Helping Unmotivated Students Improve Their English Skills

Helping Unmotivated Students Improve Their English Skills

Question: How do you handle students that are unmotivated to improve their English? How do you reach someone that is only taking classes because their job demands it?

In my opinion, we shouldn't have to "reach" students. English language teachers are not typically social workers. Adult English language learners should be "adult" enough to understand that they are the ones who enrolled in English classes for their own purposes. Therefore, they should be meeting us halfway.

Many of our learners want to use English, not just learn or hear about it from teachers.

On the other hand, perhaps these customers are the victims of classroom experiences where the teacher simply focuses rigidly on the lesson. Many of our learners want to use English, not just learn or hear about it from teachers. 

As a result, they may become demotivated in this type of learning environment and think every English class and every English teacher is the same. I’ve encountered this far too many times. 

A third reason is that some teachers may overcorrect their students. As a result, these students feel they can’t say anything right, and just remain quiet, giving little effort.

That said, when I encounter customers with this lack of motivation (and it is fairly often), I look for their interests. I try to find something practical to talk about whether it’s branching off from their introduction or asking about their interests. 

... adult ESL learners may actually be interested in the lesson topic rather than free-talking.

And perhaps to the surprise of some teachers reading this, adult ESL learners may actually be interested in the lesson topic rather than free-talking. So that may be another demotivator as well.

But it doesn’t stop there. Language learners must be allowed to respond. As ESL teachers, we need to find ways to provide non-disruptive, discreet feedback. I often use the chat feature in classrooms or other meeting software to accomplish this. 

Instead of interrupting students while they speak, I type feedback in the chat. That permits them to continue speaking while seeing where they can make improvements (even incorporate it into their responses).

There are more things we can do such as ... 

(1) simply being quiet enough to let learners speak, 

(2) politely encouraging them to answer questions with more detail, and 

(3) challenging them to give more information in their answers by telling them that it offers them more opportunities to practice using the language while the teacher can give them feedback (i.e., the more they speak, the more feedback we can provide to help them improve), and so on. 

But that's another answer. 

END

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Author: Jerry S. 

Author bio: Jerry is a marketplace English language trainer of 21 years and Senior TESOL Certificate Instructor affiliated with Midwest Education Group, with a wide range of experience and education ranging from bachelor to doctorate degrees in various fields, who writes articles, blogs, ESL e-learning materials, academic papers, and more. 

Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash