Job Discussion Forums

[Solar Strength]

Any one here have a lot of experience working with Japanese university students studying EFL?

What are the more effective ways in motivating them in studying English?

Is there a difference in ways to motivate majors and non-English majors?

[dove]

I wish I had the answer to this question. I gave up my university job because of the unmotivated students (granted, I was at a second-tier university). I DREADED facing the apathy. I tried every kind of activity, but I just couldn't get them interested (there were one or two rays of light in the class, but they seemed almost embarrassed to like English). I know university teaching jobs have the most prestige and the most benefits....the students certainly are not part of the advantage (in my experience....I'm sure there are those who have great students).

[Glenski]

Motivation, as you know, is a tough thing to stimulate. A lot depends on how students perceive the need for studying English.

Oral communication?
Writing?
Reading?
Listening skills alone?
TOEIC prep?
Other courses?
English majors or non-majors?

All of my students are non-majors because they are all studying science. One would think that would make them aware from the onset that English is so important in their lives, but nope. They come to uni, listen to their sempai about which courses to take (easier ones), and get them out of the way as early as possible so they can have free time ASAP to study other things.

Stupid thinking, but that's theirs.

Been trying now for 4 years to change that. It's very hard. I have no sure-fire solutions, but here are some things to consider trying:

1. Get down off the mount of teaching English, but don't be an eikaiwa teacher. That means don't try to teach lecture style even though that's what some of them expect, and don't give them JHS/HS lessons all over again. Make them aware they are in the bigger leagues, but you still have to know what their lifestyles in uni are in order to adjust for that.

2. Try to make your lessons relevant to their majors. Let them know that is what you are doing. If they can see you are doing your job for a purpose that involves them, well, they might take notice more.

3. Give them the vocabulary they need. Most students complain that they don't know enough vocabulary, despite having Word Navi textbooks in their faces in HS with 20-40 new words a week to memorize (and be quizzed on but immediately forget). Researchers show that uni students may know 60-70% of the first 2000-3000 commonest English words, and a fair amount of words beyond that, but they are missing that vital 30-40% of common words in order to communicate. Help them get over that hump.

4. Learn what they are doing in uni, and try to include that in your lessons. My students must all attend first-year classes in field work related to agriculture (shearing sheep, feeding pigs and slaughtering them to make sausage, planting and harvesting vegetables, milking cows and making ice cream, etc.). So, we give them materials with related vocab and topics, and these are included in oral communication lessons if nothing else.

5. Teach them that communicating is important. They know that in most cases, they can slide through their other classes and will probably pass, but that all they need to do is pass them, in order to graduate into the jobs they want. Most don't realize that they may very well need more basic communicative skills, even if they aren't English majors, but they just treat English as a credit to get out of the way, and then later it bites them (and teachers) in the butt. You can show them how important communicating is if you can bring in other English speakers. Grad students from foreign countries can be guest speakers. Link-ups via Skype or YouTube or videoconference to students in other countries (not necessarily native English speakers).

6. Fail them. I have taught in HS, and there was practically no way to do that. Fail the ones that don't meet the standards for the class. You often have more power to do that. (Not all uni teachers to, though.) If they learn there is a chance they will not get the credits, they might change motivation. I know of a teacher who flunked about 80% of his students one year. Admin came down on him, and he held firm. They let him flunk the kids, and the next year far more had heard of this and did more work in the class to pass. So, sometimes it works well.

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

from an article in the Japan Times:

[steki47]

[Glenski]

steki
That just shows there are some administrations here who will trust in the foreign teacher. Case by case. I know of another situation with a PTer who just passes his students routinely no matter how bad they score, just because he doesn't want the hassle of admin telling him to give a make-up test or report for anyone who fails.

I know of yet another FTer who lets students choose their own scores. There is a little wiggle room for negotiation, but it's done in front of the whole class, so there is some level of shame/pride involved.

[steki47]

[gaijinalways]

There are more than a few teachers who simply pass people based on attendance (a case where just showing does pay ). I have no idea what their activities are. Sometimes it's simply playing a DVD for the whole period (a degree is needed to learn how to run the DVD player)?!

[seklarwia]

[Glenski]

Yes, gaijinalways, a lot of PT workers definitely want their job security, so they don't rock the boat with failing students. I wish more would, though.

[gaijinalways]

I hear you Glenski, though thankfully these are usually teachers on their way out (close to retirement). Some of my older colleagues give more homework than I do, which is a scary thought.

On a tech note, I am helpless when for example people start talking to me about downloading YouTube clips, converting the file type into a viewable file on a DVD player (sometimes this require 2 conversions), and editing it. One of my colleagues does it, but he does say it is time consuming.

Instead, sometimes I even use (gasp) video. I bought some cheap videos when the video(now DVD) stores started purging their video stock. I find videos often have less tech problems; no more worrying about DVD/file compatibility problems. Other times I do use a PC in class, but sometimes I find it very troublesome to set up and take down (I need to come to class early and leave late), so I can simply play video clips directly from the Internet.

[Glenski]