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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