Resource centre - Young Learners - Motivating children
Young children are often eager, almost too eager. The problem arises when they are eager to do things other than what you're trying to teach them. Shelley Vernon has six tips to keep them interested in class and motivated to do what you want them to do.
Tip #1: Keep Yourself Motivated.
Think back to when you were a child. If your teacher was not enthusiastic about
what he or she had scheduled for class that day, how did you feel about it? It's
the same with young children today. If you, the teacher and often a role model
for younger children, think this is a neat activity, then they will too!
Tip #2: Encourage.
Young kids thrive on praise and positive attention from the adults in their
lives. If you want them to like you and be motivated in your class, you often
just need to give them a lot of positive attention.
Tip #3: Play Games.
Children learn through play. Oftentimes they don't even realize they are
learning if they are enjoying the game. Just think, children could sit there and
fill out worksheet after worksheet or they could play an English game and learn
the same concepts. Which would you rather do?
When I say English games I'm talking about games that are specifically designed
to teach language and vocabulary. For example, you could turn using vehicle
vocabulary into a relay game where children need to pick a card with a word and
then run to a box of vehicles (or a stack of pictures of vehicles) and bring the
correct one his or her classmates.
Here is another example: If you might normally give them a worksheet to write
the correct verb next to the picture illustrating the action, have them instead
practice their verbs by doing the action for the word you say or the word on a
card that you hold up. Likewise, you could do the action and have them write
down the word. You may access free samples of fun classroom games in the
resource box below.
When you play games, you can use points and competition as a motivator, but not
for kids under six who may find the competition too stressful. For them, just
playing the game is motivating enough. You can also sometimes award extra
credit, but use it sparingly so that it remains "extra" and a special reward.
Also if you use it too much, children can have so much extra credit that it
sways the actual grades too much.
Tip #4: Get Their Hands Dirty Literally and figuratively.
Children like to work with their hands and whatever you can do to get the items
they are learning about in their hands is useful and fun for them. This can be
anything from having a sensory table filled with sand and beach items when you
want to teach them summer words to having them each bring in a piece of fruit
when you are teaching fruit words. Anytime you can get young children up and
doing instead of listening (often passively) you are getting their hands dirty
in the learning process.
Tip #5: Get Them Moving.
Movement is a vital component to motivating children. The best way to prevent
children from zoning out is to get them up out of their seats at least once each
class period. Even if you just require them to come up to you instead of you
going to them for help, the movement can help get them out of the trance that
they sometimes get from sitting in one spot too long. Grouping the children for
study projects and activities helps as well. If you can, let them move the desks
around or sit on the floor to change things up as well. Many games involve
movement without the children needing to leave their seats, such as miming,
moving certain body parts and passing things around as part of a game or race.
Therefore even teachers with large classes and no space to move can use this
technique, albeit to a more limited degree.
Tip #6: Vary the Pace.
Alternate calm games with lively ones to keep the children alert and motivated,
but without letting the class get out of hand. Good discipline is essential to
effective learning.
To read the full article on how to motivate children to want to learn English,
please see the articles and tips section on the teachingenglishgames.com website
in the resource box below.
Teaching ESL to children
Teaching children one to one
Teaching children grammar through games
Total Physical Response
Using stories in the Preschool ESL
Classroom
ESL resources
Downloadable worksheets and activities
What do you think of this article? Add a comment »
Greetings. By and large,
these tips are of crucial importance for our kids to learn and acquire the
language quickly and keep them motivated better than to be lazy and passive in
class so thanks a lot!
Good article, most of the
tips are based on involving students to get motivated, but don't you think that
this may lead to overmotivation which is another problem in itself??? but the
article is extremely good! Thanks.
The article includes useful
ideas for us. I will benefit from the tips in my classes and I think they will
work immediately. Thanks a lot.
These are great ideas. How
can we then motivate older children--middle schoolers-- who are sick and tired
of ELL classes after five to seven years in the program? Thanks.
Very interesting article
since it deals with very important tips to keep your students motivated (I have
used some of them which have proved to be of great benefit). Another tip can be
to teach students through stories - students love stories!
I'm very thankful for this
article that you have shared, I know that this will help me a lot in my teaching
to Chinese kids.
I've heard young teachers
say they are afraid to teach children because they are hyper, these are the type
of articles we need to understand their way of learning!
Very nice article. It
reminds teachers of things they seem to be forgetting.
Very interesting and
rewarding. Thanks!
Good article but the over
motivation quoted by "anonymous" is also a good point.
This article will help me
motivate my Muslim students. Very interesting and guiding. Thanks so much.
Enlightening article that
will keep our children abreast in learning and motivating the English language.
Very inspiring, encouraging
and motivating.
This is a great article,
especially when working with children, plus when you have a class with adults
and children together it helps a lot. Thanks for sending me this kind of
information, it is really helpful. Greetings from Mexico!!
I am a teacher of primary
school student teachers in Kenya. This article is very informative educative and
inspiring. I will download for my students who my not have access to the
internet.
I think all the information
here is very pertinent in helping the ESL / TEFL teacher to young children. Here
is a simple number reinforcement game in spelling bee style. You may recall
having spelling bee's in elementary school. This is very similar but with
numbers. Have all students sit on their tables/desks. Have a child start by
saying the number 1. Then the child next to him says 2 and so on. When a child
doesn't know what comes next, have the whole class answer in unison and the
child who erred sits down in his chair. Start with the next child from the top
again with number 1. Last person sitting on the table wins. Often, a small
group-and oddly enough not always the same children-are left. I call it a group
win. I teach 4 and 5 yr olds- therefore, I use 1-10. But depending on your
students knowledge go as far as they know. One way to keep them paying attention
is if they don't know what # comes next b/c they weren't paying attention hen
they are out and have to sit down till the next round. It's fun, easy and they
really lock in their numbers this way.
I really enjoyed the tips
about motivating young children. I hope to see some practical lessons to show us
how experienced teachers make good use of the tips given.
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