Speaker
Description
This presentation examines how raising students’ awareness of their own motivation can impact how they feel about their language learning. For the study, students wrote weekly at home in motivation journals about what motivated or demotivated them each week. Data collection comes from 15 university students and includes surveys, interviews, and motivation journal entries. The data show that weekly self-reflections about one’s own motivation and learning can actually increase overall motivation for language learning.
Keywords
Motivation, Journals, University,
Abstract
Motivation plays an important role in learning a language and as teachers, we often try to motivate our students in class as best as we can. According to Dörnyei and Ushioda (2001), “Teachers naturally act as key social figures who affect the motivational quality of the learning process…” (p. 28). Teachers may not be enough though to truly motivate learners. Instead, we may need to have students begin to look inward and begin questioning their own motivation for language learning as they begin to dig deeper into what drives them to continue learning. Starting from there, students can focus on those things specifically and begin to better understand what works best in terms staying motivated. This presentation will examine how raising students’ awareness of their own motivation can impact how they feel about language learning both inside and outside of class. Can weekly self-reflection about their motivation to learn a language help them understand what pushes them to learn and increase their motivation? What can students learn from monitoring their own motivational levels each week? For the study, students wrote weekly at home in motivation journals about what motivated or demotivated them each week over one semester. Data collection for the study comes from 15 university students and includes surveys, interviews, and motivation journal entries. The data show that weekly self-reflections about one’s own motivation and learning can actually increase overall motivation for language learning.
Short summary
This presentation examines how raising students’ awareness of their own motivation can impact how they feel about their language learning. For the study, students wrote weekly at home in motivation journals about what motivated or demotivated them each week. Data collection comes from 15 university students and includes surveys, interviews, and motivation journal entries. The data show that weekly self-reflections about one’s own motivation and learning can actually increase overall motivation for language learning.
Special scheduling requests
Anytime after 13:00 on Saturday. Sunday anytime is okay.
References
Dörnyei, Z. & Ushioda, E. (2011). Teaching and researching motivation. Pearson Education.
| Scheduling preference | Special request (enter below) |
|---|---|
| Title | Motivation Journals: A weekly look into what motivates language learners |