Onnuri • Onnuri Hall • 11:00
Motivating Young Learners Through Effective Classroom Management
Young Learners • Classroom Management SIG
Young Learners need to be emotionally invested in classroom activities to succeed. Unfortunately, YLs can be easily distracted or bored. There are a host of reasons why it is difficult to sustain YLs’ motivation: activity type, lesson sequencing, language content, time-on-task, the teacher's role, classmates, home life, diet, sleep, etc. The list is endless. It should come as no surprise that creating and sustaining positive learning experiences takes time, skill, patience, and understanding. In this workshop we will examine core principles and ideas for motivating children; we will then survey some practical solutions to improve classroom conditions necessary to maintain YLs motivation to learn.
Highlighted • Room 101 • 14:00
Motivation: Skip the Theory and Go Straight to Practice
Classroom Management • Data collection
Motivation is a complex web of attitude, interest, and commitment. Add to this the cyclical nature of motivation where our learners roller coaster through the ebb and flow of language learning. Motivation has been an area of increased study since 2000, and research has uncovered some of the mysteries of the psychology of successful language learning in that time. However, in today’s workshop we will cast aside theory and instead investigate our own classroom practice with a more pragmatic approach to motivation, looking at what teachers do and what they do not do enough of in their class to motivate their students. Anchored by a previous study (Ten commandments for motivating language learners: results of an empirical study, Dornyei & Csizer) in Language Teaching Research, we will share ideas in small groups by reflecting on our own teaching context.
About James
James Kimball holds an MSc in Educational Management in TESOL, and his research interests include program evaluation, assessment, and issues related to curriculum development. James, or Jake, was the founder of the Young Learner and Teens Special Interest Group and has worked for many years professionalizing TYL in Korea. He is now the Facilitator of the Classroom Management Special Interest Group. After teaching EFL in Korea for many years in the private sector, he is now an assistant professor of English in the English Department of Semyung University, where he has been teaching for the past 7 years.
