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«Ñòðàòåãè÷åñêèå âîïðîñû ìèðîâîé íàóêè – 2011»

Ñðîêè ïðîâåäåíèÿ: 07-15.02.2011 (Przemysl , Ïîëüøà

Ôèëîëîãè÷åñêèå íàóêè/ 1. Ìåòîäèêà ïðåïîäàâàíèÿ ÿçûêà è ëèòåðàòóðû

V. Ishchenko, V. Artyukh

Poltava University of Economics and Trade, Ukraine

MOTIVATING STUDENTS: WAYS AND METHODS

Are you having trouble motivating the students in your classroom? The issue how to motivate students is a challenge all teachers face.  Since every classroom consists of a wide array of students, each student brings with them different student learning styles, different interests, and different life experiences that make each classroom unique and special.  There are several ways that teachers can tap into the individual learning styles and interests of students, thus making learning more fun and meaningful all at the same time. This article attempts to give some teaching ideas for how to motivate students and to share the first-hand experience.

The first step we use for making students interested in studying English is teaching the language through extensive reading. Using literature to teach English to ESL/EFL learners can be a fun departure from the textbook grammar, stale articles and stilted dialogues many teachers have to use. Reading stories is not only a way to practice and improve grammar and vocabulary; it's also an interesting way to approach teaching foreign students about English-speaking culture and the history of English-speaking countries.

Choosing appropriate texts is the first step to using literature in the ESL/EFL classroom. The text must be the appropriate level for the students. The content of the text should also be appropriate for the students in terms of their age and cultural contexts. Young learners may have trouble understanding texts that deal with issues outside of their personal experience. Certain topics involving politics, religion, sex or even recreational drinking or drug use may be offensive to some students and they may not be able to concentrate on the subject matter.

During their first two semesters students in the Poltava University of Economics and Trade (PUET) read four books in the original (more than 1200 pages) during their academic year. These books are: 1. Grisham J. The Firm. – London: Arrow Books, 1998. – 404 p. 2. Grisham J. The Partner. – London: Arrow Books, 1998. – 401 p. 3. Hillenbrand L. Seabiscuit. – New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. – 453 p. 4. Archer J. The Fourth Estate. – Glasgow: Caledonian International Book Manufacturing Ltd, 1997. – 551 p. We believe that this approach gives an opportunity to enrich vocabulary, to improve speaking and presentation skills, to develop vision of American lifestyle and business practices.

These books serve a source of essay writing that helps to develop critical thinking and deep analysis of business issues. When students write, they think of things that they did not have in mind before they began writing. The act of writing generates ideas. This is different from the way we often think of writers as getting ideas fixed in their heads before they write them down. The notion that writing is a medium for thought is important in several ways. It suggests a number of important uses for writing: to solve problems, to identify issues, to construct questions, to reconsider something one had already figured out, to try out a half-baked idea. This insight that writing is a tool for thinking helps us to understand the process of drafting and revision as one of exploration and discovery, and is nothing like transcribing from pre-recorded tape. The writing process is not one of simply fixing up the mistakes in an early draft, but of finding more and more wrinkles and implications in what one is talking about.

The other strategy for motivating students which is applied in the PUET for the students of the second, third, and fourth year of studies is Learning Communities (LC). It means classes that are linked during an academic term, often around an interdisciplinary theme, and enrol a common cohort of students. The goal of LC is to build community among students, between students and their teachers, and among faculty members and disciplines.
In the PUET we use Linked Courses which we define as Learning Communities that involve two or more classes linked thematically or by content which a cohort of students takes together. In this instance, the faculty members do plan the program collaboratively.

Six courses based on learning through content approach have been developed since 2000. We call them “Language of Marketing”, “Language of Management”, “Language of International Economics”, “Language of Human Resource Management”, “Language of Information Systems in Management”, “Language of TNC”.

We believe that Learning Communities strategy offers an array of opportunities both for teachers and students. The approach utilizes case studies with different types of activities problem solving, simulation, discussion, written reflection, point of view presentation, mini-research, etc. It helps explore issues in cross-cultural communication in the business context and encourages them think critically to find solutions to business problems thus developing communication skills and skills they need to succeed in an increasingly diverse and technologically enhanced workplace of today.

Faculty members involved in Learning Communities that facilitate cross-faculty collaboration are expanding their repertoire of teaching approaches, continually revising their course content, and acquiring new scholarly interests. Learning community faculty members are also building mentoring relationships with each other and are more frequently engaging with beginning students and general education offerings.
There are lots of ways to motivate students.  Most importantly teachers can show students that they can be great learners.  By addressing the various needs of the students inside each classroom, students' achievement levels will increase and so will their positive motivation.