1st Discussion Topic: "Learners & Learning, Classroom & Contexts."

Discussion taken from "Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom." (Tricia Hedge, Ch. 1)


Context: at the beginning of teaching a course with a new group of adolescent or adult students.
Objective: create activities (a) to find out their reasons for learning English and (b) to motivate them towards their language learning task.

(a) I would ask them to create a chart called: "My Top Five Reasons for Learning English." If the students are beginners or pre-intermediates this will be carried out in their mother tongue (keeping the English title, of course) because I want them to feel free and be able to write whatever they want.
When it's finished, I would ask them to carry out a survey to find out which are the Top Five Reasons in the class and, finally, I would encourage a short debate about why they think those are the most "popular" reasons in their group.

(b) I would ask them to read the Seven Rules of Motivation (taken from http://www.motivation-tools.com/elements/seven_rules.htm) and encourage them to discuss if they think they may be useful for improving or helping their learning:

Seven Rules of Motivation

Set a major goal, but follow a path. The path has mini goals that go in many directions. When you learn to succeed at mini goals, you will be motivated to challenge grand goals.
	Finish what you start. A half finished project is of no use to anyone. Quitting is a habit. Develop the habit of finishing self-motivated projects.
Socialize with others of similar interest. Mutual support is motivating. To be a cowboy we must associate with cowboys.
	Learn how to learn. When we learn the art of self-education we will find, if not create, opportunity to find success beyond our wildest dreams. Ask your instructors to provide you with tools to enhace your learning.
Harmonize natural talent with interest that motivates. Natural talent creates motivation, motivation creates persistence and persistence gets the job done.
	Increase knowledge of subjects that inspires. The more we know about a subject, the more we want to learn about it. A self-propelled upward spiral develops.
Take risk. Failure and bouncing back are elements of motivation. Failure is a learning tool. No one has ever succeeded at anything worthwhile without a string of failures.

Seven Rules of Motivation - Copyright http://www.motivation-tools.com

I deeply believe that encouraging students to talk about motivation (especially with adolescents and adults who are ready to analyse their objectives and goals in language learning) is an excellent way of showing them that, without their really wanting to do it, without any motivation, attending an English lesson will inevitably become pointless.