As a second language teacher and learner, I often wonder about the factors that contribute to the overall success of my students. I believe that motivation strongly influences the rate and success of foreign language learning. Therefore, as a language teacher, my goal is to motivate students to want to learn and experience their new language. There are numerous theories about how to motivate language learners, but in my experience as an elementary school EFL teacher and a middle school English teacher, I believe a student’s identity is directly related to how motivated they are to learn a second language.

 

Pierce Norton (1995) suggests that identities are ways of relating the self to the world, and are personally valued constructions. These identities have a strong effect on learners’ current actions and investment (motivation) in language learning. While working at an international school in Seoul, I observed that the students who hoped to study in America or those that attended school overseas often had a higher level of motivation to learn a second language. To me, this suggests that students who have an English identity, or are aware of their different identities, are more motivated to learn a second language. Therefore, one of my priorities is to facilitate and support students to develop an English identity and join English communities. I do this in my classes by introducing language learners to a variety of English communities, by using authentic materials, and by helping students gain confidence to communicate in English.  

 

In my ten plus years teaching in Korea, I have noticed that my students are often unaware of how to join English communities. Since language is socially constructed, it is helpful for students to have opportunities to participate in real world communication. These opportunities help motivate my students to want to learn and experience English. In order to facilitate these kinds of opportunities in my classroom I have created a pen pal system with students in Canada, and I have helped my students join and participate in online English communities on Facebook and Edmodo. This kind of participation provided my students with opportunities to socialize into new communities and situations and will hopefully encourage them to think about their English identities.

 

Furthermore, providing a variety of authentic reading materials provides second language learners access into the target language community and helps them create English identities. This is because students are able to learn vocabulary, complex grammatical structures, concepts, and themes that native speakers are familiar with or are learning themselves. This allows students to make real connections with the target language community and will hopefully develop their English identities. For this to be effective the reading materials should be comprehensible and students should be given a choice in what they read. In my classes, students and I discuss what genres they enjoy reading, their favourite books, and any book suggestions they may have. I use this information to choose comprehensible and authentic reading material. Doing this gives my students ownership over the texts they read. The power to choose their own book creates an environment where students are motivated to learn because they are studying something they enjoy, and something they are invested in.  

 

Finally, in my experience, students are more motivated to learn a second language if they are confident in their English abilities. To facilitate this I design collaborative activities that provide students with opportunities to learn from and communicate with each other. For example, collaborative reasoning discussions increased my students’ conversation skills. Students learned how to agree or disagree with opinions different than their own, state an opinion, support their ideas with facts, respond to others, and follow turn-taking rules. These skills are necessary for effective interaction and many of my students said they felt more comfortable speaking English to others after participating in these activities. If students build confidence to speak in a second language, they may begin to develop an identity of an English user, in turn motivating them to learn and experience their new language more.   

 

Motivating my students to want to learn is my ultimate goal however, it is also essential that I continually assess students formatively and summatively and provide constant cycles of feedback. I use alternative assessments to gauge students’ understanding of the material and skills learned. Examples of these assessments include book reports, reading logs, observations, oral presentations and discussions, self-evaluations, rubrics, open-ended questions, and projects. These assessments are designed so that the content of the assessment matches the content of the instruction. These assessments are not merely used to sort and criticize students. They are meaningful, useful and motivating.

 

Students are my priority. And as a teacher, I believe that their ability to learn is enhanced if they are motivated, engaged in fun lessons, reading authentic literature, communicating confidently, and participating in English communities. I will continue to work as a facilitator and mentor to my students to guide, motivate and encourage their emergence as English users.

 

References

Peirce, B. N. (1995). Social identity, investment, and language learning. Tesol Quarterly, 29(1), 9–31.