How to motivate students who just aren’t into learning English?

For younger kids ….

With younger kids, if you’ve got their attention then sometimes just bringing in the computer to class is all you need.

When you add in the songs & games the biggest problem is often how to get them *out* of the classroom!

For older kids ….

And for older kids, 6th grade and above,  the computers really help but  you also need to give them a more solid reason.

I usually do this by simply asking them what they want to do for a living.

What is their dream life?

Invariably in this day and age to be world class at anything, whether it’s to become a welder or a CEO, a farmer or a rockstar, a world class loomband maker or superhero vegetable means you’ll need English.  (Well, maybe not for the vegetables 🙂

And very often, this is all it takes.

The kids have just never seen the simple link between the English they are learning in class and their big dream.

Once you show them, very often, they’re hooked!

And for those in between ….  The Cinderella Game
Or if you have kids somewhere in between, this fantastic idea from Moza might help get them thinking about their dreams…

1- Show them a video about Cinderella when the fairy makes her wish come true  (or Harry Potter when Hagrid first meets him, or Star Wars where they first meet Anakin) . Then ask the kids some questions about it.

2- Tell them that this fairy is coming to our school to make your daydreams come true too.

3- Give each student a star to write her daydream and what she is going to be .

4- Stick a magic wand on the wall and put all of their stars around it so they could see it every day.

I’m sure you have at least one class who would love this! 🙂

Be genki,

Richard

P.S.   You still need dreams too, of course. You’ve got your dream job of being an amazing Genki English teacher, but how far do you want to take it?