(1446) PRACTICAL STRATEGIES TO ENHANCE STUDENTS' MOTIVATION TO LEARN ENGLISH IN A U.A.E ACADEMIC ENVIRONMENTS

摘要

For many decades, motivation remained an elusive concept because researchers and linguistssomehow failed to tell us exactly what it is. However, nowadays, motivation issue has been exploredand instrumental, intrinsic and integrative motivations types are identified, and this made the futureresearch clearer, although more progress and exploration are needed to provide a deeper insight intothe issue. Useless to say that motivation plays a major role in the success and performance ofstudents. It is a process of a series of behaviours that the teacher and the learner, the learninginstitution go through in order to make classroom teaching and learning a positive outcome. It is also achallenging task for the teacher to raise his students' motivational levels, as he finds it hard to leadstudents to participate enthusiastically or interact willingly with their peers, act in a meaningful andpositive way in a class rom. He has to adopt appropriate teaching approaches/strategies that will bothtake into account student's personality and cater for his favourite learning styles.Different motivational theories are explored in this paper to shed light on students' strategies to learn,succeed and perform better and adopt positive learning behaviours. These motivation factors impacton learning tasks, sharing information, classroom involvement, cooperative learning, groupinteractions and teacher's delivery of information. These practical tips involve classroom collaboration,team work, class room communication and motivation enhancement strategies.In this paper, the authors will first provide a theoretical background of motivation, a concrete meaningof motivation, methods of studying motivation and traditional and current theories of motivation.Then, they will shed light on major factors involved in the motivation process- the learner who is thecornerstone in the learning process, the teacher who plays the role of a guide is expected to useappropriate strategies, based on students' different learning styles, to enhance their motivation, thesyllabus components, themes and tasks which should raise students' motivation and enthusiasm andfinally the higher education institution which caters for the learning process as a whole and ensuresthat it is conducted in a safe, effective and enjoyable learning environment.Finally, they will provide practical tips that a teacher can draw upon to motivate his students in theclass room.