Mark Stoneburgh is currently a professor at Institute of Science Tokyo. When not busy with teaching and teacher training, Mark volunteers his time to animal rescue. 

Anthony Page has been living in Japan for nearly 30 years and currently resides in Tokyo, where he holds teaching positions at a number of universities. When he is not busy with his work, Anthony enjoys spending time with his family, walking and reading.

 

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to examine different ways of increasing the motivation levels of ESL students. Initially, motivation will be viewed through the lens of Self-Determination Theory (SDT.) This will show the differences between intrinsic and extrinsic factors and examine the significance of internalization, or the undertaking of tasks more willingly. By focusing on the 3 key areas of competence, autonomy, and relatedness, ways of making students more internally motivated and therefore better learners will be discussed. The conclusion will highlight a variety of ideas that have been proven to motivate ESL students to achieve better results in the classroom.

 

Motivation and Self-Determination Theory

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, motivated means “very enthusiastic or determined because you really want to do something.” Self-Determination Theory (SDT) is a theory of motivation “concerned with supporting our natural or intrinsic tendencies to behave in effective and healthy ways.” (selfdeterminationtheory.org no author, year, or page number is given.) SDT tries to explain how people are innately motivated in the absence of external pushes. 

 

The research on motivation

In their study of SDT in 1985, Deci and Ryan focused on “different types of motivation based on the different reasons or goals that give rise to an action.” (Ryan and Deci, 2000, p.55) Fundamentally, they made the distinction between intrinsic motivation, meaning “the doing of an activity for its inherent satisfactions rather than for some separable consequence,” and extrinsic motivation, or “whenever an activity is done in order to attain some separable outcome.” (Ryan and Deci, 2000, p.55) SDT proposes that external motivation can vary markedly in the extent to which it is autonomous. For example, a student may reluctantly study hard for a test because she wants to pass the first time and not have to retake it, thus representing non-autonomous behavior or an act of mere compliance. On the other hand, the student may study hard for the test because she believes in the potential of the value of the information that she will learn. For example, perhaps the knowledge gained will enhance her career opportunities, meaning that the external motivation is personally endorsed with a feeling of choice. While both these examples show intentional behavior, they of course differ greatly in their degree of relative autonomy.

Deci and Ryan state that “The significance of autonomy verses control for the maintenance of intrinsic motivation has been clearly observed in studies of classroom learning. For example, several studies have shown that autonomy-supportive (in contrast to controlling) teachers catalyze in their students greater intrinsic motivation, curiosity, and the desire for challenge (eg., Deci, Nezlek, & Sheinman, 1984; Ryan & Grolnick, 1986.”) (Ryan and Deci, 2000, p.59) Further studies over subsequent decades have shown that intrinsic motivation consistently results in higher quality learning through increased creativity, greater persistence, better quality of engagement, and more positive self-perceptions. 

It is therefore important that as ESL teachers we try to make the tasks that we set intrinsically interesting in order to motivate our students to value and self-regulate them, independently and with an absence of external pressure. Deci and Ryan describe this aspect of SDT as “fostering the internalization and integration of values and behavioral regulations.” They explain that “Internalization is the process of taking in a value or regulation, and integration is the process by which individuals more fully transform the regulation into their own so that it will emanate from their sense of self. Thought of as a continuum, the concept of internalization describes how one’s motivation for behavior can range from demotivation or unwillingness, to passive compliance, to active personal commitment.” (Ryan and Deci, 2000, p.60)Through this process, students can move along the continuum path from undertaking tasks more for externally motivated reasons, to undertaking them more for, or exclusively for, reasons which are internally motivated. It is this transition that leads to an increasingly higher quality of performance and learning.

     

The Theory of Competence, Autonomy, and Relatedness

In terms of motivating our ESL students to carry out educational activities both in and out of the classroom, “Deci and Ryan postulated that an individual needs intrinsic motivation as well as three intrinsic psychological needs in order to initiate these behaviors and maintain good psychological well-being and self-determination.” (Kowcz, 2015, p.2) These three universal needs are competence, autonomy, and relatedness. Competence means someone’s ability at a skill or in performing a task, autonomy refers to people feeling that they have power over their choices, and relatedness is feeling that you have a sense of belonging. With a clear understanding of these three intrinsic psychological needs, ESL teachers can tailor activities and projects, as well as their classroom management techniques, to increase students’ levels of motivation and therefore the quality and effectiveness of their learning.

 

Facilitating competence in the ESL classroom

With regard to competence, if a student thinks that they have the ability to perform a task, they will have the motivation to keep persevering in an effort to achieve more. Therefore, in the ESL classroom, it is important to tailor all reading, writing, conversation, and other activities to the levels of the students, building on their previous skill and knowledge, but at the same time making them slightly more challenging. Although there are countless examples of activities to highlight this, I would like to give an illustration from a conversation activity. This can be set up in a well-structured way to end with the students feeling a sense of accomplishment. The task can be practiced and repeated with different partners and becomes increasingly difficult each time. It could begin with the teacher modelling a short conversation with a student on a particular topic using an appropriate amount of scaffolding for the level, followed by the students practicing it in pairs, first with and then without the scaffolding, and end with the students practicing the conversation again with a new partner. However, this time they focus on speaking for longer by asking relevant follow up questions to naturally develop the dialog. In this way, as the activity becomes increasingly difficult, the students grow in ability and confidence through practice, whilst becoming further challenged. Also, by continually interacting in pairs, they are able to maximize their output of English. This is particularly effective if the teacher can set up well-structured, communicative activities with authentic materials. In addition, by moving around the room to speak to different partners, the students will be more energized and have more fun than remaining at their desk with the same partner. At the end of this or any activity, teacher feedback is important to recognize effort and to praise improvement. With the example activity above, it is also important to give and elicit correction in relation to the students’ level of communicative ability, particularly with regard to the use of natural, practical language so that they can see ways to further improvement. “In addition, providing feedback on how to master more has been shown to make students continue to strive for greater results after a compliment.” (Kowcz, 2015, p.2)

 

Facilitating autonomy in the ESL classroom

With regard to autonomy, “Giving students opportunities for growth and the ability to make their own choices, increases their sense of autonomy and reduces coercion.” Further, “Autonomy can be supported in the classroom by teachers reducing the number of evaluations and encouraging active student participation, fostering positive feelings that what students say has purpose in the classroom. Also teachers should provide a clear rationale for the learning activity. This has been shown to improve students’ efforts to learn.” (Kowcz, 2015, p.1)

I always try to give my ESL students as much choice as possible with projects and assignments. For example, with a presentation in a conversation class, I allow them to choose their own topic and the number of presenters, and then together we negotiate the deadline, the amount of class time verses homework time that will be allocated to complete it, and whether the students will have any input on each other’s final grade through peer evaluation. By allowing students to choose topics that they are interested in and that relate to the real world, and by agreeing on clear parameters, they are more engaged. This kind of autonomy can also be applied to reading and writing assignments, the structure of final tests, and homework in general. 

It is also important to give the students opportunities for reflection, either at the end of an activity, class, project, or term. This can be done directly by asking them what they liked and disliked, or found easy or difficult about any aspect of the course, or indirectly by asking for written responses to such questions. This feedback can be valuable for the teacher to find out what kind of activities the students enjoy and think are useful, whether they think that the class has enough variety, and if the tasks are either to easy or too challenging. By incorporating the students’ feedback into subsequent classes, they are given more choice about how their classes are conducted. By supporting students’ natural desire for autonomy, we can capitalize on their internal motivation.

 

Facilitating relatedness in the ESL classroom

With regard to relatedness, “In an educational setting, studies have shown that students who feel connected to teachers do better in school than those who are disconnected and do not have a relationship with someone who truly cares about them in the school.” In addition, “In a classroom, when students have a sense of belonging, that those around them truly understand and value them, they will more likely have intrinsic motivation to perform the task at hand.” (Kowcz, 2000, p.2)

Therefore, let me give an example of how I start to build relatedness in the first lesson of a program or a semester with ESL university and college students. My main focus is to build a strong rapport between myself and them as individuals and as a group, and also to give opportunities for the students to get to know each other quickly. I always start the class enthusiastically by introducing myself, and then put the students into pairs or small groups to brainstorm a list of first meeting questions to ask me. This means that they immediately get comfortable with each other by collaborating in English about a variety of simple topics and formulating them into questions. From my answers, the students get to know and feel comfortable with me as a teacher. The next step is for me to get to know the students in the class as quickly as possible, which can be difficult when teaching up to 40 individuals at a time. However, my strategy here is to make a name card for each student to put in front of them on their desk so that I can begin to remember who is who. I then take a photograph of each student holding their name card with my tablet and explain that as my homework I will learn everyone’s name by the next class. Although I’m not always 100% successful in achieving this by the second lesson with larger class sizes, I always know everyone’s name by the third class, and the students seem to really appreciate my effort to connect with them as individuals. 

I also do some kind of student centered and student focused mixer activity such as ‘Find Someone who…’ in the first class because it is an effective way to quickly start to build a sense of relatedness. This is because the students get to mingle in pairs and small groups to find out basic information about each other by holding short conversations in English, which at this point are not overly challenging. They therefore become more comfortable with each other and the subject. A good follow up activity is to ask the students to tell the class a few things that they remember about those that they spoke to.

I also try to make sure that the students regularly work together in different pairs and small groups in all of my ESL classes so that they feel more strongly connected as a whole class, and also to lessen the chance of different disconnected faction groups developing. While this is easier to facilitate in conversation classes, students can also regularly change partners in reading and writing lessons to undertake a variety of activities. Some examples include to discuss the topic in question, to do vocabulary building activities, to check their answers to comprehension questions, and to discuss their plan for, or to peer edit, a piece of written work. In addition, games and quizzes can be used as a fun means of review, and at the same time they build a feeling of relatedness amongst the students. It is also important for the teacher to get to know his or her students better over the course of the term by finding out general information about them, by understanding their different personalities, and of course by accurately gauging their strengths and weaknesses as ESL students. To this end, I try to have a one to one interaction with each student in every class.

 

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is important for us as educators to recognize that our ESL students have a mixture of internal and external motivations for studying English. If we can provide activities and projects that they want to undertake more autonomously, and if we can tap into their intrinsic psychological needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness through tried and tested teaching methods, as well as our own unique ideas, we can increase their motivation levels to produce more positive learning outcomes.

On a final note, I have compiled a list of 23 tried and tested ways to motivate ESL students, which appear below in no particular order.

1. Create a strong rapport and maintain high energy levels

2. Do plenty of pair work activities

3. Avoid teaching too much grammar

4. Learn all of the students’ names and some things about them

5. Praise effort and improvement

6. Give the students autonomy in their learning

7. Vary methods of correction and include natural language

8. Make classes fun

9. Use authentic materials

10. Make speaking tasks communicative

11. Set short and long term goals

12. Make time for student reflection

13. Take the time to reflect on your classes

14. Match materials to the levels of the students

15. Make tasks a little challenging

16. Give clear guidelines for assessment

17. Speak clearly when giving instructions and use examples

18. Model example conversations first

19. Do plenty of speaking activities, including in reading and writing classes

20. Have a 4 skills approach

21. Do review with games and quizzes

22. Have plenty of variety to your lessons

23. Use technology in the classroom

 

Bibliography

Ryan, Richard M. and Deci, Edward L. (2000) ‘Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New Directions,’ Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25, p.54-67.

Kowcz, Adrienne. (2015) ‘Self-Determination Theory: ‘Supporting Students’ Intrinsic Motivation,’ Educational Theory and Practice [online.] Available at:

http://edtheoyblogspot.com/2015/03/self-determination-theory-supporting.html (Accessed: March 1, 2019.)

(No author or year available) selfdeterminationtheory.org (Accessed: March 1, 2019.)

 

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