Exams – carrots
or sticks?
How preparing for exams can inject focus and motivation into our English classes
How preparing for exams can inject focus and motivation into our English classes
Key slides from my plenary at the 1st
Cambridge Istanbul Symposium, 20 March 2015
Why do we learn English?
To get a better job
To travel
To access culture
To access information
To communicate with people
globally
‘Everyone who’s anyone speaks English!’
Our students need
immediate goals
a step by step approach
sense of direction
challenge
reassurance
to get organised
see progress
a sense of success
Everyone can
experience feelings of resolve and a commitment to think more and to dare more … and of being poised to learn and ready to
take the next step.
Martin V.
Covington, The Will to Learn, Cambridge University Press
John Atkinson’s Theory of Motivation:
All individuals can be characterised by two
learned drives, a motive to approach success and a motive to avoid failure.
The anticipation of success and its emotional correlates of pride and
exhilaration combine to produce a trust in the future and in life in general.
John Atkinson,
An Introduction to Motivation, Princeton
Checklist for class tasks:
Why did we do this?
Which skills / language areas did
we practise?
Did I learn something new?
Which parts of the exam is this
useful for?
we feel best in flow.. fully involved in meeting a challenge, solving a
problem, discovering something new. Most activities that produce flow also have
clear goals…
Csikszentmihalyi, Finding Flow, Basic Books, 1998
They need …superb attention, planning and organisational
skills, all of which develop more slowly in boys…
Frances E
Jensen, The Teenage Brain, Thorsons, 2015
So:
Introduce different ways of
planning
Bring in texts on effective study
skills
Have a discussion / role play on
topic
Check that students have own
strategy / scheme
Get parents onside
Everyone can succeed if we
achieve ‘a realistic match between the individual’s present capacities and the demands of the
achievement task’
Henry
Widdowson
The CEFR states – we must celebrate learning steps!!
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