Professional Development

Originated by Birmingham MA TEFL/TESL students

In this conversation, I asked two university students, Hikari and Akie, about their thoughts and experience of English prior to entering university, as well as their impressions of English classes at university. I then asked their feeling of having the ability to listen and talk to a high-level L2 speaker, and if they believe their experiences helped motivate their learning in anyway. The background and rationale for this is outlined below.

Background and rationale
In 2008, I began instructing in an intensive English programme at a women’s university in Tokyo. The students were all at different levels and it seemed that the lower level students were motivated intrinsically (i.e. one’s own interest, enjoyment, and pleasure), while the higher level students showed more extrinsic motivation (based on the need to attain qualifications, please others, or avoid punishment) (Griffiths 2008). Reflecting on my own language learning experiences, I therefore tried to accommodate my students’ requests, especially the lower level students, to meet L1 persons in the community that interested them to maintain and help increase their motivation levels.

I considered starting an interaction programme with L1 speakers similar to one that I helped administer teaching ESL in my former university’s intensive English programme in Canada. One of the attractions of that programme for L2 students is that all of the intermediate students and above have the opportunity to interview native English speakers in the community that share similar interests with the students, or are in occupational fields that students want to enter. However, I realized that it would not be practical to administer the same sort of programme at the university I instruct at in Tokyo as there is a shortage of L1 English speakers in the various fields that my students have expressed interests in.

As an alternative, I re-thought the interview concept and decided to have the students talk to high-level L2 persons of interest. I first introduced a first grade student, Hikari, to a former student who I taught in Canada, Yumiko, and who works in the airline industry. Hikari showed a high extrinsic motivation level as she expressed a strong desire to pursue a career in the airline industry when she graduates university. Hikari spoke to Yumiko for over an hour mainly in English and talked about the industry that she has her sights set on entering in three years time.

Listen to the interview with Hikari Part 1

Listen to the interview with Hikari Part 2

Recently I used the same L2 student and high-level L2 speaker model again, but changed the concept slightly so that one class of fifty L2 students listened to a high-level L2 presenter, Kanami, who is currently completing her PHD studies in Canada. Kanami spoke of her research at length, but also talked about her English education and the many opportunities that she has been able to take advantage of because of English. This model was used to try to help motivate a larger student audience, intrinsically or extrinsically, in a shorter period of time and in a setting where the students could ask questions of Kanami in groups and thereby decrease the individual pressures of sustaining a longer conversation. Akie, a first year student involved in Kanami’s presentation is not interested in the same field as Kanami, but possesses an interest to travel and speak to many L1 people both here in Japan and abroad.

Listen to the interview with Akie

Your thoughts and ideas
As educators, it is important for us to help our learners stay motivated so that they can maximize their learning, especially when students are studying a language in a setting where exposure to the target language is minimal at best. I would like to invite comments and ideas form teachers on how you motivate your students. In your opinion, are L1 models a better choice than L2 models to help motivate our L2 students? Is it possible, or even practical to try and meet the motivational needs of all our students?

I would like to thank Hikari and Akie for taking the time to answer some questions and share their thoughts. Their comments are certain to be useful to educators when they consider motivational methods in helping heir own students.

Reference
Griffiths, C. (2008). Lessons from Good Language Learners. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Biography
Richard, originally from Winnipeg, Canada, has been living in Japan since 2002. During the last ten years, he has worked as an instructor in an ESL program at a university in Canada, an ALT on the JET Program, a NET and curriculum advisor, and an instructor at two universities in Tokyo. His interests are vocabulary acquisition, SLA, testing, motivation, and teacher training.

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