English teachers should make use of motivation. by Takumi, O

              These days globalization is spreading all over the world, and English is more important as an international language. In addition, in 2020, the Olympic Games will be held in Japan. Many foreigners will come to Japan, and we have to communicate with them. However, many Japanese people don’t speak English well, and don’t try to talk to foreigners. In my opinion, English teachers should make use of motivation to make their students like English. There are two main reasons for this. First, today, English teachers focus on the entrance examinations too strongly. Second, if English teachers make use of motivation well, their students come to liking English, and they don’t feel fear of talking with foreigners in English.

              Today, English teachers focus on the entrance examinations too strongly, and they don’t teach the pleasure of studying English. Many students who cannot understand English grammatical rules cannot keep up with their classes, and give up studying English. I think there is no use succeeding in an examination if many people don’t like English. The most important thing of teaching English is making students like English, and making them study English on their own initiative.

              The second reason why English teachers should make use of motivation much more is that if they can do so, their students come to liking English, and they don’t feel fear of talking with foreigners in English. According to a recent study of motivation, Dornyei, Ushioda(2009.p125), most secondary students in Japan, English has a clearly defined instrumental function, stripped of any communicative function, as content for a series of examinations that profound consequences for future academic or career prospects. Such a condition, students don’t like English, so English teachers should make use of motivation by playing a game, singing a song in English and so on to make them joyful. These are extrinsic motivations. Extrinsic motivations are that people do something to carry out their objects. We aim at an intrinsic motivation. It is that people do something because they like it. To take an example, they come to liking English, then they may study English on their own initiative.

              To conclude, English teachers should try to make their students like English before teaching English grammatical rules. Students don’t identify English as a communicative function because English teachers focus on learning grammatical rules. If students like English, they try to communicate with foreigners, and become better English speakers.

Reference

Dornyei, Z. and Ushioda, E.(Eds.). (2009). Motivation, language identify and the L2 self. Bristol : Multilingual Matters. P. 125.