Why a Teacher Must Motivate Students
As a teacher, keeping students motivated in the classroom is the most important thing in teaching any subject. A motivated student is a positive student and a positive attitude from everyone in the classroom, including the teacher, can change the entire learning experience and ease quite a bit of tension for everybody. Keeping students motivated can be extremely tough for everyone, not just the teacher but the students as well. The teacher also has to understand your students' level, their interests, and their reason for learning English to keep them motivated.
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This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Benjamin O. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT.
Students Learning Experience
The classroom can be scary for some students, especially students who are learning English for the first time. Although it may be hard to keep the students happy all the time it is possible to keep the mood light in the classroom. The teacher has the most effect in the classroom meaning, they have the most impact on the students. How the teacher reacts is how the students will react back. That is why the teacher has to try and remain positive at all times in the classroom. In my opinion, the tension in the classroom would keep the students a lot more motivated because that means that they don't have a fear of punishment or any other scary ideas that could prevent them from trying anything new in English.
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Giving a Helping Hand
When a student is stuck in what we might call a "rut" it could be a little hard to pull them out of this situation. For example, if a student is having a really difficult time with an understanding of active and passive voice the student might think they will never be able to fully grasp that information and want to quit learning English as a whole. The proper response to this, as a teacher, is to keep the morale high. Just talking through the learning block with the student and giving them the important one on one attention that they need to overcome the situation at hand. That is only one student. Imagine having to do this for a class and they all have a different issue. That is a lot of one on one work for just a single teacher who can put a lot of stress on him or her. The teacher does have to understand that this is a situation that does have a very high possibility of happening especially in a classroom of beginners.
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Students as a Person
A student's personality and reasons for joining the class is something that also has to be brought into consideration when it comes to keeping them motivated. A student's reason for learning English has a lot of effect on how he or she will go about the class and the course work. If a student is in the classroom not because they want to be there but because maybe their parents are forcing them to take it there is a possibility of there being some reluctance from them. There are several different approaches when it comes to a student that is not there out of their own free will. Games, for example, keep the mood light and create fun in the classroom. Receiving praise as a student is a major part of growing in education. Learning English can be very hard for some students whether it be their native language is just the exact opposite of English or they just can not comprehend it. Giving students praise when they have gotten someone right or when they are making quite a bit of progress is worthy of mentioning to them. Doing this can make them feel like they can accomplish a lot more than what they have just done.
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Overall, motivating students is the most important part of teaching a classroom because it makes them feel like they can do just about anything in and out of the classroom. When students are motivated they can accomplish just about anything the teacher puts in front of them. This also gives the teacher a sense of accomplishment because this means that they are doing a good job with their students and can continue having fun and stress-free lessons.
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