The topic: Some strategies that increase students’ motivation in learning English.

Abstract

This study is a report of some ways teachers can employ to increase students' motivation in high school
Albanian clasess. It is important to emphasize that motivation is one of the most important elements in
learning process. If we can learn how to motivate our learners, we can experience more enjoyable
courses. This study shows that motivation increase will highly affect the students' language learning
development. As teacher understands how important the motivation and their interest are, various kinds
of teaching methods and strategies have been applying in the foreign language educational field.
Therefore, this paper suggests how to arouse the students’ interest through wholehearted support
classroom environment and relevant activities. There are two important questions that should be
answered throughout the research:
• Which are the main strategies that teachers can use in order to increase students’ motivation
to learn?
• How these strategies will help students improve their English and become successful
learners?
Key words: motivation, teachers' role, learning process, students' progress, teaching strategies.

Table of Contents

Introduction

List of tables

The literature review…………………………………………………………………………….

• Methodology…………………………………………………………………………….
• Participants………………………………………………………………………………….

• Instruments………………………………………………………………………………….

• The procedure………………………………………………………………………………..

• Motivation through innovative activities…………………………………………………

2.1 Warm-up activities ……………………………………………………………………………

2.2. Creating story related to the topic with students ……………………………………………..

2.3 Providing opportunities for group work……………………………………………………….

2.4 Giving the students chances to take the role in the class………………………………………

2.5 Creating a Power Point Presentation……………………………………………………………

2.6 Activities with Short Video Clips………………………………………………………………

Results and Discussions………………………………………………………………………

Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………………...

References……………………………………………………………………………………….
Introduction

English is a global language and many people are of the opinion that it is a language worth learning.
English is commonly perceived to be an international language. This is because through it we interact
and communicate with many people around the world. Gardner (1985) singles out motivation as a
crucial element of English language teaching process. Guillateaux (2007) put up 2 important questions
that can be asked in relation with motivation:” what are foreign language teachers’ abilities when it
comes to motivating their students?” and “how can they use motivational strategies in effective ways
that benefit the language learning process?”. Dornyei (1994) admits that without motivation, foreign
language acquisition remains with a gap. This study is the result of my long-standing interest in factors
that may motivate or demotivate students who are learning a foreign language. It is also an expression
of my belief that motivational research is important, as motivation has a lot to say whether students will
persist in the long-drawn-out process of learning a foreign language.
Motivation has been defined by Charry(2014) as 'the process that initiates, guides and maintains goal-
oriented behaviour.' It has an important role in mastering a foreign language. Motivation undoubtedly
affects academic achievement. If students know that English is helpful both in their everyday lives and
future careers, they will increase their interest to learn. This of course calls up the help and the
responsibility of teachers to surge up students' enthusiasm for learning another language. The teachers
can have a great role in enhancing the students' motivation. They should believe in the positive effects
motivation has on developing language process. They must know that the focus on learning alone
is not sufficient and that they had better find ways to enhance the students’ motivation because
it is of paramount importance to students’ success. Students work harder and more intensively
when they are motivated. Motivation can be categorized into intrinsic and extrinsic, both
affecting the achievement of students. However, the importance of external motivation, for
example, reinforcement, is not taken into great consideration by many EFL teachers. Some
students may be intrinsically motivated and interested to learn another language, but the
extrinsic motivation can push up not only the interested students’ desire to learn but also it
fosters that of the less interested students. If the external motivation
is valued in the classroom, the degree of students’ achievement will increase. In a supportive
environment where there is a sense of belonging and where everyone is valued and respected,
the students’ motivation will grow and they can pay their outmost attention to learning.
Motivation has a crucial role in learning English as a second language. Lack of students' motivation is
the biggest problem that teachers face and we should do something as teachers to be. Ruth Peters states
that “academic achievement is more a product of the appropriate placement of priorities and
responsible behavior than it is of intelligence" (2000). So, intelligent students are usually out-
performed by less bright students with high motivation. 
Table 1. The questionnaire 1
Table 2. The questionnaire 2
The literature review.
According to Hall (2011), motivation is a key factor in the accomplishment of a particular activity
(p.134). However, teachers usually describe that language learners’ accomplishments mostly depend
on the absence or presence of motivation. In addition to that Gardner (2010) also states that motivation
as an abstract and complex concept is used to describe human behavior. The definition further leads to
learners’ motivation in second language which is affected by individual attitudes and willingness to
engage in the learning process. 
Another study by Gary N.Chambers discovered that” Pupils may have poor concentration, low self-
esteem, make little or no effort to learn , reflect on 'what's the use?' syndrome, fail to respond to praise
or when they do the response is negative, distract other pupils, shout out, fail to bring materials to
lessons or claim to have lost them. They show a lack of enthusiasm to what school offers, though a
good teacher or an interesting lesson may captivate their attention for a while. Then, it will still be the
same situation. Lack of motivation will make them passive in the class but at the same time disturbing
for the teacher while he is explaining.”
Sally Brown has carried out a research into various aspects of the students' experience of Higher
Education with particular emphasis on stress and its effect on learning. According to her”
well motivated students have always succeeded in Higher Education and will continue to do so: the
challenge has always been to stimulate and enhance the motivation of those students whose enthusiasm
for learning cannot be taken for granted.”

There were methods and ways of how to motivate students and create a friendly environment in the
class. Strategies that teachers often use in efforts to motivate students include offering incentives and
rewards. For example: 'If you read a certain number of books, you will get a prize'. Or 'Good job,
Karen'. In this way the student is motivated to learn more and get a new incentive or reward. 

On the other hand, this way can result in long-term damage to intrinsic motivation. So, the student will
only learn for the sake of grade or being the best and the only one rewarded in the class. For this
reason, some research show that immediate actions like 'you worked really hard today' can make
students feel that they are more in control of their success and that their doing well is less dependent
on their natural intelligence. Building relationships and using cooperative learning were some other
methods that teachers should use in order to highly motivate his students. 

 
Generally, motivation can be observed among learners based on their attitude to learning a language.
When they have a good attitude, it has a positive, efficient and optimum effect, and the other one is a
bad attitude which creates blocks and causes weakness for learning a language. In reality, it is essential
and significant for teachers to know what type of motivation it is and how it is formed, captured, and
displayed in the learner. Both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation can activate the learners. Providing a
conducive educational and academic advantage to students, and asking simple and easy questions at
the beginning of the class would increase motivation for Learning. 

In another respect, motivation is an instrument for the learner. That means, the learner uses for
example, English language in order to fulfill his need. In fact, the teacher should know the class should
be in such a way that motivates the learners who have instrumental motivation in order to become
familiar with and realize the value of the learners who think about English language as an instrument
for reaching a particular goal such as achieving grades or passing examinations. 

In order to create the scene above, the learner must have a positive view about his own effort; some
rewards such as grades, academic encouragement and so on should be presented to him/her as
rewards. Accordingly, the encouragement for the students plays an important role for achieving a
good or positive learning outcome. The learner should know that his/her efforts are recognized by the
teacher. Therefore, the teachers should be aware of all their 
learners’ activities. Thus, providing proper and appropriate rewards on account of the language
learners’ behavior is the important and indispensable point. The teacher should consider, pay
attention and strengthen the language learners’ positive behavior. 

• Methodology

1.1 Participants
The participants in this study have been 40 high school students of 2 different schools in Albania.
studying English as a foreign language. They have had English classes twice a week as part of their
academic curriculum. They were chosen to complete a questionnaire about things and activities related
to motivation.
1.2 Instruments
The instruments that I have used on this research are 2 questionnaires, which consist of 15 statements,
7 statements for the first one and 8 statements for the second considering that there are 10 minutes for
the students to answer each questionnaire. It enabled me to identify the intensity of the main strategies
which cause their initial motivation. It also helped me to understand the main reasons and motives
which move the student to study English as a foreign language.

1.3 The procedure

The students were provided with some statements about the motivation in learning English as a foreign
language. They were also related with the factors or strategies that enhance their learning and increase
their motivation towards English. They had to show their agreement or disagreement about those
statements. The students needed 10 minutes to complete the questionnaire. They had the possibility to
measure their opinions and preferences on the learning process and teaching strategies.

• Motivation through innovative activities

2.1 Creating Story Related to the topic (or Culture) with the Students
It is a group work activity. In this activity, student’s responsibility is to create the story
(based on true story, love story, made-up story), to write dialogue, to perform it in front of the
class, and so on. Teacher’s responsibility is to separate the students into groups and divide the job of
each one.
It will cause:

• Increasing students’ talking time and decreasing the teacher’s talking time
• Getting more opportunities for communication and friendship
• Brainstorming ideas and improving critical thinking
• Developing self-reliance
• Sharing opinions, experience and knowledge with each other

2.2 Warm-up activities

It is a useful and a short-term activity that takes about 5 or 10 minutes at the beginning of the lesson. It
makes students active in learning the target language. In order to make up a warm-up activity the
teachers’ responsibility is to understand what students already know about the topic. The teacher may
ask a set of questions related to the topic, for example’ how was the last summer?” did you enjoy it”
etc. A warm-up activity is a preparatory stage of another long-term activity. It also gives students
opportunities to show their prior knowledge acquired from educational institute or from encountered
knowledge.

2.3 Provide opportunities for group work.

The importance of group cooperation in fostering students’ motivation can not be denied.
Students feel a sense of protection when they are actively involved in group work. They feel
less anxious if they make mistakes and they develop a sense of support of the group members.
So their motivation will go up to help each other and improve the weakness of their group
members. The responsibility they gain in this sort of activity will surge up their motivation for
being more involved in the activities, and they will learn more from each other. As Hedge
(2000) believes that working together will increase independence and creativity. Students will
learn more when they are imaginative and creative because creativity is a very important
milestone in learning development. In this survey, I found that the group work activity
encouraged even those students who were not interested in learning. I found that 88% of the
students were positive about group activities. They revealed that they not only enjoyed while
working together, but they rarely felt anxious or uninterested.

2.4 Give the students chances to take the role in the class.
Students feel competent when they are engaged in teaching and learning activities and when
they feel they are valued. They take more responsibility for their own learning when they are
directly involved in presenting some part of work in the class. In this survey, I found that
approximately more than half of the students claimed they could learn better when they took
the responsibility of teaching some part of the lesson to their classmates. They said it increased
their motivation when they were involved in teaching and presenting the materials to other
students. Among the less interested students, many volunteered to take part in the activity as
they felt less anxious to the end of the course. They also mentioned that it moved up their
motivation as they managed to take the role in the class.
 • Creating a Power Point presentation
Presenting a topic through Power Point may be the most difficult activity because in Albania students
are not used to stand in front of the other students and present a topic. They don’t have experience at all
and they can be shy. However, supporting and telling that they can do it may help them a lot because it
is a process where the students have the possibility to express theirselves, their opinions and beliefs and
make their research a valuable one. There are 65% of students that like working on computer by their
own. They can easily search what they want by not being pressured by anyone. According to Dr. Fah
Campbell “blended instruction with the use of ICT aids is a significant and a positive teaching style in
students’ English learning achievement compared with their achievement of participating in traditional
face-to-face classes”.

2.6 Activities with Short Video Clips

These activities are very useful for students that enjoy learning English through listening to songs or
someone from the target language. For this reason, teachers can present them a video related to the
topic. In this way they both improve their vocabulary and pronunciation and have fun.
There are many students that are anxious of listening exercises because they are not used to listen to
English and to understand it perfectly well, but they can show a positive attitude towards a video in
English; also they can reduce their anxiety, develop memory, improving concentration and learning
English in a funny way.

Results and discussions

We can easily understand the great importance of English language nowadays. It is the main means of
communication and achieving success in academics. From the answers that the students gave, I realized
that every teacher should apply these strategies for an effective learning and an effective classroom.
The result shows that learners need the help of teacher in order to achieve success during learning
English as a foreign language. Teachers should organize as many group works as they can in order to
make students more active.
Table 1. The questionnaire 1

Statements Strongly Agree Disagree Strongly

agree disagree
1.I am more confident when I take 80% 15% 2% 3%
part in an activity in class and I
feel more relaxed.
2.I feel more relaxed in 72% 21% 5% 2%
involvement of tasks because of
teacher’s positive comments and
rewards.
3.I easily get the idea of the lesson 72% 18% 3% 7%
because of the warm-up activity.
4.Power-Point presentation is 65% 22% 10% 3%
helpful for me to speak English in
front of the people.
5.A positive teacher-student 45% 40% 15% 0%
relationship affects on students’
achievement in target language.

60% 30% 5% 5%
6.I like working in groups.

7. I like listening to a native 72% 10% 2% 16%

speaker during the class.
Table 2. The questionnaire 2: The following activities interest and motivate me when learning English
in the following degree:

5- very much 4- considerably 3- I don’t care 2- little 1- not at all

Statements Very much considerably I don’t care little Not at all

1.Pair-work 80% 15% 2% 2% 1%
exercises
2.Working in 80% 16% 2% 2% 0%
teams
3.Cutting out 79% 20% 0% 1% 0%
pictures,
using
newspapers
4.Project and 60% 25% 10% 2% 3%
autonomous
work
5.Watching 91% 8% 1% 0% 0%
adapted video
records and
films
6.Listening to 70% 19% 5% 1% 5%
textbook
dialogues
 7.Playing 78% 12% 6% 3% 1%
games in
class(role-
play)
8.Listening to 67% 25% 3% 5% 0%
and singing
songs in the
target lang.

Conclusion
Motivational strategies in English teaching are fundamental. Working in groups gives students the
opportunity to increase interest and develop their creativity. According to that, it is possible to measure
students’ ability and achievement because their choice or task is not the same to each other.
A teacher cannot achieve his teaching process without students’ interest. Therefore the teacher must
create an interactive learning and motivate the students by applying different motivational strategies.
Although teachers have difficulty of time limitation to cover the syllabus, they should vary the
activities which can make sure the student enjoyment, entertainment and satisfaction in the class.
References:

Armstrong S., Brown S., Thompson G. Motivating Students. Routledge. 2014.

Chambers G. N. Motivating Language Learners. Multilingual Matters. 1999.

Gardner, R. C. Motivation and Second Language Acquisition: The Socio-Educational Model. Peter
Long Publishing, Inc, New York, 2010.

Hall, G. Exploring English Language Teaching Language in Action. London: Routledge, 2011.

Ruth, P. Overcoming Underachieving. Broadway Books. 2000.

Dornyei, Z. Motivation in Second and Foreign Language Learning. Language Teaching, P.117-
135.1998.

Hedge, T. Teaching and learning in the language classroom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2000.