THE USE OF WARM UP ACTIVITIES IN MOTIVATING 10TH FORM STUDENTS TO LEARN READING SKILL

CERTIFICATION OF ORIGINALITYI hereby certify that the thesis entitled “The use of warm-up activities in motivating 10 th form students to learn reading skill” is my own study in the fulf

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

-* *

* -NGUYỄN THỊ TUYẾT NHUNG

THE USE OF WARM-UP ACTIVITIES IN

READING SKILL(SỬ DỤNG CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG KHỞI ĐỘNG TRONG BÀI DẠYĐỌC HIỂU NHẰM NÂNG CAO HỨNG THÚ HỌC KỸ NĂNG

ĐỌC HIỂU CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 10)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.140.111

HA NOI, 2015

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

-* *

* -NGUYỄN THỊ TUYẾT NHUNG

THE USE OF WARM-UP ACTIVITIES IN

READING SKILL

(SỬ DỤNG CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG KHỞI ĐỘNG TRONG BÀI DẠYĐỌC HIỂU NHẰM NÂNG CAO HỨNG THÚ HỌC KỸ NĂNG

ĐỌC HIỂU CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 10)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.140.111

Supervisor: Prof Hoàng Văn Vân

HA NOI, 2015

CERTIFICATION OF ORIGINALITY

I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “The use of warm-up activities

in motivating 10 th form students to learn reading skill” is my own study in the

fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts at Faculty ofPost-Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies,Vietnam National University, Hanoi

Hanoi, 2015

Nguyễn Thị Tuyết Nhung

I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to my respectablesupervisor, Prof Dr Hoang Van Van for his restless and sympatheticencouragement, valuable advice and patient guidance until the completion of this study

I wish to acknowledge my thankfulness to the two 10th form classes fortheir enthusiastic participation in the project

Finally, I am deeply indebted to my beloved parents, my husband, mydaughter, my siblings, and my post-graduate friends for their sacrifice,encouragement and care

How to teach and learn English effectively is a big concern of mostteachers and language students Many students at Kien An High School find itboring to study reading lessons This study is intended to investigate the use ofwarm-up activities and their effects on the 10th form students at Kien An HighSchool and to make some suggestions to improve the quality of learningreading lessons

The study was conducted to answer the questions: What are warm-up

activities? Are warm-up activities an effective technique for motivating 10 th

form students to learn reading skill? The author took a sample of 94 students

at Kien An High School Data from the questionnaires was analyzedquantitatively and qualitatively

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATION OF ORIGINALITY……… i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……….ii

ABSTRACT……… iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS………iv

LIST OF CHARTS……… vi

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale for the study 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Research questions 2

4 Method of the study 2

5 Scope of the study 3

6 Design of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.WARM-UP ACTIVITES IN A LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING 4 1.1 Definitions 4

1.2 The importance of warm-up activities 5

1.3 Common warm-up activities in a reading lesson 7

1.4 Summary 10

2.MOTIVATION 10

2.1 Definition 10

2.2 Types of motivation 11

2.3 The importance of motivation 14

2.4 Summary 16

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 17

1 DESCRIPTION OF SITUATION 17

1.2 Materials 17

1.3 Teaching – learning strategies 18

2 DESCRIPTION OF DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS 18

2.1 Questionnaire I 18

2.2.Questionnaire II 19

3 PROCEDURE 19

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS, DISCUSSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 21

1 RESULTS FROM QUESTIONNAIRE I 21

2 RESULTS FROM QUESTIONNAIRE II 25

3 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 29

3.1 Active effects 29

3.2 Limitations 29

4 RECOMMENDATIONS 30

PART C: CONCLUSION 33

1 RECAPITULATION 33

2 LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 34

REFERENCES 36 APPENDIX I

LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 1: Frequency level of teachers’ using warm-up 21

Chart 2: Careful guiding level of teachers 22

Chart 3: The diversity of warm-up activities used 22

Chart 4: How often warm-up activities should be used 23

Chart 5: The importance of warm-up activities in reading lessons 23

Chart 6: The necessary level of improving warm-up activities 24

Chart 7: Students’ involvement in learning reading lessons 25

Chart 8: Level of students’ concentration during the reading lessons 26

Chart 9: Level of interest 26

Chart 10: Level of appropriateness 27

Chart 11: Level of challenge 27

Chart 12: The role of warm-ups in creating a more interesting learning atmosphere 28

Chart 13: The interaction among students in class when warm-ups are applied 28

PART A: INTRODUCTION

This chapter aims at providing the readers with an overview of the study Itconsists of the rationale for the study, the aims of the study, the research questions,the method of the study, the scope and the design of the study

1 Rationale for the study

There is a common belief that people will be successful more easily if theywant to do their duties For example, to please her husband, a wife will try to cookdelicious meals A student can concentrate on learning English to communicatewith an English, an American or a foreign speaking English, to listen to Englishsongs or to get better jobs, etc In other words, if people are motivated, they will dotheir best to achieve their goals faster Motivation is some kind of internal driveswhich pushes someone to do things in order to achieve something Studentmotivation refers to a student’s interest, desire, compulsion, and need to participate

in and be successful in the learning process It is generally accepted that studentmotivation plays a key role in academic learning Motivated students have apositive impact on learning They take advantage of a given opportunity and showintense effort and concentration in the implementation of learning process Also,they reveal positive emotions such as excitement, enthusiasm, interest, andoptimism during learning Besides, a teacher or an instructor has a significant role in

guiding less motivated students It means that the teacher has to consider students as

the centre in teaching process To make an English teaching period effective, bringinto play maximally student’s ability to grasp, the teacher has to find suitableteaching method for each teaching period, each student and necessarily, to createthe learning motivation of students from the start It is very important not only forEnglish but also other subjects Creating the motivation of students for the lessonsand their enthusiasm in learning is the art of the teacher

There are many ways to increase the learning motivation of students but a

English is undeniably an international language that serves as the mosteffective and popular communicative tool between different nations ThereforeEnglish is one of the major subjects for Vietnamese students to acquire at schools sothat they are qualified with a useful tool to get access to the knowledge of mankind

as well as to develop international communication, especially in the trend of

integration and globalization The introduction of Tiếng Anh 10 is thus hopefully to

improve learners’ communicative competence as the traditional method mainlyfocuses on English grammar In the context of teaching and learning English inVietnam, where the number of students in each class is up to 40-50, the use ofwarm-up activities is also a useful tool in class management by involving learners’participation However, this method still leaves much room to develop in Vietnam

For the reasons mentioned above, the researcher wishes to conduct the

research on “The use of warm-up activities in motivating 10 th form students to learn reading skill.”

1 Aims of the study

The study is targeted at investigating the use of warm-up activities and theireffects on motivating the 10th graders in reading lessons

2 Research questions

To achieve the above aim, the following questions are raised for exploration:

1 What are warm-up activities commonly employed for motivating to improve reading skill?

2 To what extent can warm-up activities be used as effective technique to improve reading skill?

4 Method of the study

In order to answer the research questions as raised above, the thesis uses bothqualitative and quantitative research method The qualitative method is used tostudy the notion of “warm-up activities” and that of “motivation” as conceptualized

by different researchers Quantitative method is used to collect data that foremphasizing the effectiveness of using warm-up activities to motivate 10th formstudents to learn reading skill

5 Scope of the study

This study is carried out at Kien An High School and it only focuses on reading

skill of Tiếng Anh 10

6 Design of the study

The study consists of three parts which discuss the following matters

Part A – Introduction – introduces the background of the study that includes

the rationale, the aims of the study, the research questions, the method, the scope aswell as the design of the study

Part B – Development – is composed of three chapters as follows:

Chapter 1 – Literature Review – presents the theoretical background about

warm-up activities and motivation

Chapter 2 – Research Methodology – focuses on the subjects, the data

collection instruments and the procedure

Chapter 3 – Results, Discussions and Recommendations – presents and

analyzes preliminary results and the results after improving the warm-up activitiesand suggest some recommendations

Part C – Conclusion – summarizes the main findings, presents the limitations

of the study, and makes some suggestions for further studies

In addition, the study also includes the sections of References which displays the sources of referenced information and Appendix which presents the survey

questionnaire

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter deals with two major issues: (1) warm-up activities in languageteaching and learning including the definitions, the importance and common warm-

up activities and (2) motivation in language learning including the definitions, theimportance of motivation, and types of motivation

1 WARM-UP ACTIVITES IN A LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING

1.1 Definitions

The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English (2009) defined warm-up as

“a period or act of preparation for a game performance or exercise session,involving gentle exercise or practice.” In The Oxford Advanced Learners’Dictionary 8th Edition, warm-up is “a short practice or a series of gentle exercisesthat you do to prepare yourself for doing a particular sport or activity.”

Jonell (1985:364) pointed out that warm-up activities are designed to getstudents’ attention to help them, put aside distracting thoughts and to get them ready

to focus individually and as group on whatever activities follow

Cynthia in http://educatekids.com see warm-up activities as activities whichcultivate the students and draw them into the lesson – giving us the opportunity to

do our thing

An other author, Ninel (http://ct-net.net) also defines warm-up activities as

an “integral part of lessons that serve to make critical thinking strategies and theprocess of teaching more effective.” A warm-up often helps create a conductiveatmosphere for learning and gets students ready for active and fruitful learning.These activities are especially helpful in preparing students to work in pairs and groups

In short, there are numerous opinions about warm-up; however, warm-upactivities are activities or games carried out at the beginning of each class tomotivate students, so they can make good use of class time They make the lessonsinteresting or boring and they contribute to motivate students Therefore, they play

an important role in teaching process

1.2 The importance of warm-up activities

No one can deny the role of warm-up activities in teaching and learningEnglish Activities at the start of the lesson deserve more attention than they usuallyreceive In fact, the initial activities that start the class are very important

Warm-up activities help to get the class going because after that, studentsusually become more attentive and are then mentally and physically alert in order toparticipate fully in later activities What is more, the first few minutes of a lessonare sometimes the most difficult for the teacher, and can set the tone for the whole

of that lesson Deacon (2002:31) suggests that a simple warm-up activity at thebeginning of any class will create a positive and relaxed atmosphere that will

encourage all the students to take full part in the rest of the class In addition,

warm-ups increase group rapport and promote socialization; are do-able, success-orientedfor everyone; fun and quick energizing

It is said that people never get a second chance to make the first impression

A second chance is never got to kick off a lesson on the right foot, either whetheryou have groggy early morning learners, lethargic after-lunch groups or others inbetween, a good warm-up can spark your classes and get everyone immediatelyenergized and turned into your lesson

“Warm-ups help your learners put aside their daily distractions and focus onEnglish If they have not used English all day, they may take a little while to shiftinto it Warm-ups also encourage whole-group participation which can build a sense

of community within the group.” (Kristina, http://writing.colostate.edu)

In brief, Chris (http://ezinearticles.com) gives four reasons for effectivewarm-ups:

 Warm-ups set the tone of the lesson because they are the first activities of the lesson

A full activity raises energy, less inhibited students later in the lesson, because

it goes against the notion of language learning as difficult work assessed throughtests For example, an activity that students find too difficult of confusing can provediscouraging while a fun activity will make the lesson interesting and effective andraise energy levels

 Warm-ups get students to begin thinking and focusing on English

It may have been a few days, a week, or even longer since they last usedEnglish A little time here will improve receptivity later For classes in a non-English speaking country, the lesson may represent the only chance for students touse the language They may not have spoken English for a week, maybe longer, butwarm-up will prepare everyone for the more intensive during classroom time

It usually takes about ten minutes to get the wheels turning Once in Englishmood, students make fewer mistakes during the early stages of the lesson when theteacher is introducing and drilling the target material They will also have fewerslips of the tongue with familiar language

As a final comment, where a short warm up does not get everyone intoEnglish mood, a warm up that is too long takes away valuable time from the lesson.Students have less time to practice and apply the new material

 Warm-ups provide a transition into the topic or target language

An activity at the start of the lesson activates pre-existing knowledge on asubject, and may even get students to use (or consider) some of the ideas,vocabulary, or even grammar important to the lesson

If the lesson focuses on past vacations, then a few lower-intermediatequestions on vacation will get everyone to think about the topic The warm-upactivities have already held information, in this case about vacations There is also

the chance that students may inadvertently produce some of the key language,which you can make note of and use to present the target material.

 Warm-ups allow the teacher important opportunities to access character ability

of the students

Firstly, the warm-ups let teacher sit back, observe, and assess the students’abilities With any class, the teacher will catch students on good and bad days Ifeveryone is a bit tired and unfocused, the teacher may have to scale back the lessonobjective On the other hand, you may have to expand the scope if everyone usesthe target language correctly from the start Assessment lets the teacher adjust whatand how he/she will present materials from the start

Secondly, warm-ups let the teacher also assess who will partner welltogether, and who will not During the initial activity, the teacher can determinewho will form the best groups for subsequent activities Strong students may notwant to work with weak students, or a young businessperson Although the teacherwill not be able to fully determine abilities or personalities for later pair and groupwork, the warm-ups will signal any potential problems or conflicts at the very least

1.3 Common warm-up activities in a reading lesson

Not only with a reading lesson but also with any skill lessons, warm-upactivities are very multiform Not any warm-up activities can apply for all lessons.According to the purpose and requirement of the lesson, the teacher can choose anappropriate warm-up activity

As we know, in the English textbook of high school level, reading is thebeginning part of a unit So in reading lessons, most of warm-up activities are thoseaiming to introduce the topic of the new unit Moreover, because “the teaching ofreading has often involved little more than giving students a text and requiring them

to answer a series of comprehensive questions”(Le Van Su, 2005) we can usewarm-up activities aiming to introduce new words of the new lesson, or warm-upsaiming to revise learned vocabulary which relate to the new lesson Besides, warn-

up activities create joyful atmosphere before starting the new lesson are also useful

Based on these, there are four types of warm-up activities:

 Warm-up activities to introduce the topic of the new lesson

 Hang man (unit 7 in English lesson plan book of grade 11, 2007)

Students have to guess a secret word Teacher gives some clues and number ofletters of the word The class is divided into two teams One student from each teamsuggests a letter in turn If the letter appears in the word, the teacher writes it in thecorrect position If it is not, the teacher starts to construct gallows for that team Oneline is added for each wrong choice The game finishes when there is the correctguess

 Word Association (unit 5, English lesson plan book of grade 11, 2007)

The class is divided into groups of four or five students Teacher passeshandouts of four words which are similar in meaning Ask students to write downthe missing word in each group

Eg: horn, graze, milk, hay – cow

Ask students to find out the key word which is formed by the initial letter ofall the words they have found (the key word relates to the topic of the new lesson).The group who finds out the word first is the winner

 Picture Talk (unit 1, English lesson plan book of grade 11, 2007)

Students work into two groups

Stick pictures of some things on blackboard

Ask students to name them and find out what the pictures talk by colleting thefirst letters of each name from the picture

The group that can first find out the word will be the winner The word relates tothe topic of the new lesson

 Kim’s game (unit 10, English lesson plan book of grade 11, 2007)

Students work in two groups Teacher shows some pictures/ things in front ofthe class in 30 seconds, puts them away and asks students to write down the names

of those things/ pictures The group showing the right answers in a shortest time isthe winner Teacher shows again to check the correct answers

 Chatting (unit 9, English lesson plan book of grade 11, 2007)

Teacher chats and exchanges with students about the problems relating to thetopic of the lesson For example, teacher may ask them some questions Thenteacher introduces the lesson: now we are going to read a text about…

 Warm-up activities to introduce new words

 Bingo (Kristina, http://writing.colostate.edu)

Teacher writes on the board twelve words which are new words of thereading text Students choose five words to write on their paper Teacher points anyword on the board with a ruler and reads loudly While teacher is reading the word,students circle the word they have written When a student circles his/her five wordsfirst, he/ she will say loudly “BINGO” and become the winner

 Warm-up activities to revise learned vocabulary relating to the lesson

 Brainstorming (Kristina, http://writing.colostate.edu)

Teacher divides the class into two groups, gives a topic and asks two teams towrite things related to the topic In two minutes, which group writes more is thewinner

 Warm-up activities to create joyful atmosphere before starting the newlessons

 Riddles and definitions (Callum, 1980:62)

For this type of warming up activity, teacher only gives some riddles forstudents to help them joyful, create relaxation for students to learn new lesson moreeffectively

Eg: What is the end of everything? (letter G)

What has legs but cannot walk? (a table)

What has teeth but cannot bite? (a comb)

 Incomplete definition (Lee, 1991:41-42)

A member of one team defines something and challenges somebody in the otherteam to guess what it is One point is for each correct guess and an extra point is forcorrect spelling

Eg: A piece of furniture in which we keep clothes (a wardrobe)

A way of telling us to stop or go ahead in the street (traffic lights)

A place where a farmer keeps his cow (a cattle shed)

1.4 Summary

In short, warm-up activities are those used before starting a new lesson tomotivate students and make the lesson more interesting and effective They havedeep effects on language teaching and learning They set the tone for the lesson, getstudents to think and focus on English, provide a transition into the topic and finallyallow teacher important opportunities to get access to students’ ability andcharacter Warm-up activities are also multiform Most of them are used tointroduce new words such as Hangman, Word Association, Picture Talk, Kim’sGame and Chatting Another type which introduces new words is Bingo.Brainstorming is to revise learned vocabulary Besides, to create joyful atmospherebefore lessons, Riddles and definitions and incomplete definitions are used

to behavior (Matt, http://ezinearticles.com)

According to Nguyen Ngoc Thao (2001) motivation is called reason or aim

to boost the action to get success

Roberto (2009) gave the similar opinion: “Motivation is something that maydrive a person towards success, and it is crucial to possess an inner motivation toview life in an optimistic way.”

Motivation is defined as the desire or aspiration for achieving a goal

Similarly, another author, James, (http:exinearticles.com) defined that

“Motivation is the characteristic that helps you achieve your goal It is the drive thatpushes you to work hard and reach whatever it is that you are after It is the energythat gives you the strength to get up and keep going-even when things are not goingaway.”

Motivation is often the reason why somebody does something or behaves in aparticular way (Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary of Current English2000:829)

Motivation is typically defined as the forces that account for the arousal,selection, direction and continuation of behavior (Biehler and Snowman, 1997:399) Although there are various definitions of motivation, in the researcher’sopinion the definition of Crookes and Schmidt (1991) is relevant to this study most.Motivation is defined as “interest in and enthusiasm for the material used in class;persistence with the learning task, as indicated by the levels of attention or actionfor an extended duration; and levels of concentration and enjoyment.” The reasonwhy the author chooses this definition is that it belongs to a methodologist and itaims directly to the process of teaching and learning a language Moreover, it dealswith the same problems as the purpose of this thesis – students’ learning motivation

in a class period

2.2 Types of motivation

There are various types of motivation; however, in this study, the researcheronly focuses on two basic types of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic motivationswhich are very popular in most researches of motivation

a Intrinsic motivation

 Definitions

Intrinsic motivation can be defined as the fact of doing an activity for itself,and the pleasure and satisfaction derived from participation (Lyn, 1999)

Intrinsic motivation refers to motivation that comes from inside an individualrather than from external or outside reward.

Intrinsic motivation occurs when people are internally motivated to dosomething because it either brings them pleasure, they think it is important, or theyfeel that what they are learning is significant

 Some features of intrinsic motivation

A student who is intrinsically motivated undertakes an activity for its ownsake, for the enjoyment it provides, the learning it permits, or the feelings ofaccomplishment it evokes

When students do activities for their own sakes, out of interest, and to rewardthemselves with an internal feeling, they are intrinsically motivated

When intrinsically motivated, students tend to employ strategies that demandmore effort and that enable them to process information more deeply

Intrinsic motivation comes from rewards inherent to a task or activity itself –the enjoyment of a puzzle or the love of playing This form of motivation has beenstudied by social and educational psychologists since the early 1970s Researchershave found that it is usually associated with high educational achievement andenjoyment by students Students are likely to be intrinsically motivated if they:

 attribute their educational results to internal factors that they can control (e.g Theamount of effort they put in),

 believe they can be effective agents in reaching desired goals (i.e the results arenot determined by luck),

 are interested in mastering a topic, rather than just rote-learning to achieve goodgrades (Bandura,1997)

b Extrinsic motivation

 Definitions

Extrinsic motivation refers to motivation that comes from outside anindividual The motivating factors are external, or outside, rewards such as money

or grades These rewards provide satisfaction and pleasure that the task itself maynot provide (Carol, http://giftedkids.about.com)

Extrinsic motivation refers to external incentives (such as money, grades orprizes) for a person to perform a given task

 Some features of extrinsic motivation

An extrinsically motivated student performs in order to obtain some reward

or avoid some punishment external to the activity itself such as grades, stickers, orteacher approval

When students are extrinsically motivated, they are doing something inorder to earn a reward or to avoid a punishment

Students are extrinsically motivated when they do activities to a tangiblereward or for instrumental reasons

In a school setting, extrinsic motivation is fairly common, for example,teachers may give prizes to students if they finish all of their home reading for themonth Therefore it may be possible that the students finish all their home reading

to receive a prize rather than for their own enjoyment of reading If teachers knowmore about these concepts it may be able to help them better understand and teachtheir students

Extrinsic motivation techniques have been used in some schools for years,although there is evidence to show that far from encouraging learning, it actuallyundermines it Extrinsic motivation addresses the first stage of natural learningwaterfall: it gives students goals Students want to get the prize, so they are willing

to play by the rules of the game the teacher sets up But unfortunately, it fails on thesecond stage Students learn to see the knowledge the teacher wishes to convey as away to win the prize rather than something interesting to know on its own They donot see it as something useful in its own right So they do not generate questionsabout it And once the prize has been achieved, students no longer have anymotivation to retain what they have learned (Roger, http://www.engines4ed.org)

c The comparison between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation

Both extrinsic and intrinsic motivations push a person to achieve a goal.However, extrinsic motivation is motivation that is inspired by outside forces, whileintrinsic motivation is motivation that is inspired from within a person Both types

of motivations are essential to success

The types of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation factors are very different:Extrinsic motivational factors can be money, people around you, good grades andrewards, while with intrinsic motivation, they can be happiness, personal goals,values and morals, willingness and eagerness to learn and physiological, social, andself-esteem needs

Intrinsic motivation is when you want to do something but extrinsicmotivation is when somebody else tries to make you do something

Intrinsic motivation is better than extrinsic motivation But for many findingsintrinsic motivation is not easy – it has to come from inside out But once you get it,intrinsic motivation is much more powerful than the extrinsic (James,

2.3 The importance of motivation

Motivation has extremely important role, especially in education

Mostly, we feel that the bad effect of class period doesn’t depend on thetechnique and enthusiasm on class of teacher but mainly, the leaning attitude ofstudents So, how to keep student’ interest in learning must be focused.Unfortunately, some English teachers often pay more attention to fill the studentswith many mechanical exercises, ignoring the interest and motivation in class.Motivation in education can have several following effects on how studentslearn and how they behave towards subject matter:

 Motivation directs behavior toward particular goals

Social cognitive theorists propose that individuals set goals for themselvesand direct their behavior accordingly Motivation determines the specific goalstoward which learners strive Thus, it affects the choices students make-for instance,

whether to enroll in physics or studio art, whether to spend an evening completing achallenging homework assignment or playing videogames with friends

 Motivation leads to increased effort and energy

Motivation increases the amount of effort and energy that learners expend inactivities directly related to their needs and goals It determines whether they pursue

a task enthusiastically and wholeheartedly

 Motivation increases initiation of and persistence in activities

Learners are more likely to begin a task they actually want to do They arealso more likely to continue working at it until they have completed it, even if theyare occasionally interrupted or frustrated in the process In general, then, motivationincreases students’ time on task, an important factor affecting their learning andachievement

 Motivation affects cognitive processes

Motivation affects what learners pay attention to and how effectively theyprocess it For instance, motivated learners often make a concerted effort to trulyunderstand classroom material – to learn it meaningfully – and consider how theymight use it in their own lives

 Motivation determines which consequences are reinforcing and punishing

The more learners are motivated to achieve academic success, the more theywill be proud of an A and upset by a low grade The more learners want to beaccepted and respected be peers, the more they will value membership in the “in”group and be distressed by the ridicule of classmates To a teenage boy uninterested

in athletic, making or not making the school football team is no big deal, but to ateen whose life revolves around football, making or not making the team may be aconsequence of monumental importance

 Motivation often enhances performance

Because of the other effects just identified-goal-directed behavior, effort andenergy, initiation and persistence, cognitive processing, and the impact ofconsequences – motivation often leads to improved performance As you might

guess, then, students who are most motivated to learn and excel in classroomactivities tend to be our highest achievers Conversely, students who have littleinterest in academic achievement are at high risk for dropping out before theygraduate from high school.

2.4 Summary

Chapter I has given an overview of warming up activities and motivation inlanguage teaching and learning In short, in education, motivation is “interest in andenthusiasm for the material used in class; persistence with the learning task, asindicated by levels of attention or action for an extended duration; and levels ofconcentration and enjoyment.” (Crookes and Schmitdt, 1991) There are two basictypes of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation Motivation plays animportant role in education It can direct behavior toward particular goals, lead toincreased effort and energy, increase initiation of, and persistence in, activities,enhance cognitive processing, determine what consequences are reinforcing andlead to improved performance