Engage, Motivate, Learn Peter Lucantoni

Peter Lucantoni Started teaching in 1979 in UK, MA TESOL University of Edinburgh, lived and worked in Europe and Middle East, now based in Cyprus Author, Educational Consultant & Teacher Trainer for Cambridge University Press Cambridge TKT, CELTYL, CELTA & DELTA trainer and Cambridge CELTYL assessor Examiner for Cambridge ESOL speaking examinations

Overview What do ‘engage’ and ‘motivate’ mean? Strategies and activities for motivating learners Some final advice Conclusions

Engage What does it mean? Make a list of words and/or phrases which you think capture the meaning of ‘engage’ in our teaching and learning context Can you think of any verbs which are close synonyms for ‘engage’? How does the word ‘engage’ translate into your own first language?

Engage Look at Handout 1 Complete the gaps in the nine verbs with a vowel. All the verbs have a similar meaning to ‘engage’ Are the verbs the same as the ones you thought of in the previous activity? Did you enjoy the activity? Why/not?

Engage 1. to occupy the attention or efforts of 2. to secure for aid, employment, use, etc. 3. to attract and hold fast 4. to attract or please 5. to entangle or involve 6. to occupy oneself; become involved Synonyms: absorb, engross, interest, involve

Engage Find nine verbs in the wordsearch on Handout 2 which have a similar meaning to ‘engage’ Four words go down; three words go across; two words go diagonally. Some of the words go backwards! V attract, involve, absorb, engross > interest, please, secure / entangle, occupy Did you enjoy the activity? Why/not?

Engage Here are some examples of similar activities from Interchange 1, 4 th edition (Cambridge University Press, 2012)

Motivate Engaging our learners is the key to motivating them. So what does it mean? ‘Motivation is defined as the process that initiates, guides and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. Motivation is what causes us to act, whether it is getting a glass of water to reduce thirst or reading a book to gain knowledge …’

Motivate Motivation ‘involves the biological, emotional, social and cognitive forces that activate behavior. In everyday usage, the term motivation is frequently used to describe why a person does something...’

Motivate After being occupied, secured, attracted, pleased, entangled, involved, absorbed, engrossed, interested, our learners then have a reason, a motivation, for doing something: to learn!

Motivate Motivation involves three major behaviours: activation, persistence, intensity What do you think each behaviour involves? What are the characteristics of each one? Match these key words with one or more of the behaviours, and give reasons for your choices: concentration, decision, effort, energy, initiate, obstacles, pursuit, time, vigour Did you enjoy the activity? Why/not?

Motivate Many authors say that listening to authentic recordings is more motivating and engaging for learners The Video Program from Interchange 1, 4 th edition, provides opportunities for learners to listen to authentic recordings, as well as giving teachers extra classroom resources

Motivate What are your top strategies for engaging and motivating learners? Draw up a list with your colleagues, for example: provide authentic recordings for learners to listen to Did you enjoy the activity? Why/not?

Motivate 2 motivation experts, Dornyei & Czizer, surveyed 200+ Hungarian teachers, and checked their views on motivating learners Teachers asked how important they found, and how often they used, a selection of 51 strategies Based on answers, the two researchers created a list of 10 ‘motivational macrostrategies’ learners/

Motivation strategies the process increase an atmosphere familiarise autonomy personaliseinteresting promote learners setself-confidence make it relationships increasean example develop clearly creategoal-orientation present Handout 3 - Word dominoes

Set a personal example with your own behaviour Develop good relationships with the learners Increase the learners’ linguistic self- confidence Make the language classes interesting Motivation strategies

Promote learner autonomy Personalise the learning process Increase goal-orientation Motivation strategies

Familiarise learners with the target culture Create a pleasant relaxed atmosphere in the classroom Present the tasks clearly Adapted from: Motivation strategies

clearly create an atmosphere familiarise learners setan example develop relationships increaseself-confidence make it interesting promoteautonomy personalise the process increasegoal-orientation present

There is no quick and easy solution to motivating students to learn more effectively and efficiently Every teaching and learning context is different: the teachers, the learners, the classroom, the resources, the administration, the parents, … Teachers need to adapt to different contexts Conclusions

1 Engage your students 2 Make them curious 3 Challenge them 4 Find out what they’re good at 5 Let them tell YOU about stuff 6 Give them responsibility 7 Shake them up a bit 8 Encourage them to use their imagination 9 Stop working so hard 10 Turn your classroom into a spider’s web Some final advice …

Did we … … discuss and decide what ‘engage’ and ‘motivate’ mean? … look at some strategies and activities for motivating leaners? … did we make some conclusions?

Any questions?

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