How to increase motivation of students while teaching English at none-language faculties

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HOW TO INCREASE MOTIVATION OF STUDENTS WHILE TEACHING ENGLISH AT NONE-LANGUAGE FACULTIES

L.M. Chernysh,

Senior lecturer of the Department of Pedagogy, Foreign Philology and Translation Kharkiv National Economic S. Kuznets University

Abstract

Integration of Ukraine into the European community has necessitated the training of highly qualified specialists who have good knowledge not only in specialty, but also in English. However, not all students of non-language specialties understand the need to learn this subject.

From our experience we can say that the personality of the teacher, his/her methods and approaches to teaching are very important for the formation of positive or negative motivation to study a foreign language. The task of the teacher is not only to give new information and consolidate the knowledge, but also to manage and control psychological activities of students, form their motivation, skills and abilities to use a foreign language.

We believe that positive motivation to learn a foreign language can be achieved by the diversity of the tasks of any aspect of a foreign language: reading, speaking, writing or studying grammar. Some examples of tasks that are of greatest interest to our students are given here. Some definitions of motivation are presented (1) manifestation of internal instinctive motives; 2) social approach to motivate a person to perform (or not) some actions).

The author points out that a positive attitude to learning a foreign language can be achieved by diversifying the learning objectives of any aspect of a foreign language: reading, speaking, writing or grammar. Some examples of tasks that are of most interest to the students are given in the article.

From our own experience, we can state that the greatest emotional contact, and, accordingly, the desire to take an active part in the classroom activities, arise when discussing oral topics. The main task of the teacher is to choose a topic that will be interesting for both the students and the teacher.

Realizing the need to introduce grammar into the training course, we try to introduce game components or conversations, which also significantly increase the motivation of students to study the teaching material. Working with texts on specialty also needs some creative approaches which are described in the article. The author believes that the creation of positive motivation to learn a foreign language and maintain a favorable psychological climate in the academic group as well as teacher's professionalism is a necessary condition for effective organization of the educational process while teaching English.

Key words: motivation, English teaching, students, non-language departments.

Анотація

Черниш Л.М.

Як підвищити мотивацію студентів під час навчання англійської мови на немовних факультетах.

Статтю присвячено актуальній проблемі підвищення мотивації при вивченні англійської мови у студентів немовних факультетів. Інтеграція України до європейського співтовариства зумовила необхідність підготовки висококваліфікованих спеціалістів, які добре володіють не лише спеціальністю, але й англійською мовою. Однак не всі студенти немовних спеціальностей розуміють необхідність вивчення цього предмету, тобто можемо констатувати недостатній рівень мотивації до вивчення англійської.

З нашого досвіду можна сказати, що особистість викладача, його методи та підходи до навчання є дуже важливими для формування позитивної чи негативної мотивації до вивчення іноземної мови. Завдання вчителя - не лише давати нову інформацію та закріплювати знання, а й керувати та контролювати психологічну діяльність учнів, формувати їх мотивацію, вміння та навички користуватися іноземною мовою.

Автор статті доводить, що позитивної мотивації до вивчення іноземної мови можна досягти за рахунок різноманітності завдань будь-якого аспекту іноземної мови: читання, говоріння, письма чи вивчення граматики. Наводиться кілька прикладів завдань, які найбільше цікавлять студентів. Спираючись на попередні дослідження, наводяться деякі визначення мотивації, як-то: прояв внутрішніх інстинктивних мотивів; соціальний підхід до мотивації людини до виконання (чи ні) якихось дій.

З власного досвіду автор констатує, що найбільший емоційний контакт і, відповідно, бажання брати активну участь у заняттях у класі виникають у студентів при обговоренні запропонованих викладачем усних тем. Основне завданням викладача вбачається обрання теми, яка буде цікавою як для студентів, так і для викладача.

Автор вважає, що позитивного ставлення до вивчення іноземної мови можна досягти, урізноманітнивши цілі навчання будь-якого аспекту іноземної мови: читання, усного мовлення, письма чи граматики. У статті надається кілька прикладів завдань, які найбільше цікавлять студентів.

Усвідомлюючи необхідність введення граматики англійської мови у загальний навчальний курс, пропонується впровадження ігрових компоненти чи бесіди, що також суттєво підвищує мотивацію учнів до вивчення навчального матеріалу. Робота з текстами за спеціальністю також потребує творчих підходів, а саме, деяких спеціальних прийомів, які описані в статті.

Ключові слова: мотивація, вивчення англійської мови, студенти, немовні факультети, методика навчання.

Statement of the problem in general aspect

Ukraine's integration into the European space has necessitated the training of high-quality specialists who not only have a good knowledge of the pro fession, but also English. However, not all junior students of non-language specialties understand the need to master this subject, considering it secondary. Thus, we can state an insufficient level of motivation for learning English and, as a result, a decrease in academic performance. One of the most important tasks of a teacher is the formation of cognitive activity among students, assistance in becoming a sought-after specialist who speaks a foreign language at a sufficient level to participate in intercultural, scientific or just everyday communication with native speakers. The formation of relevant skills in future professionals is one of the most important tasks of the educational process of mod ern higher education. We believe that the solution to this problem will contribute to the formation of positive motivation for English lessons.

Therefore, increasing the level of motivation to study, developing professional interest amongst dents who study English at non-linguistic faculties of higher educational institutions is seen as a complex process that requires attention and effort from the teacher. To form students' motivation to study, it is important to correctly build the educational process using interactive teaching methods and innovative educational technologies, various ways to encourage active students, and involve modern methods in the learning process.

The analysis of recent research and publications. An analysis of recent research and publica tions has shown that researchers have repeatedly addressed the problem of forming motivation during training. Thus, in the works of I. Zimna, A. Alkhazishvili, A. Leontiev, N. Simonova psychological problems of motivation and their types are highlighted. Ways to increase motivation to learn a foreign language in junior high students were considered by V. Markova, N. Varchenko, O. Pshenitsena. How to increase the motivation of high school students is covered in the works of A. Sakharova, D. Semenova, N. Leshneva and others.

At the same time, we believe that the pedagogical literature will be enriched by the coverage of experience in increasing the motivation of students of higher education institutions, as this aspect is insufficiently covered in scientific papers, which is the purpose of publication.

The aim of our research is to consider various ways to increase motivation for learning English by students of non-linguistic faculties.

Presenting main material

The need to study the issue of increasing the motivation of students of non-linguistic specialties is closely related to the fact that many students have rather weak ideas about their future profession. As T. Medvedeva points out, students often do not have educational motives, but motives of creativity, self-realization, etc. There is such a phenomenon as the discrepancy between their expectations and the real content of the educational process. Therefore, it is so important to more clearly position in the structure of specialties within the institute and on a city scale. This problem is also important for future employers, since in the modern labor market the demand for «one's own» student as a future specialist is quite high. In turn, the features of the further professional behavior of the future specialist will directly depend on how strong knowledge the future specialist will have. The effectiveness of the educational process at the university as a whole is directly related to how high the motivation for learning among students is [2].

From our own experience we can say that the per sonality of the teacher, his methods and approaches to teaching the discipline are very important for the formation of positive or negative motivation to learn a foreign language. The task of the teacher is not only to provide new information and consolidate the acquired knowledge, but also in the psychological management of cognitive activity of students, the formation of their motivation, skills and abilities to use a foreign language [1, p. 23]. teacher motivation learning language

Based on the analysis of psychological and pedagogical literature, it can be argued that there is no single approach to defining the concept of «motivation». In particular, some researchers understand motivation as a manifestation of internal instinctual impulses, while another group of scientists considers motivation in terms of a social approach to motivating the individual to perform (or not perform) any action [3, p. 37].

From experience, it can be argued that motivation affects all psychological processes related to learning: thinking, understanding, perception of information, analysis of knowledge and consolidation of relevant skills. S. Rubinstein defines motivation as a process of reflecting the behavior of the individual in the world around him and notes that the personality is best revealed in activities that are interesting and understandable [6, p. 370].

We believe that a positive attitude to learning a foreign language can be achieved by diversifying the learning objectives of any aspect of a foreign language: reading, speaking, writing or grammar. Here are some examples of tasks that are of most interest to our students. From our own experience we can say that the greatest emotional contact, and there fore the desire to take an active part in the class, arises during the discussion of oral topics. The main task of the teacher - is to choose a topic that will be interesting for both students and teachers. Yes, when studying the topic «About Myself» we do not focus on the biographical information of students, because these facts they learned to speak English in high school, and try to focus on the inner world of the individual. Yes, we invite students to think about what happiness is for them and offer answers to the following questions:

What small things in life make you happy?

What made you smile today?

Where do you feel happiest?

What things in the house make you happy?

Are you happy right now? Why / Why not?

When did you last laugh a lot? Where were you? [8, p. 8].

In groups where the level of English language proficiency is not very high, it is advisable to prepare students and identify those words and phrases that they may need during the oral presentation.

Experience has shown that at some stages of learning it is difficult to maintain student motivation. Thus, the study of grammatical material, without which there can be no improvement of language skills, usually causes students boredom and reluctance to perform appropriate exercises. Realizing the need to introduce grammar in the curriculum, we try to introduce game components or conversations, which also significantly increases the motivation of students to study the material. For example, after working on the topic Past Simple / Used to, we organize work in pairs, where students are asked to answer the following questions:

A friend you used to have but you've lost touch with / How did it happen?

A teacher at school you used to hate

Sport you used to play but don't any more

Food you didn't use to like, but like now etc [9, p. 56]

Note that topics for discussion and tasks may vary in different groups depending on the level of knowledge and interests of students.

Working with texts in the specialty is also a necessary part of the learning process in English classes with students of non-language faculties. We fully agree with our colleagues on giving priority to authentic texts, as they:

• can serve as a model for students to create their own English-language statements and are a support for the production of secondary texts;

• is an additional source of professional and socio-cultural information, as they substantively reflect professionally relevant topics, and at the same time, in form, serve as a model of the established in English-speaking society, the order of design of pro fessional texts;

• increase motivation to learn English as a means of expanding professional opportunities;

• are the basis for the formation of a wide vocabulary and contribute to the study of both common words and phrases, and special terms [5].

At the same time, we try to be creative in this type of activity. Yes, we divide students into small groups and give them fragments of the same text by profession. The task of students is to process these fragments and arrange them in the appropriate order. Sometimes students of different groups build the full text in different ways, which is an occasion for lively discussions that stimulate the development of oral speech.

Another necessary aspect of teaching English in non-language faculties is to instill in students aca demic and business writing skills. It should be noted that most students understand the need to be able to write an annotation or respond to official letters, make inquiries, fill out forms of documents, because it is related to their future profession. So in class we analyze different types of documentation and teach students to compile them in English. Along with the formation of motivation as the main psychological factor in the use of a foreign language in the training of future professionals, of great importance for the educational process is the creation of psychological comfort for learning.

We fully agree with the statement that the creation of psychological comfort in the group contributes to:

• friendly atmosphere during the lesson;

• calm conversation with each participant in the learning process;

• attention and respect for each student;

• positive reaction of the teacher to the student's desire to express their own point of view;

• Tactical correction of mistakes and giving stu dents the idea that making mistakes when speaking a foreign language is natural, but at the same time, it is necessary to work to reduce them;

• encouraging students to work independently and perform creative tasks;

• humor during the lesson [4; 7].

The question about students' motivation could not be full without mentioning a very important factor that reduces learning motivation, than is the transition to distance learning. Modern reality has shown that online learning has both positive and negative sides. In this case decreased motivation is connected with weak self-control, technical and organizational problems. However, an indisputable advantage can be the possibility of using modern technologies and learning platforms.

Thus, the teacher can significantly increase students' motivation by introducing tasks that simulate immersion in the language environment, organizing meetings with native speakers, using online learning technologies that can greatly diversify the types of exercises and, as a result, increase students' interest in the subject.

Conclusions

Thus, given all the above, we believe that the creation of positive motivation to learn a foreign language and maintain a favorable psychological climate in the academic group is a necessary condition for effective organization of the educational process. Therefore, the task of a professional teacher is to select such forms and methods of teaching English to students of non-linguistic faculties that take into account the psychological capabilities of each student individually and the group as a whole, the professional orientation of students. Such methods should be aimed at achieving the ultimate goal set at the beginning of the discipline, taking into account the level of students' preparation, with the effective use of modern technical teaching aids.

If students are in the zone of psychological com fort and feel positive emotions during the class, the efficiency of the group increases significantly, and learning becomes more effective, so we can see better learning and higher learning outcomes.

References

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