This post is a result of having the opportunity to use a Enquiry Based Learning approach for a recently completed Psychology of Language Learning module (MA TESOL) with the University of Manchester. 

Motivation is a concern amongst most educators, daily we experience fluctuating levels of motivation in our classrooms. It is the hope that through this presentation that other avenues of motivating may be shared amongst ESL teachers.

First, motivation needs to be generated. The motivational dimension related to in this initial phase can be referred to as ‘choice motivation’ because the motivation generated then leads to the selection of the goal or task to be pursued.

(Dornyei, Z. 2001)

Why Blogging?

I decided to use blogging as a tool for motivation after I read more on the Self Determination Theory by Ryan and Deci. The theory states that 3 basic needs to be met for optimal motivation.

1. Autonomy
2. Competence
3. Relatedness

• These 3 needs will be taken into account throughout this presentation and the future project to be launched in January 2009, but in brief I see blogging as an autonomous process, students I work with almost all have current blogs which they initiated without any instruction from their universities or institutions and use these blogs as an extension of their individualism.

• The competence model I feel will be covered as students see their own progress in their enquiries which is also made easier by the built in archive function of blogs. The challenge for my students involves shifting away from their L1 only posts on blogs and utilising it as tool for English learning.

• Relatedness is perhaps best covered in blogs as many students are already part of a blogging community, sharing ideas and emotions with their peers in a social context. Blogs therefore form not only a foundation for social networking but could also be tied in with Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development as students will have increased exposure and interaction with bloggers who will have more knowledge about the English language.

The second reason for choosing blogging as a tool for motivation is that is will help establish a better rapport with students. It is my suggestion that by entering the students realm of online communication that the rapport between teachers and students could be even more strengthened outside of the immediate classroom environment. By showing students that we are willing to use alternative methods of engaging their interests it would stand to reason that students would be more willing to reciprocate in and out of the classroom.

The establishment of this online communication allows us as teachers to demonstrate our enthusiasm for teaching. By affording students the opportunity to receive feedback from both peers and teachers, would likely show students that you as a teacher value English and see it as meaningful experience.

Dornyei's model below is the foundation of the planned integration of blogging for the future project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Creating the Basic Motivational Conditions through an Enquiry Based Learning approach

In the paper by Peter Kahn and Karen O’Rourke summarise the characteristics of EBL as follows

• Engagement with a complex problem or scenario, that is sufficiently open-ended to allow a variety of responses or solutions
• Students direct the lines of enquiry and the methods employed
• The enquiry requires students to draw on existing knowledge and identify their required learning needs
• Tasks stimulate curiosity in the students, encouraging them to actively explore and seek out new evidence
• Responsibility falls to the student for analysing and presenting that evidence in appropriate ways and in support of their own response to the problem

A .pdf is available here for download  explaining more in-depth what EBL involves and the video on [youtube=http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=x5xVdE0f1iA]   (seems that youtube cannot be embedded on eduspaces) 

 

By creating an environment where learners are faced with  complex problems and yet allows for a host of possible solutions and enquiries, not only engages students (motivates) but also contributes to more autonomy. The relationship between autonomy and motivation is vital as both are concerned with higher degrees of participation. Dornyei & Csizer (1998) and the later work of Dornyei (2001a:102-108) places a great deal of emphasis on the importance that autonomy plays in motivation, especially intrinsic motivation (Ryan and Deci, 2000b:70).

The first area of autonomy I think ties in very well with the activity of blogging. The nature of blogging is an autonomous exercise where the writer (student) has full control over the content published. For the language learner this freedom will need to be be facilitated by the teacher and this is where an EBL approach could have a significant impact. If teachers are able to set achievable, and interesting tasks,blogging-students could feel more motivated to further their language development.

A means to ensure that the tasks are interesting I plan to use sections of future blogs blog entitled "What I would like to know more about " and "What I have learnt today". For the former of these entries students will have free reign on areas that of particular interest to them, which Tremblay & Gardner (1995) stated as a significant factor contributing to motivation. To help facilitate what Dornyei refers to as 'Ideal Language Self' which he describes as method where students envisage themselves as competent speakers, a section will be created "I would ideally like to achieve/be able to communicate in English ....

Thus the utilisation of EBL in language learning could assist in autonomy as well as allowing for divergence in the tasks. The nature of blogs also in my opinion creates a supportive learning environment (albeit virtual) in which students are able to comment on each others work and more importantly have exposure to a far wider audience. This allows for more cooperation between students and is a condition for maintaining motivation.

Generating initial Motivation

This is an area that Dornyei and others cover in some depth and I plan to have current students view previous students blogs (those who struggled and those who showed great improvement) to give better indication to students of goals/results they are able to achieve. This would also realistically tie in with Murphy's 'Near-Peer Model' which here explains NPM's are

...peers who are close to one's social, professional, and/or age level, and whom one may respect and admire. While growing up, many people experience watching some student or sibling just a few years older and modeling their behavior. It may be that they only respect a characteristic or an ability that the role model has, and not necessarily the whole person.

Too often in my context students look at students who are much older or studying at a far higher level than themselves and then use these 'elders'  as the benchmark with which measure themselves against and this in turn leads to demotivation especially when progress is slow. If students are able to see how previous students (from a similar level and age group) have succeeded and the results they achieved I believe they will have realistic beliefs of what they are able to achieve and also be able to have higher levels of expected success in the course.

Maintianing and protecting Motivation

The anticipated areas that will be affected by the nature of blogging is making the tasks stimulating which Jane also reminded me of on in the journal entry section of this blog.  This again is where the EBL approach shows great promise however the input method of blogging itself may become monotonous and this is an area that I anticipate will pose significant hurdles for the future project. By varying CMC tools such as wiki's, youtube videos/recordings, debating sessions via Skype and writing collaboration through Google Docs it is hoped that the different tools will help quell declining motivational levels.

Make the learning tasks stimulating and relevant

In my enquiry for this presentation I came across Brophy (2004) and Stipek (2002) who both place great importance on stimulating students curiosity with regards to motivation. Again this is where technology can play a significant role. For the project next year I plan to use a combination of tools for students to work through, these will include webquests which students will create for each other after they have finished their own enquiries. This together with implentation of other CMC tools should alleviate mundane tasks students often resist or do not enjoy. In other words students will follow their own enquiries of investigation and then create webquests for their peers, this is then a combination of EBL and Project Based Learning (online). I believe that this will allow students to break away from materials that are not relevant in the curriculum and help establish a database of avenues to explore that students may feel more interested in.

Promoting self motivation

Certain features of blogging lend themselves to help self-motivation, one of these is the blog stats feature which keeps records of vistors to one's blog. This could function as a motivating factor for students to continue blogging and also drives home the point that their blogs are available to a far wider audience than their immediate peers.

 

 

Encouraging positive retrospective self evaluation

Providing motivational feedback

Positive feedback is fairly easy to achieve in blogging and does not necessarily rely solely on the teacher, students are able to make comments on each others blogs. For the future project students will first be instructed on methods of providing feedback in a constructive manner and also be prepared for harsher feedback from readers of their blogs who are not their peers. Feedback from peers and teachers will invariably lead to greater student satisfaction as students see increased 'visits' to the blogs and also have more personal contact with teachers who leave comments.

Dornyei also suggest giving rewards to students, the feature that may help in this is a poll which could be used on a central blog (the teachers) where students or readers could vote for their favourite blog.

Concluding thoughts

Although there is no silver bullet for creating motivation, there are a multitude of technological tools at teachers disposal to help create, generate, maintain and promote positive self evaluation amongst students. Blogging is one of these tools that may assist motivation, but again cannot do so a standalone tool and will need to be used in conjunction with other tools (outside of the immediate classroom) I firmly believe the more competent we are as teachers with technology and combining this competence with Enquiry Based Learning, language teachers and students will make significant progress in motivation.