How do you motivate your students?

Motivation, Teaching Practices, Teaching Styles 1comments

How do you Motivate your Students?:

5 types of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation

After watching the video produced by the BBC-Learning English recorded at the IATEFL Conference 2011, I wanted to explore the topic myself: “What do you do to motivate your students?” Bearing in mind that there is a dual distinction when discussing motivation, I found out that there are several types of “intrinsic” and “extrinsic” motivation that students may have.

u Type 1: In class, a teacher is bound to find students who favor the challenge of learning; people who are intrinsically driven by their desire to quench their thirst for knowledge. On the other hand, the same teacher will find students who have a preference for easy work; people who can be classified as extrinsically driven in their learning. It is not difficult to recognize these students in class, isn’t it? Both types of motivation are valid in class so neither the first nor the second can be labeled as right or wrong.

v Type 2: The intrinsically motivated learner is not just curious but also interested in the subject-matter the teacher presents. Although grades are important, it is the overall knowledge what he wants to get and its applications in real life. The extrinsic learner is much more into pleasing a teacher (or employer, perhaps a parent) and getting grades to comply with what is expected of him in the course. Both types can be successful; that’s why both types of motivation are valid in class.

w Type 3: Because the “intrinsic” student is highly driven by his curiosity, he is the one that can be labeled as “the autonomous learner.” Being independent is what fuels his desire to achieve “mastery” in a given area of study. Contrary to this, the “extrinsic” student highly depends on his teacher to figure out problems and solutions. His critical thinking skills are not “exactly” developed. Once again, you can see how this sort of student has peopled our classrooms and is not that enthusiastic.

x Type 4. The “intrinsic” learner, whose learning autonomy and critical thinking skills are well-developed, is the type of person who can make timely decisions and does not rely on his instructor’s judgment. He is the type that takes control of his learning to keep up with his curiosity and interest. The “extrinsic” learner develops a “reliance” on his teacher’s judgment about what to do next. This “extrinsic” type cannot go beyond if there is no teacher’s approval or guidance; he is far away from autonomous learning.

y Type 5: Both “intrinsic” and “extrinsic” pupils can work hard towards success, but the source of criteria to be successful changes. The “intrinsically-motivated” student finds his source within himself. That is, based on self-assessment and his ultimate learning objective, he knows when he feels satisfied in his success. The external criteria that marks success for the “extrinsic” learner comes from his surroundings: the approval of his teachers, employers, and his acceptance in various groups he longs to part of.

The motivation distribution for learners can also be applied to teachers as well. But beyond who the one being motivated is the certainty that motivation can be shifted at some point. However, the question “how do you motivate students?” is not yet answered.

It seems that now we have a clear distinction of both types of learners, we can now plan activities for both types of motivation.

A	How do you motivate your students?
B	First, by understanding that all students have different kinds of motivation. Then, taking into account their motivational drive, I can create tasks that can yield memorable learning.
A	Why memorable learning?
B	Students who get knowledge through memorable learning will always achieve the learning outcomes in my lesson plan and in the curricula. Finding the way they get motivated can be used to foster their learning and may lead to some autonomous learning.

In conclusion, motivating students is important and understanding the different motivational drives an individual can have can be used to produce memorable learning moments. Perhaps, we can shift some “intrinsic” behavior that can turn into autonomous learning and great critical thinking.

ETo fully develop and comprehend this teaching issue, it’s advisable to research and expand these areas:

1	Types of motivational drives
2	The meaning of motivation
3	Motivational techniques in education
4	Memorable teaching = memorable learning?
5	Critical thinking and motivation

Jonathan Acuña

ELT Instructor & Trainer based in Costa Rica

Curricular Developer at CCCN

Senior ELT Professor at Universidad Latina

For further comments or suggestions, reach me at:

@jonacuso – Twitter

jonacuso@gmail.com – Gmail

Other blogs I often write for my students at the university are:

1. http://bin-02.blogspot.com/

2. http://bin-04.blogspot.com/

3. http://bin-06.blogspot.com/

- Abrudan Caciora, Simona Veronica (2008) MOTIVATION IN LANGUAGE LEARNING

Monday, October 22, 2012

5 Vowel Sounds to Take Care of

Pronunciation, Teaching, Teaching Practices, Teaching Styles 0 comments

5 Vowel Sounds to Take Care of:

Tips for New Pronunciation Teachers

Since I mostly work with Spanish-speaking EFL learners, there are five vowel sounds they strive hard to master: Lax “i,” epsilon, diagraph, schwa, and Latin “a.” Let’s compare / contrast these sounds with their Spanish “counterparts” to find ways to help pronunciation students to accurate produce these phonemes.

u Lax “i.” The first sound students have trouble with is the lax “i.” if the Spanish /i/-sound is compared to the lax /ɪ/-sound in English, the first important feature is the tenseness present in the Spanish vowel. Actually the /i/-sound is much tenser than the English /ɪ/. That is, that the /i/-sound is quite similar to the tense /iy/ occurring in English dialects. /ɪ/ is not a phoneme or allophone in standard Spanish. We can find /ɪ/ as an allophonic difference among female vernacular Nicaraguan Spanish speakers.

N TIP for teachers: Help students get rid of tenseness in their jaw muscles. By relaxing their muscles they can produce lax “i" sounds quite accurately. But if tension is present, it will sound like /i/ or /iy/ vowel sounds.

v Epsilon. The second sound that gives students a hard time in Spanish-speaking contexts where EFL is taught is the /ɛ/ or epsilon. The /ɛ/-vowel sound is also a lax sound in English, and this implies the absence of tension in one’s muscles. The Spanish /e/ is very tense if compared to /ɛ/, which is not even a standard allophone in Spanish. Some Peruvian indigenous inhabitants, for instance, do include an epsilon in their vowel repertoire when speaking in Spanish, but that is related to the influence Kechwa, their mother tongue, has over their Spanish as a second language.

N TIP for teachers: As in the /ɪ/-sound in English, the student must learn to relax their jaw muscles when pronouncing /ɛ/. Any sort of tenseness in an epsilon pronunciation will make the /e/-vowel sound like it does in Spanish

w Diagraph. A third sound Spanish speakers have trouble with is the /æ/-vowel sound. Many speakers confuse this vowel phoneme with the Spanish vowel /ɐ/ (like in “nada”). The English diagraph has a “smiling effect” that the Spanish /ɐ/ does not have: English native speakers do “smile” a bit when pronouncing /æ/. The diagraph is a vowel phoneme that is not present in Spanish dialects, but it can be found in French dialects.

N TIP for teachers: As with any new sound, which is not part of the students’ vowel repertoire, model it for students. If possible, by means of a mouth picture, have students stand in front of a mirror so they can see how their mouth needs to be shaped to fully produce the /æ/ sound in English.

x The Schwa. Several languages, such as French, include /ʌ/ (/ǝ/ in some manuals) or schwa vowel allophones; unfortunately, Spanish is not one of them. As a consequence, students must learn how to position and relax their mouth articulators. The closest Spanish-speaking learners can get to a schwa is by saying “uh-uh” or “u-huh,” which are commonly used to express “no” or “yes” respectively. Students get to confuse the schwa with the Spanish /o/ or /ɐ/ vowel sounds. Strictly speaking, a /ʌ/-sound is a neutral sound, which happens to be the most common vowel sound in English. Consequently, mastering this sound is a must!

N TIP for teachers: To really have students produce a schwa and have them hear it clearly, have them put a pen or pencil across their mouth and say /ʌ/. The resulting sound is the expected schwa sound needed.

y Latin “a.” Another American English sound that is confused with the Spanish /o/ is the Latin “a.” As described in pronunciation manuals, the /a/ sound is a non-rounded sound where your jaw is quite low. This particular sound is not present in British dialects where the /ɔ/ is favored in pronouncing words such as “hot” or “dot.” With good modeling and practice students can pronounce this vowel sound correctly.

N TIP for teachers: Tell students that this vowel sound is like the one you produce when your dentist, prior to checking your teeth, says: “Say ah!” That is indeed a Latin “a.”

Mastering the pronunciation of a foreign language is no easy task. It does require lots of training and effort to mechanically produce accurate vowel sounds (or consonant phonemes and allophones). By having students produce these 5 vowels correctly, a great improvement will have been attained by them. A bit of research by the pronunciation instructor on the students’ native language sounds is desirable to really help them master vowel and consonant sounds appropriately.

ETo fully develop and comprehend this teaching issue, it’s advisable to research and expand these areas:

1	Tips for mastering vowel sounds
2	Best pronunciation manuals for students
3	Best ways to model sounds for EFL students
4	IPA and its variations
5	Students’ native language sounds

Jonathan Acuña

ELT Instructor & Trainer based in Costa Rica

Curricular Developer at CCCN

Senior ELT Professor at Universidad Latina

For further comments or suggestions, reach me at:

@jonacuso – Twitter

jonacuso@gmail.com – Gmail

Other blogs I often write for my students at the university are:

1. http://bin-02.blogspot.com/

2. http://bin-04.blogspot.com/

3. http://bin-06.blogspot.com/

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Five Tips to Improve in a Pronunciation Class

Pronunciation, Student Tips 0 comments

Five Tips to Improve in a Pronunciation Class:

Tips for Students

As a pronunciation instructor at the university level, my Pronunciation I students got to ask me how they could improve their performance and speed up their learning. After some thought on this matter, I gave, and explained to, them five basic tips to help non-native speakers to achieve a “better” pronunciation and become “top” performers in class.

u> Practice in front of a mirror. Most pronunciation manuals have pictures that either illustrate or actually show the proper movement of the articulators (mouth, tongue, etc.). By practicing in front of a mirror, the student can double check if his/her mouth is in the right position to utter a given sound. S/he can be critical of him/herself during the exercise and self-assess how the sound being practiced is actually performed. And if possible, a peer can provide extra feedback to maximize this articulatory exercise.

N A good site to help students practice articulation exercises is The Sounds of American English by the University of Iowa.

v> Get acquainted with the symbols. It is quite common to have students asking you why they need to learn phonetic symbols. Their importance relies on the fact that the symbols can help them realize that either their pronunciation is not completely accurate or that they are using/substituting the correct sound in the target language. It is also important that students realize that understanding phonetic symbols will help them read dictionary transcriptions and understand how any word is pronounced. The phonemic transcription is the most authentic representation of sounds produced by native speakers we can have.

N A great site with IPA transcriptions and audio is Dictionary.Com. Students enter a word, and they get a definition and the pronunciation of the word.

w> Drill to make sounds mechanical. Drilling is a conscious pronunciation exercise in which we practice a given sound several times. We listen and repeat words containing the focus sound to force our brains to internalize it. The focus sound is part of a list of words, and some advanced students work with contrastive words to practice two different sounds. Drilling can be much effective if students record themselves to later listen to it critically to improve their sound production.

N A sample site that can help students work on drilling is ShiporSheep.Com. The sites contain ample practice with contrastive sounds.

x> Shadow the speaker. This is a simple technique which includes attentive listening when interacting in or listening to English. The student is simply meant to listen to the speaker and repeat the words s/he says. For instance, the student can start shadowing speakers in class by attentively paying attention to his/her instructors. Another way this can be done is with podcasts and their corresponding scripts. With this second alternative, the student can play the recording as many times as needed and can try to read along with the speaker. A third way of shadowing speakers is by watching TV (movies) with subtitles in English and pay attention to how speakers pronounce the words. All of these alternatives are quite good to improve student’s pronunciation skills.

N A popular site that I always recommend for my student is the one for VOA News, and their section for learning English. The student will find great podcasts and their scripts.

y> Expose your ears to English “input.” As a language learner myself, I still remember one of the best pieces of advice I was given by my professors at the university, “expose your ears to English.” The consequences are simple: the more exposure, the better for your ears. In other words, the student’s brain needs to be bombarded –as much as possible- with English to have it recognize and produce more accurately. The student must keep in mind that reading, listening, speaking, and writing in English will help him/her consolidate their learning. By learning more and more vocabulary, the chance for understanding more and pronouncing better increases exponentially. Encourage students to get a conversation partner to have him test his pronunciation, vocabulary, understanding, etc. The more you get to practice, the better for your ears, and brain, of course.

N A nice site to have students work on vocabulary is Learning Chocolate. There might be other platforms, but this one in particular provides the vocabulary and its pronunciation by illustrating each word with a picture.

ETo fully develop and comprehend this teaching issue, it’s advisable to research and expand these areas:

1	Phonetics for language learners
2	Phonetics vs. phonology
3	Useful sites for pronunciation learners
4	Reasons to have a conversation partners
5	Drilling for pronunciation

Jonathan Acuña

ELT Instructor & Trainer based in Costa Rica

Curricular Developer at CCCN

Senior ELT Professor at Universidad Latina

For further comments or suggestions, reach me at:

@jonacuso – Twitter

jonacuso@gmail.com – Gmail

Other blogs I often write for my students at the university are:

1. http://bin-02.blogspot.com/

2. http://bin-04.blogspot.com

3. http://bin-06.blogspot.com/

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Music and Learning

Education and Learning, infographic, Music and Learning 0 comments

Music and Learning:

How music can boost one’s learning

Around April (2012), I took part in Neuro-Link Seminar over here in San José, Costa Rica. Neuro-Link is a consultancy firm, utilizing brain-based learning and development technologies to develop people. The idea behind this two-day conference was to help us become aware of how we learn, how we can maximize our learning, and how we can transfer this information to our students to have them learn faster and much better.

André Vermeulen

Among the great amount of tips provided by the Neuro-Link speaker, Andre Vermeulen, the music used in learning really called my attention. I have heard lots about classical music as background music for studying sessions, but I had never heard all the particulars why some types of music trigger learning. Let’s deepen and explore the topic.

During the Neuro-Link seminar, participants are presented with the concept of “Brain Fitness.” The term refers to how “unfit” one’s brain can be if it is homolateral. That is, due to brain dominance, we favor one of our brain hemispheres much more than the other. By favoring one of our brain’s sides, our learning turns “slower,” takes much “longer” than necessary, and becomes “harder.” To be brain fit, it is imperative that we integrate, as much as possible, both brain hemispheres. By doing so, and turning “bilateral,” our learning becomes “faster,” “smarter,” and much “easier.”

Music can become an important element towards the achievement of one’s brain fitness. During the seminar, we were also explained the importance of learning how to play a musical instrument. Music by itself does not guarantee learning, but playing an instrument can help us prepare the scenario for some real learning. But even if one does not play musical instruments, listening to Baroque Music, or even Gregorian Chants, can help to set the right atmosphere some great learning.

Here you have samples of Baroque Music, so you can guide yourself in your search for music to combine it with your studying and teaching:

1. Händel

2. Bach

3. Vivaldi

Some other kind of background music for your studying can also be related to natural sounds, such as water, wind, sea, birds, etc. We were told that music with drums is not a good alternative. However, after talking to colleagues and students, many report that they also listen to drum-based music, and it works well for them when studying, checking their notes, or working on homework.

Music can ease one’s mind and set the room for learning. Based on Neuro-Links seminar, music has lots of advantages for the learner: 1) it promotes physical energy, 2) decreases pain, 3) enhances healing, 4) alleviates emotional stress, 5) stimulates creativity, and 6) stimulates the integration of both hemispheres. The power of music in one’s soul is something we teachers (or learners) consider to become much receptive and open to absorb, process, and use new information.

THE FOUR BRAIN STATES
Brainwave State	Wave Frequency	Characteristics
Gamma	29-40 cps	Stress!
Beta	13-28 cps	Practical / alert / performance / doing
Alpha	8-12 cps	Relaxation / thinking / learning
Theta	4-7 cps	Sub-conscious / dreaming / creative thought
Delta	0.5-3cps	Deep dreamless sleep / unconscious

In terms of learning and using music to help you achieve it, we must understand “four brain states.” As we can see in the chat above, though there are five states, the Delta State is not considered a “stage” for learning since it implies deep sleep. At this point we are unconscious, dead to the world. Now, if we want to awaken our creative thinking skills, Theta State is the right moment. With some good relaxing, soothing music we can get to that level of consciousness. Yet, the right spot for learning comes during the Alpha State. Baroque Music help us attain that state, which is the “ripe” moment for learning and thinking. We can be relaxed, and our mind, tuned up for receiving all sorts of knowledge.

Music can also help us enhance our performance stage, the Beta State. In this particular brain state, our minds are alert, and our bodies are in the “right mood” to do, to perform what it is required from us. However, if we abandoned our performing brain state (Beta) and move up upwards in our brain wave frequency, we will get into Gamma State, which simply means “stress!” Some good background music can help us stay within the Beta State when working or within the Alpha State when learning. Don’t forget that a good planning of one’s learning/performing agenda will also help you to be brain-fit.+

ETo fully develop and comprehend this teaching issue, it’s advisable to research and expand these areas:

1	Stress and music
2	Brain states and learning
3	Techniques to boost learning with music
4	Neuro-Link (South Africa)
5	Best brain states for learning and performing