Download Brea Wagner Motivational Essay July 19, 2015 For my essay I chose

Brea Wagner
Motivational Essay
July 19, 2015
For my essay I chose to observe a beginner adult class at the Join Us language
center in Buenos Aires. In the class there were three students; they were all girls with
ages ranging from 13-18. The teacher Santy, is an interesting man with a big
personality and an interesting philosophy. He disagrees with the teaching style of the
Join Us, I must say I do too the other classes I have observed at this center the
students barely speak, go over grammar structures in a non natural acquisition, and
mostly do work by themselves out of workbooks. I think that being in a classroom with
others is such an opportunity to practice speaking and the workbook exercises should
be done as homework when the students do not have access to other English speakers.
At the beginning Santy asked the girls numerous questions putting them on the spot
and encouraging them to speak to me and introduce themselves. Rapid fire questions
like this are effective in getting the students to speak quickly on their feet and in a more
natural way thinking in English before they have the chance to get nervous or translate.
Santy is a fan of languages and claimed that forcing himself to speak is how he learned
all of the ones he speaks. After these questions with introductions and review from last
class he moved into a review of sentence structure on the white board and the girls did
some exercises in their workbooks and then read aloud to go over the answers. This
also is a better method than what I have seen with other teachers in this center where
they just read out the answers. Lastly, he broke up the students into pairs with a native
speaker (3 natives in the classroom) and had us ask and respond to questions back and
forth, again increasing the student talking time.
What I was most surprised about when talking with the girls even one on one
was they were embarrassed or “ashamed” to speak, because they were self conscious
about their English level. This problem is cyclical, if you are afraid to speak you will not
improve and therefore fall behind and be even more self conscious about their English
level. This is where positive reinforcements are important. If someone does something
right that should be reinforced so they 1) know that they are in fact correct and 2) want
to keep preforming this behavior. I agree with B.F. Skinner’s behaviorism theory and do
think that this is shown in most classes and was definitely displayed in Santy’s class. He
is very encouraging and gives a positive reinforcement when the students had good
pronunciation, formed a sentence correctly, or for just speaking up in general. I do
believe that if a teacher wants a certain behavior to be practiced and the norm in the
classroom culture it must be reinforced. This also translates to Albert Bandura’s theory.
If were are not directly being rewarded for our actions but we see that someone else is
being rewarded for their actions. It is human nature to desire reward, achievement, and
recognition so naturally we will try to emulate the behavior that is being rewarded and in
this case it is speaking English. That being said I do not think that this is the only form of
motivation for students. I think that there are some intrinsic factors at play as well. When
the girls said they feel ashamed to speak English I do not feel that is because of
anything in this particular classroom culture. I think there are either previous
experiences or intrinsic reasons for these negative feelings about their English
speaking.
Before the students are able to embrace the English language and be able to
speak in class uninhibited they must feel comfortable. In order to have a productive
class it is imperative that the students are able to focus on English and not their
performance or the reception of their teacher or classmates. As Abraham Maslow
suggests only when the first four categories of well being are satisfied can the student
focus on higher categories like personal development. A person cannot be motivated to
learn if they feel insecure or are self conscious to speak. That is why it is of utmost
importance to create a positive class culture or learning environment for students. While
I felt that the students were feeling self conscious at first in the class, they became more
comfortable with us as the class went on. Plus, Santy’s jokes and easy going nature
made everyone in the class more relaxed.
Overall I found my observation time very helpful and insightful. At the Join Us
center, I saw examples of both what I want and do not want for my classroom. It is very
important for the teacher to create a culture, setting, and rules that create an effective
class and comfortable learning environment. The teacher sets the precedent for how the
class is run and because of the observation hours I have seen both good and bad
classroom settings.
Bibliography
Abraham Maslow
Businessballs.com (1940) Abraham Maslow - Hierarchy of needs and diagrams of
Maslow’s motivational theory - pyramid diagrams of Maslow’s theory. [online] Available
at: http://www.businessballs.com/maslow.htm
Albert Bandura
Instructionaldesign.org (1973) Albert Bandura - Social Learning Theory, [online]
Available at: http://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/social-learning.html
McLeod, S (2011) Albert Bandura Social Learning Theory [online] Available at:
http:www.siplypsychology.org/bandura.html
B.F. Skinner
Imstructionaldesign.org (1950) B.F. Skinner - Operant conditioning. [online] Available at:
http://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/operant-conditioning.html
McLeod, S (2007) B.F. Skinner Operant Conditioning [online] Available at:
http://www.simplypsychology.org/theories/operat-conditioning.html
Newfoundations.com (1993) Educational Theory of B.F. Skinner. [online] Available at:
http://www.newfoundations.com/GALLERY/Skinner.html