Motivation Blog Challenge: Students are bored all the time?
Our students get bored easily, and this is one of the comments I keep hearing from my colleagues. I could offer some suggestions to overcome this conception. As our personality varies, our tone of voice changes. I could hear that some of my colleagues keep using the same tone of voice. If there is not any variation, audio lingual students may not pay attention to us as an instructor. Additionally, we may forget relating everything we teach to students. Once we do not touch upon students’ feelings, it seems complicated to retrieve and use information. As a result, it is of great importance to associate feelings with the material and what is being taught in class.
As instructors, we may reflect on whether learners see any value in learning English or coming to prep classes. From time to time, how learning matters or how grasping any language moves students forward should be articulated in class. If necessary, we could conduct sessions inviting professionals from variety of sectors on how learning languages makes a difference in one’s personal and professional life. Another aspect to focus on is learner frustration. We, as instructors, know how to deal with a module from scratch. In other words, we have the grasp of everything we are going to cover and how we are going to cover each item. However, when it comes to students, they feel frustrated once we overload them with all the items to be covered in class. We may not let them express their level of frustration as well. What if we could follow a step-by-step approach and force ourselves not to cause any more frustration for our learners? We may ask learner opinions after some sessions, reflect on problems together or we may make use of our tutoring sessions to let learners speak up about the source of frustration and how it spreads throughout any classroom environment. In any learning environment, learner outbursts about motivation are worth discussing and taking actions.
Here are some links that may help:
http://www.livescience.com/1308-students-bored-school.html
http://depts.washington.edu/next/storyID_08953.php
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/boring-life-of-sleepy-american-students/106068.article
Eray Sevingil Bilici
Eraycım,
Thank you for this valuable post. I agree on all the points you have addressed and truly believe that reflection after each class is an effective way of monitoring our teaching traits. I tried to record one of my classes last module. To be honest, I got bored while listening to the recording. That made me evaluate the way I teach and what the new generation expects from us as instructors or facilitators:))
Finding the effective ways of encouraging students to use technology to learn English and making the learning process meaningful must be kept in mind while planning our lessons.
Strong student motivation, however, can be generated by strongly motivated instructors. We need to have the necessary motivation bubbling inside us in order to fire our students’ enthusiasm.
Motivation is so important in learning that it is well worth discussing more and more.