MOTIVATING LEARNERS
Learning to communicate in another language takes a long time. It is one of the most
challenging tasks your students are likely to undertake, and they can easily become
discouraged and bored with it. This section presents techniques that language teachers
can use to keep their students interested and motivated by helping them understand the
language acquisition process, connect language learning with their larger educational
and life goals, and succeed as language learners.
A self-evaluation worksheet, attached at the end of this document, allows instructors to
assess their current and potential motivation techniques. A supervisor observation
worksheet enables supervisors to support instructors' development of such techniques.
Section Contents
Understanding language acquisition
Promoting engagement in language learning
Achieving success with learning strategies
Resources
Worksheets
Instructor self-evaluation worksheet
Supervisor observation worksheet
The material in this section is based on “Research and language learning: A tour of the
horizon” by Ken Sheppard and “Teaching learning strategies to language students” by
Anna Uhl Chamot from Modules for the Professional Preparation of Teaching Assistants in
Foreign Languages (Grace Stovall Burkart, Ed.; Washington, DC: Center for Applied
Linguistics, 1998).
Understanding Language Acquisition
To become engaged learners, students need to understand that learning a language is
not the same as learning about a language. When students think of the language as a
school subject like any other, they may learn a great deal about its vocabulary, grammar,
and sentence and discourse structure, but the language will not become a true medium
of communication for them and won't engage them very deeply. Students need to
understand that learning a language means becoming able to use it to comprehend,
communicate, and think—as they do in their first language.
Students also need to recognize that language learning takes place in stages. Interpretive
skills (listening, reading) develop much more quickly than expressive skills (speaking,
writing), and the ability that students covet most—the ability to speak the second
language fluently—requires the longest period of growth.
All language learners have to work through a sequence of "approximate" versions called
interlanguages (ILs), each of which represents a level of understanding of the target
language. Understanding the features of ILs can help teachers and learners understand
and monitor the language learning process.
Uniqueness: ILs vary significantly from learner to learner in the early stages of language
learning. Learners impose rules of their own on the oral and written input they receive.
Each learner does this differently, combining emerging understanding of the rules of the
new language with ideas derived from the first language and other information that
comes from their individual situations and backgrounds.
Systematicity: As learners begin to develop proficiency in a language, they make errors
in systematic ways. For example, once students learn the inflections for a single class of
verbs, they may apply them to all classes indiscriminately. These errors are based on
systematic assumptions, or false rules, about the language. When students become
aware of this aspect of their language skill development, they often appreciate and even
ask for overt error correction from the instructor.
Fossilization: Some false rules become more firmly imprinted on the IL than others and
are harder for learners to overcome. Fossilization results when these false rules become
permanent features of a learner's use of the language.
Convergence: As learners' rules come to approximate more closely those of the language
they are learning, convergence sets in. This means that learners who come from different
native language backgrounds make similar assumptions and formulate similar
hypotheses about the rules of the new language, and therefore make similar errors.
Instructors can help students understand the process of language skill development in
several ways.
(a) Focus on interlanguage as a natural part of language learning; remind them
that they learned their first language this way.
(b) Point out that the systematic nature of interlanguage can help students
understand why they make errors. They can often predict when they will make
errors and what types of errors they will make.
(c) Keep the overall focus of the classroom on communication, not error
correction. Use overt correction only in structured output activities. (See
Planning a Lesson for more on structured output.)
(d) Teach students that mistakes are learning opportunities. When their errors
interfere with their ability to communicate, they must develop strategies for
handling the misunderstanding that results.
If you maintain the attitude that mistakes are a natural part of learning, you will create a
supportive environment where students are willing to try to use the language even
though their mastery of forms is imperfect.
Promoting Engagement in Language Learning
Language teachers promote or discourage students' engagement by the ways they define
successful language learners. When the successful language learner is one who can pass
tests and make good grades, learning about the language is all that is required and
success is defined by mastery of rules and forms. When the successful language learner
is one who has the ability to use the language to accomplish communication goals,
success is defined as making the language one's own.
To promote engagement in language learning:
• Encourage students to use the language spontaneously to communicate ideas,
feelings, and opinions
• Identify informal out-of-class language learning experiences
• Ask students to evaluate their progress in terms of increases in their functional
proficiency
Students' motivation for learning a language increases when they see connections
between what they do in the classroom and what they hope to do with the language in
the future. Their attention increases when classroom activities are relevant to their other
interests.
To make these connections, begin by having students list the ways they may use the
language in future. Have them include both the ways they plan to use it and other ways
that might arise. Ask them to be as specific as possible. For each way of using language,
ask them to list specific communication tasks that they will need to be able to do. Use
these purposes and tasks as the basis for task-oriented classroom communication
activities.
Some lower level students will respond that they don't plan to use the language—that
they are taking the course to fulfill a university language requirement. Encourage these
students to develop an imaginary scenario for themselves in which they have some
reason for using the language. In doing this, some students may think of ways in which
they really might use it, and others will come to understand that purpose is an integral
part of language learning.
Sample Ways of Using a Language
• When traveling in a country where it is spoken
Tasks: ask for directions (and understand responses), purchase tickets and book
hotel rooms, read signs and informational materials
• To study at a university in a country where it is spoken
Tasks: understand lectures, take notes, read academic materials, talk with other
students (social and academic talk)
• To become knowledgeable about the history and culture of a country where it is
spoken
Tasks: read about history and culture, understand plays, movies, and other
performances, interview people from the country
• To provide legal assistance to native speakers who are immigrants to this
country
Tasks: gather personal statistical information, explain legal requirements, explain
social and cultural expectations, describe procedures, understand and answer
questions.
Another way of making language instruction relevant and interesting to students is to
find out what topics they are studying and draw materials for reading and discussion
from those fields. However, remember that reading and discussion do not always have
to be about serious issues or academic topics. Students enjoy talking about movies and
television programs, vacation plans, famous people, and other popular culture topics.
Finally, don't be afraid to drop a topic if students' interest begins to fade. Ask them to
suggest alternatives. When students know that they have some control over what they
do in the language classroom, they take ownership as engaged learners.
Achieving Success with Learning Strategies
Students learning a language have two kinds of knowledge working for them:
• Their knowledge of their first language
• Their awareness of learning strategies, the mechanisms they use, consciously or
unconsciously, to manage the absorption of new material
Students differ as language learners in part because of differences in ability, motivation,
or effort, but a major difference lies in their knowledge about and skill in using "how to
learn" techniques, that is, learning strategies. Classroom research demonstrates the role
of learning strategies in effective language learning:
• Good learners are able to identify the best strategy for a specific task; poor
learners have difficulty choosing the best strategy for a specific task
• Good learners are flexible in their approach and adopt a different strategy if the
first one doesn't work; poor learners have a limited variety of strategies in their
repertoires and stay with the first strategy they have chosen even when it doesn't
work
• Good learners have confidence in their learning ability; poor learners lack
confidence in their learning ability
• Good learners expect to succeed, fulfill their expectation, and become more
motivated; poor learners: expect to do poorly, fulfill their expectation, and lose
motivation
Learning strategies instruction shows students that their success or lack of it in the
language classroom is due to the way they go about learning rather than to forces
beyond their control. Most students can learn how to use strategies more effectively;
when they do so, they become more self reliant and better able to learn independently.
They begin to take more responsibility for their own learning, and their motivation
increases because they have increased confidence in their learning ability and specific
techniques for successful language learning.
Instructors can tap into students' knowledge about how languages work and how
learning happens—their metacognition—to help them direct and monitor the language
learning process in two ways:
• By encouraging them to recognize their own thinking processes, developing selfknowledge
that leads to self-regulation: planning how to proceed with a learning
task, monitoring one's own performance on an ongoing basis, and evaluating
learning and self as learner upon task completion. Students with greater
metacognitive awareness understand the similarity between the current learning
task and previous ones, know the strategies required for successful learning, and
anticipate success as a result of knowing how to learn.
• By describing specific learning strategies, demonstrating their application to
designated learning tasks, and having students practice using them. In order to
continue to be successful with learning tasks, students need to be aware of the
strategies that led to their success and recognize the value of using them again.
By devoting class time to learning strategies, teachers reiterate their importance
and value.
To teach language learning strategies effectively, instructors should do several things:
• Build on strategies students already use by finding out their current strategies
and making students aware of the range of strategies used by their classmates
• Integrate strategy instruction with regular lessons, rather than teaching the
strategies separately from language learning activities
• Be explicit: name the strategy, tell students why and how it will help them, and
demonstrate its use
• Provide choice by letting students decide which strategies work best for them
• Guide students in transferring a familiar strategy to new problems
• Plan continuous instruction in language learning strategies throughout the
course
• Use the target language as much as possible for strategies instruction
(See Planning a Lesson for information on integrating strategy instruction into a
language lesson.)
Learning Strategies for Language Learners
Learning strategies researchers have generated many lists of strategies reported by
students. Those listed here are ones that teachers can teach and that students have found
useful in learning a language.
METACOGNITIVE STRATEGIES
STRATEGY DESCRIPTION
Organize / Plan
• Set goals
• Plan how to accomplish the task
• Plan the task or content sequence
Manage Your Own Learning
• Determine how you learn best
• Arrange conditions that help you learn
• Seek opportunities for practice
• Focus your attention on the task
Monitor
While working on a task:
• Check your progress on the task.
• Check your comprehension as you use the
language. Are you understanding?
• Check your production as you use the language.
Are you making sense?
Evaluate
After completing a task:
• Assess how well you have accomplished the
learning task.
• Assess how well you have applied the strategies.
• Decide how effective the strategies were in helping
you accomplish the task.
TASK-BASED STRATEGIES
STRATEGY DESCRIPTION
USE WHAT YOU KNOW
Use Background KnowledgeSTRATEGY DESCRIPTION
USE WHAT YOU KNOW
• Think about and use what you already know to
help you do the task.
• Make associations.
Make Inferences
• Use context and what you know to figure out
meaning.
• Read and listen between the lines.
Make Predictions • Anticipate information to come.
• Make logical guesses about what will happen.
Personalize • Relate new concepts to your own life, that is, to
your experiences, knowledge, beliefs, and feelings.
Transfer / Use Cognates
• Apply your linguistic knowledge of other
languages (including your native language) to the
target language.
• Recognize cognates.
Substitute / Paraphrase • Think of a similar word or descriptive phrase for
words you do not know in the target language.
USE YOUR IMAGINATION
Use Imagery • Use or create an image to understand and/or
represent information.
Use Real Objects / Role Play
• Act out and/or imagine yourself in different roles
in the target language.
• Manipulate real objects as you use the target
language.
USE YOUR ORGANIZATIONAL SKILLS
Find/Apply Patterns
• Apply a rule.
• Make a rule.
• Sound out and apply letter/sound rules.
Group/Classify • Relate or categorize words or ideas according to
attributes.
Use Graphic Organizers /
Take Notes
• Use or create visual representations (such as Venn
diagrams, time lines, and charts) of important
relationships between concepts.
• Write down important words and ideas.
Summarize • Create a mental, oral, or written summary of
information.
Use Selective Attention • Focus on specific information, structures, key
words, phrases, or ideas.
TASK-BASED STRATEGIES
STRATEGY DESCRIPTION
USE A VARIETY OF RESOURCES
Access Information Sources
• Use the dictionary, the internet, and other
reference materials.
• Seek out and use sources of information.
• Follow a model
• Ask questions
Cooperate • Work with others to complete tasks, build
confidence, and give and receive feedback.
Talk Yourself Through It
(Self-Talk)
• Use your inner resources. Reduce your anxiety by
reminding yourself of your progress, the resources
you have available, and your goals.
Resources
Bialystok, E. (1990). Communication strategies: A psychological analysis of second language
use. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Chamot, A. U. (1993). Student responses to learning strategy instruction in the foreign
language classroom. Foreign Language Annals, 26(3), 308-321.
Chamot, A. U., Barnhardt, S., El-Dinary, P. B., Carbonaro, G., & Robbins, J. (1993).
Methods for teaching learning strategies in foreign language instruction and informal
assessment of language skills. Final report submitted to Center for International
Education, U.S. Department of Education. Available from ERIC Clearinghouse
on Languages and Linguistics, ED 365 157.
Chamot, A. U., & Küpper, L. (1989). Learning strategies in foreign language instruction.
Foreign Language Annals, 22(1), 13-24.
Chamot, A. U., & O'Malley, J. M. (1994). The CALLA handbook: Implementing the cognitive
academic language learning approach. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Derry, S. J. (1990). Learning strategies for acquiring useful knowledge. In B. F. Jones & L.
Idol (Eds.), Dimensions of thinking and cognitive instruction (pp. 347-379). Hillsdale,
NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Gagné, E. D., Yekovich, C. W., & Yekovich, F. R. (1993). The cognitive psychology of school
learning (2nd ed.). New York: Harper Collins.
Gass, S. M., & Selinker, L. (1994). Second language acquisition: An introductory course.
Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Harley, B., Allen, P., Cummins, J., & Swain, M. (Eds.). (1990). The development of second
language proficiency. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hosenfeld, C., Arnold, V., Kirchofer, J., Laciura, J., & Wilson, L. (1981). Second language
reading: A curricular sequence for teaching reading strategies. Foreign Language
Annals, 14(5), 415-422.
Larsen-Freeman, D., & Long, M. H. (1991). An introduction to second language acquisition
research. London: Longman.
O'Malley, J. M., & Chamot, A. U. (1990). Learning strategies in second language acquisition.
New York: Cambridge University Press.
O'Malley, J. M., Chamot, A. U., & Küpper, L. (1989). Listening comprehension strategies
in second language acquisition. Applied Linguistics, 10(4), 418-437.
Oxford, R. (1990). Language learning strategies: What every teacher should know. Boston:
Heinle & Heinle.
Oxford, R., & Cohen, A. (1992). Language learning strategies: Critical issues of concept
and classification. Applied Language Learning, 3, 1-35.
Palincsar, A. S., & Brown, A. L. (1985). Reciprocal teaching: Activities to promote
"reading with your mind." In T. L. Harris & E. J. Cooper (Eds.), Reading, thinking,
and concept development: Strategies for the classroom (pp. 147-160). New York: The
College Board.
Palincsar, A. S., & Brown, A. L. (1986). Interactive teaching to promote independent
learning from text. The Reading Teacher, 39(2), 771-777.
Paris, S. G., & Winograd, P. (1990). How metacognition can promote academic learning
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instruction (pp. 15-51). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Pressley, M., & Harris, K. (1990). What we really know about strategy instruction.
Educational Leadership, 48(1), 31-34.
Rost, M., & Ross, S. (1991). Learner use of strategies in interaction: Typology and
teachability. Language Learning, 41(2), 235-273.
Thompson, I., & Rubin, J. (1995). How to be a more successful language learner (2nd ed.).
Boston: Heinle & Heinle.
Vann, R. J., & Abraham, R. G. (1990). Strategies of unsuccessful language learners.
TESOL Quarterly, 24, 177-198.
Wenden, A. (1987). How to be a successful learner: Insights and prescriptions from L2
learners. In A. Wenden & J. Rubin (Eds.), Learner strategies in language learning.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
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Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
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assessing student use of self-regulated learning strategies. American Educational
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Instructor Self-evaluation Worksheet
Use this worksheet to think about how you help learners become motivated and ways
you can encourage them to become more engaged in language learning.
1. I define a successful language learner as one who can:
2. Ways I treat students’ interlanguages as problems to be corrected:
3. Ways I treat students’ interlanguages as steps in a developmental process:
4. My students’ goals for learning the language usually are:
5. Ways I ask (or could ask) my students to connect language learning with their goals
and interests:
6. Learning strategies I have seen my students use:
7. Learning strategies that could help my students, and ways to introduce them:
8. I have the following concerns or reservations about learning strategy instruction:
Supervisor Observation Worksheet
Use this worksheet when observing a teacher’s classroom performance to provide
feedback on teaching behaviors. Whenever possible, give specific examples.
1. What is the teacher’s definition of a successful language learner? How was that
apparent in the class?
2. How did the teacher respond when students’ interlanguages became evident?
3. How did the teacher and/or the students connect classroom activities with larger
goals and interests?
4. What learning strategies did the instructor teach or model?
5. What learning strategies did students use on their own?
6. How would you characterize students’ overall approach to and attitude about
language learning?
