Student motivation

Work Teaching English in Taiwan
1

Hi everyone,

I would like to ask a question with regard to student motivation. I am teaching Spanish to mostly young adults and, since my Chinese is not very good yet, I am using Spanish and English to teach. I know that most of my students perfectly understand English and I am sure that they can follow most of the things I say, however, it turns out that in the middle of the course period (no coincidence with university terms etc.) many of my students are leaving the classes. I know that some of them went to other schools.

Unfortunately, I am the only foreign language teacher at my Buxiban and I cannot seem to get any useful feedback from my colleagues. Could the language be a real issue or do you have any similar experience with student motivation. Other than that, I usually use a lot of different activities and the school major text books, so I cannot find any problem with that.

Thanks!

2

How do you “know” they understand? Are you asking them to tell you what they understood, or judging from reactions? Comprehension is vital but very hard to gauge unless you are very deliberate about doing it.

3

Hi, I chat with them and check their understanding with different exercises. Mostly they have a good grasp of what I told them.

4

It may be because they cannot put it to use outside of the classroom. They to give them some activities to do outside of the class, such as listening to music or watching short videos. :2cents:
Many lose their interest when the only contact they have with the language is in school… :idunno:

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