1. School of something FACULTY OF OTHER School of Modern Languages and Cultures FACULTY OF ARTS Enhancing MFL teaching for new tutors. 19/09/2008 Student participation and motivation Antonio Martínez-Arboleda Senior Teaching Fellow. Spanish Language Departmental Co-ordinator. Sponsored by The Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies (University of Southampton) and the University of Leeds Graduate School for the Faculty of Arts.

2. Plan for the session: 1. Motivation in language learning: what makes learners work hard, want to learn, enjoy and engage positively with the tasks? 2. Ways of improving motivation. Is there anything that the teacher can do at all? 3. Effective techniques to improve participation in the language class 4. Problem situations and how to solve them 5. Selected bibliography 6. Acknowledgements and thanks 1. School of something FACULTY OF OTHER School of Modern Languages and Cultures FACULTY OF ARTS

3. 1.Motivation in language learning: what makes learners work hard, want to learn, enjoy and engage positively with the tasks? Think about your personal experience as a language learner at university, focusing on your motivation to learn another language or the motivation of your classmates. Try to concentrate on reflecting upon one specific year of your degree, rather than the degree as a whole. If there are two or more groups or participants in this workshop, make sure that not everyone covers the same year of their experiences. After a few minutes of reflection or group discussion, please decide which are, in your opinion, the three most powerful sources of student motivation in your experience as a learner (What makes students work hard, have a constant desire to learn the language and enjoy the learning process). Try to place the three motivational factors or sources of motivation in order of importance. School of Modern Languages and Cultures FACULTY OF ARTS

4. Did you include in your list any of the following sources of motivation?  Good tutor/good rapport with tutor  Engaging/interesting activities  Sound well organised language programme  Good rapport with peers  Need /desire to get good marks  Recognition in the classroom by peers and tutor  Recognition by tutor through feedback  Self-esteem provoked by task mastery  Love for the language  Love for the people / country of the language What role do you think that these factors can play in the learning process? Can you think of some others? Could you try to classify the factors listed above in four categories? School of something FACULTY OF OTHER School of Modern Languages and Cultures FACULTY OF ARTS

5. Motivation in Year 1 and Final Year students.MOV Many thanks to Bettina Hermoso (School of Modern Languages and Cultures of the University of Leeds) for her video contribution. If you would like to send a video on motivation and participation in language learning for future updates to this presentation, please contact Antonio Martínez-Arboleda sllama@leeds.ac.uk School of something FACULTY OF OTHER School of Modern Languages and Cultures FACULTY OF ARTS Listen to what one of our colleagues has to say about motivation of language students at University depending on what year they are in. Do you agree with her? (Click on link below to see video)

6. 2. Ways of improving motivation. Is there anything that the teacher can do at all? A. Improving Attitudes Towards the Learning Situation (Tutor, activities, rapport, programme) B. Enhancing Intrinsic Motivation – Integrativeness (Desire to be part of the speaking community of the target language) C. Reinforcing Instrumental or Extrinsic Motivation (Rewards) D. Managing Language Anxiety / Promoting Learning Pride. School of something FACULTY OF OTHER School of Modern Languages and Cultures FACULTY OF ARTS

7. A. Improving Attitudes Towards the Learning Situation  Well structured and clear programme  Tasks: well described, achievable, well sequenced  Appropriate facilities and learning materials  Teacher-student rapport and peer rapport  Constructive and prompt feedback Managing Language Anxiety School of something FACULTY OF OTHER School of Modern Languages and Cultures FACULTY OF ARTS

8. B. Enhancing Intrinsic motivation – Integrativeness: Integrativeness: An open interest in the other language group, and/or outgroups in general, a willingness to identify with the group.  Promote cultural empathy with the speakers of the target language  Show the complexity of society or societies of the target language  Show the richness and diversity of the artistic expressions in that language, from film and popular culture to medieval literature  Show the beauty and expressiveness of the language itself, including the sound it Obviously promoting integrativeness has to be done within certain boundaries because we need to bear in mind which are the main objectives of the course (learn the language). We also have to be aware of the level of the students. School of something FACULTY OF OTHER School of Modern Languages and Cultures FACULTY OF ARTS

9. C. Reinforcing Instrumental or Extrinsic motivation  Rewarding excellence by trying to stretch the spectrum of first class marks, breaking the glass ceiling of the low-mid 70’s. (Always within the marking criteria for the module)  Rewarding Improvement: for example, having double weighted final elements of assessment for those students who improve their performance in the second semester- it requires having a second semester assessment that covers key elements of semester 1.  Showing examples of Employability and Social Success of Language graduates. School of something FACULTY OF OTHER School of Modern Languages and Cultures FACULTY OF ARTS

10. D. Managing Language Anxiety / Promoting Learning Pride  Tasks: challenging but manageable.  Introducing variety in the type of learning tasks and the type of assessment, because all students are very good at something.  Feedback: punctual, stress-free, purposeful and fair. It cannot interfere negatively in the learning situation. School of something FACULTY OF OTHER School of Modern Languages and Cultures FACULTY OF ARTS

11. 3. Effective techniques to improve participation in the language class. There are differences between oral skills classes, “written” or “formal” language classes and integrated skills classes and, therefore, the techniques that can be used differ greatly depending upon the type of language class that we are teaching. How to organise a predominantly oral class in order to make the most of it:  Organising space and timing is crucial. All students should be able to establish visual contact with the rest of their peers.  Defining roles and responsibilities in the classroom, including the teacher’s role, with an eye on encouraging participation: a teacher who passes the responsibility to the students (in advance groups even the responsibility of moderating) can devote time to gathering information on performance.  Designing the task. Assessed role plays can offer outstanding results. The role play book “¡Te toca!” shows the best practice in role plays for oral classes (Richard Pym and Mark Allinson, Te toca: A New Communicative Spanish Course! Arnold. London. 2002 ). School of something FACULTY OF OTHER School of Modern Languages and Cultures FACULTY OF ARTS

12. Participation of native speakers students in language class.MOV Many thanks to Dr David Frier (School of Modern Languages and Cultures of the University of Leeds) for his video contribution. If you would like to send a video on motivation and participation in language learning for future updates to this presentation, please contact Antonio Martínez-Arboleda sllama@leeds.ac.uk School of something FACULTY OF OTHER School of Modern Languages and Cultures FACULTY OF ARTS 4. Problem situations and how to solve them. Let’s listen to one of our colleagues who will give us an interesting example of a potential “problem situation” and how he approached it.

13. 4. Problem situations and how to solve them. Do you agree with this colleague? Try to discuss with other colleagues what problem situations they have encountered and how they approached them. What basic principles or rules would you draw from their experiences and your own experience?  Think carefully where you deal with the problem. Dialogue outside the class can be very effective.  Proportional but prompt responses to problems.  There are no quick fixes all the times: patience.  We need to consider the individual: we all are different, with different learning styles, different backgrounds and different expectations. School of something FACULTY OF OTHER School of Modern Languages and Cultures FACULTY OF ARTS

14. Selected bibliography: School of something FACULTY OF OTHER School of Modern Languages and Cultures FACULTY OF ARTS G.García-Soza, CILT Research Forum – “Motivation in Language Learning Applying a model of foreign language motivation in a Specialist Spanish class”. 20th March 1999. http://www.cilt.org.uk/research/papers/resfor3/garcia.htm (last accessed: 17/09/2008) R. C. Gardner, “Language Learning Motivation: The Student, the Teacher, and the Researcher”. Texas Papers in Foreign Language Education, v6 n1, p1-18. Fall 2001. (Last accessed via http://eric.ed.gov/ : 17/09/2008) Horwitz E.K., “Student affective reactions and the teaching and learning of foreign languages”. International Journal of Educational Research, Volume 23, Number 7, 1995, pp. 573-579 Pintrich, Paul R. “Overview on motivation” http://www.answers.com/topic/overview-of-motivation (Last accessed: 14/ 11/ 2008) Yashima, Tomoko, “Willingness to Communicate in a Second Language; The Japanese EFL Context”. The Modern Language Journal, 86, i, (2002) Zoltán Dörnyei and István Ottó, “Motivation in Language Learning Motivation in action: A process model of L2 motivation”. CILT Research Forum – 20th March 1999. http://www.cilt.org.uk/research/papers/resfor3/dornyei.htm (last accessed: 17/09/2008)

15. Acknowledgements and thanks: School of something FACULTY OF OTHER School of Modern Languages and Cultures FACULTY OF ARTS To my colleagues David Frier and Bettina Hermoso for their kind video contributions. To my colleagues Rhian Atkin and Honor Aldred for their patience and support in the organisation of the workshop of the 19 September 2008, where this presentation featured in my session. To Ali Dickens for her support before, during and after the event, including the publication of this presentation in the Subject Centre’s web site.