how to teach adult with low-motivation?

[yanggr]

i have been teaching adult English for one semester. i am vey discouraged by those students with low-motivation. some of them can only manage a small amout of time to study. The majority of them do not study after class at all. The reasons why they do not like to study english lie in two aspects. One of them is they have master just little english, some even do not know what a simple sentence is like. For example, one student even does not know what the sentence "the sun rises in the East" means. the second problem is the textbook is too difficult for their level. i have no choice but follow the syllabus and feel tired after some of them can understand me. i feel that i am in a dellemma between the low-motivated students and the relative difficult textbook. could you give me some suggestions?

[FangWB]

i have been teaching adult English for one semester. i am vey discouraged by those students with low-motivation. some of them can only manage a small amout of time to study. The majority of them do not study after class at all. The reasons why they do not like to study english lie in two aspects. One of them is they have master just little english, some even do not know what a simple sentence is like. For example, one student even does not know what the sentence "the sun rises in the East" means. the second problem is the textbook is too difficult for their level. i have no choice but follow the syllabus and feel tired after some of them can understand me. i feel that i am in a dellemma between the low-motivated students and the relative difficult textbook. could you give me some suggestions?

I have had students like this. I guess the best way to movtivate them is to relate the learning/teaching materials to their daily life and have a creative classroom. For example: I asked my students to write down their favorite receipe in English and bring the dish to share with others. We learned about directions and positions by walking on the street.
There are many ways that can motivate students. I believe you will do great.

[Lorikeet]

I have been teaching adult English for 36 years, in a program in the United States. I have many students who can only manage a small amount of time to study. I don't think they are unmotivated. I think they are busy people. Some of them work, sometimes more than one job; some of them are taking care of aged relatives; others have small children. I tell them their English will improve if they speak and use it outside of class, but I understand everyone is different. I try to make my classes interesting and enjoyable for me and my students. At least if they come to school every day (Our classes are Monday to Friday, usually two hours a day.) they are getting some language exposure.

By the way, I am not sure all of my students would understand "The sun rises in the east." As far as I am concerned, a sentence like that is not very useful. However, my students learned how to read food labels and medicine directons, which I think are more important.

The difficult textbook is certainly a problem. I stopped using textbooks about ten years ago because I never found any I liked. I wish you luck on that!

[jori]

Remove the fear of failure. make it safe for them to make mistakes. emphasize that error is not terror, that mistakes are for correcting and people must learn from their mistakes. If a baby is scolded everytime he falls down while trying to walk, he will never learn to walk. I will share to you my poem on mistakes;
DARE TO MAKE MISTAKES
If you try to do something new,
You will make mistakes,
But you will learn.
If you don't try,
You won't make mistakes,
But you won't learn.
It is in making mistakes
That people learn.
The way to learn
Is to make mistakes.
No mistake means no learning.
So if you want to learn something,
Don't be afraid to make mistakes
and DARE TO MAKE MISTAKES.