Definition of Motivation Motivation is typically defined as the forces that account for the arousal, selection, direction, and

continuation of behavior. Nevertheless, many teachers have at least two major misconceptions about motivation that prevent them from using this concept with maximum effectiveness. One misconception is that some students are unmotivated. Strictly speaking, that is not an accurate statement. As long as a student chooses goals and expends a certain amount of effort to achieve them, he is, by definition, motivated. What teachers really mean is that students are not motivated to behave in the way teachers would like them to behave. The second misconception is that one person can directly motivate another. This view is inaccurate because motivation comes from within a person. What you can do, with the help of the various motivation theories discussed in this chapter, is create the circumstances that influence students to do what you want them to do. Many factors determine whether the students in your classes will be motivated or not motivated to learn. You should not be surprised to discover that no single theoretical interpretation of motivation explains all aspects of student interest or lack of it. Different theoretical interpretations do, however, shed light on why some students in a given learning situation are more likely to want to learn than others. Furthermore, each theoretical interpretation can serve as the basis for the development of techniques for motivating students in the classroom. Several theoretical interpretations of motivation -- some of which are derived from discussions of learning presented earlier -- will now be summarized. A student who identifies with and admires a teacher of a particular subject may work hard partly to please the admired individual and partly to try becoming like that individual. A student who observes an older brother or sister reaping benefits from earning high grades may strive to do the same with the expectation of experiencing the same or similar benefits. A student who notices that a classmate receives praise from the teacher after acting in a certain way may decide to imitate such behavior to win similar rewards Principles of Accounting has the reputation of being a "hard and boring" course. It is difficult to motivate students to invest the time and effort necessary to succeed in the course. To meet this challenge, we have assembled a list of eight simple rules for keeping students focused and motivated. These rules are not original, and they aren't just for those of us who teach accounting classes. Indeed, most of these time-honored suggestions apply to any course students find hard and boring, and we think that makes them broadly applicable. Rule 1: Emphasize the most critical concepts continuously. Reiterate these concepts in lectures and assignments throughout the course. Include questions relating to these critical subjects on every exam, thus rewarding students for learning, retaining, and, hopefully, applying this knowledge in a variety of contexts. Rule 2: Provide students with a "visual aid" when possible to explain abstract concepts. A significant proportion of today's students are visual learners. For these students, a simple diagram or flowchart truly can be more valuable than a thousand words in a text or a lecture. Rule 3: Rely on logic when applicable. Point out to students which information is merely "fact" that must be memorized and which course material is based upon "logic." Show students how to employ logical thinking to learn and retain new information. For example, in the double-entry bookkeeping system, "debits" equal "credits," and debit entries cause assets to increase. These are "facts" or features of the system; they are not based on logic. However, once the student accepts the system, logic can be used to operate within the system. Continuing the example, if debit entries increase assets, it is logical that credit entries will cause assets to decrease. Rule 4: Use in-class activities to reinforce newly presented material. After a new concept or subject has been presented via text reading, lecture, or class discussion, allow the students to put the concept into action by completing an in-class assignment. These assignments can be short, but they must be developed to ensure that the students understand the critical concepts underlying the new material. Typically, the most learning takes place when the students are permitted to work in small groups, to refer to their text and notes, and to ask questions of the instructor while completing the assignment. If these in-class assignments are part of the course grading scheme, class attendance also improves. Rule 5: Help students create a "link" when teaching something new. If the student can "link" the new material to something already learned, the odds of learning the new material are greatly increased. Examples of possible links include: prior material learned in this course (e.g., the critical concepts described in Rule 1), material learned in prerequisite courses, and "real-life" experiences of the students outside the classroom. Rule 6: Recognize the importance of vocabulary in a course. Students often struggle with new vocabulary in many courses, especially introductory ones. To succeed in these courses, students must become comfortable with the new terminology. As

subjects are presented, new and/or confusing terms should be identified and introduced to the students. Present "real-world" definitions and alternative terminology, in addition to textbook definitions. One way to help students assimilate the course vocabulary is to create a "living" glossary on the instructor's website where new terminology is added, explained, and illustrated throughout the course. Rule 7: Treat students with respect. Patronizing behavior may be expected in primary school teachers, and :drill sergeant" strategies may be effective in military book camps. However, most college student will not respond well to these techniques. Give students their dignity, and they will give you their best efforts. Rule 8: Hold students to a high standard. If students are not required to maintain a specified level of learning and performance, only the most highly motivated students will devote the time and effort necessary to learn. In contrast, maintaining high standards not only will motivate student learning, it will also be the source of student feelings of accomplishment when those standards are met. Each of these rules can help motivate even the most lethargic student, but Rule 7 and 8 are the most important. If students are not treated with respect and held to a high standard, scrupulously following the first six rules will have much less impact and might end up being an exercise in futility. Choral Choral repetition is a commonly used method of drilling. Students simply have to repeat words or phrases after you. This is a good method because it means that students are given excellent model pronunciation immediately before they are asked to respond. Going through vocabulary this way many times in a single lesson will be boring for your students and they will be less inclined to perform well. Break up the monotony by changing the speed or volume you use and have students change their responses accordingly. Using this method, students are not called on individually to pronounce words therefore you will need to check individual pronunciation and comprehension separately. Integrating these checks into your drill activities will keep students alert because they will never know when you may call On 1. Drilling using flashcards can be useful as well. In the introduction, show students both the image and word sides of each flashcard. When you start drilling words for the first time, show students the word side of the flashcard so they can practice reading and pronouncing it. Later on, rather than show students the word you want them to pronounce, show them the image. This will help check their comprehension of the material. With flashcards, you can also challenge your students when they become more familiar with certain vocabulary by flipping through the cards at a faster rate. Comprehension Asking for volunteers or calling on students to give you a synonym, antonym, or translation of a new vocabulary word will check individual comprehension. It is always nice to ask for volunteers as opposed to calling on students individually but generally a volunteer will be more confident in his answer so this will not properly show whether or not the class understands the material. When you find it necessary to single out particular students who are not participating in drill activities, calling on them for answers is an easy method of focusing their attention on the lesson. Doing comprehension checks is also a good way to break up the drill activities a bit. Drilling As material becomes more familiar, you may want to conduct short pair activities where a students comprehension is tested by his partner. To do this with a vocabulary list for instance, have student A read the translation of each word in random order while the student B says the word in English. Student A can then place a checkmark next to all the words student B got correct and then the students can switch roles. With this method students can check each other and have visual proof of how well they performed afterwards which they can refer to when practicing material on their own or preparing for exams. Conducting an activity such as this on a regular basis will help students review vocabulary often and should not take more than five minutes even with fifteen to twenty vocabulary words. It may still be necessary to practice using choral repetition before performing pair activities so that students are reminded of theproper pronunciation of the vocabulary. Games Breaking your classroom up into sections where each section says one portion of a new structure is another way of drilling material. In small classes you can conduct some drilling activities in a circle. The more variation there is to an activity, the more students have to pay attention but it is best to start off with the simplest, easiest variation of a game and build on it as opposed to trying to explain a complex activity from the very beginning. Challenging students but not overwhelming them is important in maintaining their attention and participation. Drilling is generally not the most fun part of teaching or learning English but it is an essential step when learning new material. Varying your approach can make it more enjoyable and encourage students to participate more fully.

Drills Write One To review a specific grammatical structure or principal that you have been studying in class, ask each person in your class to write one multiple-choice question. You can specify what you want the question to test, or you can let your students choose from several topics you have already studied. Ask each person to turn in his or her question and then present one or two of them to your class. If you have more questions than you can go through in the time you have, keep the remaining questions to use the next time you have a few minutes you would like to fill. If you want to make the exercise a little more challenging, have each student specify on his paper which choice is the correct answer and why. Having your students explain the rule behind the question will help to solidify it in their minds. Transform ItThough most teachers of writing want their students to avoid the passive voice, the structure is one that ESL students must study and understand. A simple review of the passive voice, and a challenge for your students, is to take a short passage (two sentences up to a paragraph) and rewrite it changing active verbs to passive ones. If you have already taught your class how to write the passive voice, this activity will serve as useful practice for the grammatical structure. If you have time, ask your students to notice how much information is lost when sentences are written in the passive voice. Homophone Minute Homophones are a topic that is always worth reviewing with your class. Students of all ages consistently confuse sets of homophones such as to/two/too andthere/their/theyre as well as many others. When you have a few minutes of free class time, write a set of homophones on the board and ask each person to write a sentence using each one, making its meaning clear. You may want to review which meaning goes with each word before your students write their sentences, or test to see how much they already know by saving definitions until after they have turned in their sentences. This can be a great opportunity to address any consistent errors you find in your class writing. Rewrite Me As a review for verb tenses, give your students a paragraph from a reading book, amagazine or another resource. For paragraphs written in the past tense, ask your students to work in pairs or groups of three or four to rewrite the paragraph in thepresent tense, as if the events are happening at the present moment. You could also ask your student to rewrite the paragraph using future tenses. This will serve as a good review for verb tenses and also give your students some time to practice theirspeaking as they work in their small groups. Mini Mad Libs You can review parts of speech with your students by completing Mad Libs as a class. You can find this type of interactive activity online on many web sites, but there are also printable versions available. You will ask your students to give you words with a specific part of speech, and you will fit them into a paragraph resulting in a silly story. Though some of the humor may be lost on your students, they will still benefit from volunteering words that fulfill specific parts of speech. Cloze Encounters A cloze paragraph is an easy way to see just how much grammar your students understand, but it does take some advance preparation. In this type of exercise, you should prepare a few sentences up to an entire paragraph for your students to work with. For the passage, replace every fifth, seventh or tenth word with a blank line that your students will fill in. The more advanced your students are, the more frequently you can include a blank. They must then fill in words that are grammatical and make sense contextually. Since a cloze exercise does not test one particular skill but rather general grammatical knowledge, you should plan to use this exercise for review. Simply prepare a few cloze paragraphs and have them copied and ready to pull out of your desk drawer when you have a few free moments to fill during your next class! Punctuation Challenge When you have time to prepare an activity in advance, giving your students a text in which they must place all punctuation and/or capital letters is another useful means of grammar review. Like the cloze exercise, this type of activity tests a general level of knowledge rather than drilling a specific skill. Having some paragraphs ready to hand out at a moments notice will make good use of a few free minutes in class provided you take some time to get the paragraph ready ahead of time.