Re: Motivation in Foreign Language classroom

Steph

Posted on 12/01/10

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I teach French.

Many students don't speak in the TL because they don't want to
sound silly or stupid. Also, English is the automatic reflex for
them.

Some ideas:
*Give them a list of common questions and answer fragments in
class. Example: How do you say...? What page...? etc. These
should be phrases that you use or expect them to use often.

*Put a sign on the board with English and TL on one side, and just
TL on the other. Then, flip it back and forth depending on if you
want them to speak in the TL or not. For example, I would flip it
to the English/TL side if we are working on a grammar concept that
needs to be very clear.
If, during TL time, they continue to speak in English, find a way
to speak in the TL with them later. This should be a short
detention after class, or during lunch, or after school. The
detention could last 1 minute for each time the student spoke in
English. That way, they are still getting the practice in the TL,
but it's on their time and so they'll be more likely to actually
participate in class.

*The Clothespin Game: Give each student 3 tokens (I use
clothespins.) Tell them that for the next __ minutes they must
speak only in the TL. If they speak in any other language, they
lose a token to the person who hears them. Their goal is to get as
many tokens as possible by hearing other people speak in English.

*Candle: Bring in a candle and draw a mark on it. Tell the
students that they must start speaking only in the TL. Light the
candle. When you hear English, blow the candle out. Once the
candle burns all the way down to the mark (don't make it too low!)
have a reward of some kind. (party, free time, movie, etc.)

Hope these help!

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