By
Rolly C. Obedencio
Introduction
W. A. Ward (as cited in Thinkexist, 2007) has been popularly quoted: “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” But how can a great teacher inspire students to learn, especially, ESL (English as a Second Language) if the students’ motivation is dependent on some possible factors, such as ability to understand, language proficiency level, the degree of involvement or participation in any activities related to English study, and some other factors? It has been a problem, however, among foreign ESL teachers to motivate high school students to study ESL (Cerda, n.d.; Obedencio, 2007a).
A natural query would arise, “Why are most Thai high school students unmotivated to learn ESL?” What could be the possible factors affecting their motivation to learn ESL? What could be possible strategies to motivate Thai high school students to learn ESL? It seems that there is a need to investigate the possible factors affecting motivation among Thai high school ESL students, and propose possible strategies or solution on how to motivate them to learn ESL.
This paper uses the bibliographic descriptive method. Sources are limited to secondary written documents on hard copy, such as books and other printed matters, and electronic copy, such as, the World Wide Web internet. This study does not claim to be exhaustive in its scope and methodology, but it attempts to outline some seminal facts which could be bases for further study.
Concept of Motivation
Motivation “is a reason or set of reasons for engaging in a particular behavior” (Motivation, 2007), either consciously or subconsciously, which can either be internal (i.e. self-motivation) or external motivation (i.e. motivation from others, such as teachers, school requirements, rewards like good grades, high scores, and praise) (Brown, 2002, 17). In ESL learning, motivation means “having a real purpose in learning English, or really wanting to learn English for a reason” (Brown, 2002, 17).
Some Factors Affecting Thai High School Students’ Lack of Motivation to Learn ESL
Some factors are known to be affecting Thai high school students’ lack of motivation to learn ESL:
1. Laziness to read books - Motivating Thai high school students to learn ESL is not as easy as elementary students (Stoneham, 2003), especially in getting them to read books. Reading doesn’t seem to be a good habit among high school students.
2. No-fail policy – this is perceived by most foreign teachers to be one of the causes of lack of motivation (Teaching, 2007). Students in elementary and secondary schools in Thailand cannot fail exams, thus causing the student’s lack of motivation to learn ESL (Roeland, 2005; Morales, 2007).
3. Failure to see the rewards (Brown, 200, p. 161).
4. Lack of interest in learning – this is because there is clash of interest between the students and their parents (Krishnan, 2007).
5. Fear of mistakes and ‘losing face’ (Noppakunthong, 2007).
6. Failure to see the relevance of ESL to their lives (Noppakunthong, 2007). Students’ intention was only to pass the course without realizing the importance of English speaking and listening in the real world or career and higher education (Tananuraksakul, 2003).
7. Lack of volition – Thai students only study when told to do so by a Thai authority figure, not a foreigner. Students don’t have any aspirations to learn English for whatever purposes. Besides, they will be able to graduate anyway without being proficient in English, because their administrators let them pass (Motivational, 2005).
8. Lack of listening comprehension skills in their lower grades (Prkuehn, 2007).
9. Teacher factor – a too serious teacher that gives pressure students causes a lack of motivation among Thai students to learn (Suanpang, n.d.).
10. Parents factor – this one sounds paradoxical that students study because it is their parents’ choice, but many Thai parents do not care much about their children’s homework, as indicated by their children’s absence of any homework. Students are left on their own to raise themselves (Ralphlsasser, 2007).
11. Inappropriate level of methodology and approach during their earlier grades, when for instance, they were taught past participles and arduous notes (Russellsimpson, 2007).
Proposed Strategies for Motivating Thai High School Students to Learn ESL
The following are the proposed strategies for motivating Thai High school students to learn ESL gleaned from the same level of age group from different contexts based on some factors affecting their lack of motivation to learn ESL:
1. Instill in children the desire to learn – expose the children to the rewards of learning and lifelong satisfaction (Krishnan, 2007). Create in them the desire to read books so they will develop the habit of reading, which in the long run a motivation itself.
2. Even if there seems to be a no-fail policy among schools, emphasize the desire to learn without being dependent on this policy by using intrinsic motivation, such as the value of learning ESL in the real world.
3. Let students visualize the reward of learning ESL. Students could be asked what it is that they see in the near future as a result to English study.
4. Have a Parent-teacher’s association so that things regarding their children’s interest can be discussed and that the children and the parents’ expectation meet at the center.
5. Create an atmosphere of confidence and congeniality where each one may take the risk of speaking up without being afraid of making mistakes. Emphasize to them that mistakes are fine as long as they speak up.
6. At the beginning of each term or semester, students could be motivated by asking them the relevance of studying ESL. You may take note of this or record this on video and tell them that you show it to them at the end of the term whether they meet their intention or not.
7. Foreign teachers may be proactive in the classroom that they are an authority figure too as the local Thai teachers, and that they can suggest to the students that they go to the library or do their homework. They may seek support from the Thai teachers in exercising such an authority among students.
8. Even if listening comprehension is expected of the lower grades, it is not too late to train secondary (Mathayom) students in their listening comprehension. Skills that have been missed in their earlier years can be made up at this level. Increase their level of exercise until they reach their appropriate level in listening comprehension.
9. The role of the teacher is very important in motivating students. The value of “Sanuk” (fun) among Thai students should be put in mind so an ESL teacher has to be fun all the time, thereby avoiding the tendency of being serious.
10. Use a variety of instructional methodologies suited to ESL teaching and learning. Vary them each week or as often as the need arises to change strategies.
11. Spark the students’ motivation at the beginning of every lesson (Waxler, 2007). Inform the students about the objective (Ross, 2007).
12. Use critical thinking questions, which don’t necessarily need a right or wrong answer to get them interested (Waxler, 2007).
13. Motivation breeds competition – open multilevel competition has been reported effective to students’ motivation to study ESL (Noppakunthong, 2007).
14. Use music to teach (Waxler, 2007). This is very appealing to young people of this age.
15. Use video – use short clips, but be wary of getting it abused or misused (Waxler, 2007).
16. Relate what students are learning to what is going on in the "real world" (Waxler, 2007).
17. Use technology or rather, have the students use technology to learn. Have them create podcasts, videos, web sites, brochures etc. (Waxler, 2007).
18. Use an audio-lingual method by teaching the spoken language through dialogs, drills, mimicry and memorization (mim-mem) with an attention of correct pronunciation (Tananuraksakul, 2003). Begin with a controlled dialog which introduces only a few new vocabulary items. Let students listen to the dialog as a whole from a tape cassette, a CD or a teacher. Let them repeat it sentence by sentence, and act it out or do a role play as a whole group and then smaller groups. After that, let them drill grammatical points connected with the dialog, for instance, polite questions employed in requests. The drills practice a structure repeatedly with some variation of vocabulary based on the assumption that language is habit formation. Tananuraksakul gives some examples of drills:
1.
Teacher:
What language do you think it is?
Students:
It is Spanish. (Cued by a Spanish song)
Teacher:
What language do you think it is?
Students:
It is Thai. (Cued by a Thai song)
Teacher:
What language do you think it is?
Students:
It sounds like Japanese. (Cued by a Japanese song)
Teacher:
What language do you think it is?
Students:
It sounds like Chinese. (Cued by a Chinese song)2.
Teacher:
What language do people speak in Brazil? …repeat
Students:
What language do people speak in Brazil?Teacher:
Germany
Students:
What language do people speak in Germany?
Teacher:
Korea
Students:
What language do people speak in Korea?3.
Teacher:
In Brazil, people speak Portuguese… repeat
Students:
In Brazil, people speak Portuguese.
Teacher:
in Germany
Students:
In Germany, people speak German.
Teacher:
in Korea
Students:
In Korea, people speak Korean.4.
Teacher:
Who is the girl on the right? …repeat
Students:
Who is the girl on the right?
Teacher:
on the left
Students:
Who is the girl on the left?
Teacher:
in the middle
Students:
Who is the girl in the middle?
Teacher:
in the back
Students:
Who is the girl in the back?
19. Give students a chance to succeed from the simpler level to the higher ones (Topper, 2007). Their success in the lower level gives them motivation to succeed in the higher level.
Conclusion
Motivating Thai high school students has been a challenging job for an ESL teacher. A teacher has to understand the concept of motivation for him/her to understand some factors affecting the lack of motivation to serve as basis for proposing strategies. The proposed strategies are not exhaustive, but are guiding strategies to motivate students in their own level, learning styles and context. Further studies should be done in this area using action research or survey to determine a more objective data on the subject.
References
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Brown, H. D. (2002b). Strategies for success: a practical guide to learning English. New York: Longman.
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