Coping with low motivation: Building the fire for students

Theoretically and statistically bolstered by numerous studies in the past decades, motivation has favorably been considered as a crucial key to successful language learning. Accordingly, students' lack of motivation, which can seriously hinder the learning process, always presents a tough challenge for EFL teachers. One encouraging fact is that student motivation can be triggered and built up not only internally but also externally, as indicated by many psycho-linguists. In other words, teachers have the capacity to activate students' eagerness for learning because their attitudes and behaviors are potentially modifiable. Although a large number of published papers have specifically addressed this issue of motivation in language learning, not many of them go beyond the theoretical discussion. Against this backdrop, this paper discusses a variety of practical techniques and strategies which teachers can adopt to foster learning motivation in their own classrooms. These motivation-enhancing strategies, with a focus on EFL teaching and learning at tertiary level in Asian countries, will hopefully offer an efficient guide for teachers to make language learning a more fruitful and enjoyable experience. © Common Ground, Boi Hoang Nguyen, Sun Hee Jang, Yang Yang.