. Videos
have always had enormous potential in
the language class and enhance
students’ motivation for learning
English. Nowadays using visual stimuli
is much easier – and much more
motivating. Your physical classroom
should never be boring: use posters,
models, seasonal themes to decorate
your classroom, and create a warm,
stimulating environment. The
classroom atmosphere can facilitate
good relationships and an atmosphere
conductive to learning. Displaying
students’ projects will increase their
self-esteem. Realia helps in teaching
English. It’s an authentic material that
helps the teacher to overcome
classroom artificially. The other easy
way into sensory stimulation is through
the ears. Like the man said, music has
charms to soothe a savage breast, to
soften the rocks, or bend a knotted
oak… or in classroom terms it can
shape atmospheres and can help in

14. teaching process. Learners respond
enthusiastically to songs. Using songs
in classroom has a whole range of
advantages:
 creating a positive feeling for
language learning;
 awaking interest during the
lesson;
 stimulating students to greater
oral participation;
 breaking the monotony of the
day, change dynamics;
 contextual grammar learning
through songs, jazz chants is
integrated and communicative.
When singing a song the
students learn the grammar item
subconsciously and it breaks the
ice in introducing difficult and
strange grammar;
 great effect of music (listening to
Mozart, for example, will raise
IQ, create fertile brains and
promote creativity.
Teachers can elicit students’
ideas about songs through activities
such as prediction, mind maps, word
splashes, etc. Students discuss
questions such as feeling in the song,
what will happen next, write their
responses in an interesting manner.
Students may write and present how
the song make them feel and then draw
a picture of their feeling while listening
the song. Teachers respond to this
presentation and ask questions. Then,
feedback is provided from the group.
Summing it up, the teachers have
to develop students’ positive attitudes
to learning using different ways and
techniques of motivation. Let’s mind
Edward G. Bulver-Lytton’s words that
“the best teacher is the one who
suggests rather than dogmatizes, and
inspires his listener with the wish to
teach himself”. Because where there is
a will there is a way. And our task, as
teachers, regarding creativity, is to help
children climb their own mountains, as
high as possible. No one can do it.
Bibliography
1. www.global-english.com
2. http://blog.english-attack.com/
3. www.teaching_english.org.uk/
4. http://teachcom/what/teachers-
change-lives/teachers-motivate
5. http://phychology.about.com/od/m
otivation/f/difference-between-
extrinsic-and-intrinsic-
motivation.htm
6. www.britishcouncil.org.ua

15. 7. English Teaching (Forum). –
Volume 44 Number 1, 2006.
8. English Teaching (Forum). –
Volume 43 Number 1, 2005.
9. English. - № 23 (623), December,
2013.