This week we are thinking about to what extent teachers influence our students’ degree of motivation and their self-esteem. The readings revolved around these core texts: Language Learner Behaviour in a Virtual Environment (Roed, 2003), Students’ perspectives on Foreign Language Anxiety (Van Woorde, 2003) and Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety (Horowitz K. et al, 1986).

Some of the vocabulary was quite dramatic: ‘The most disturbing aspect of the class, according to many students, was directly related to the teachers themselves …’ (Wörde 2006: 6). Wörde also quotes Maclntyre & Gardner as follows: ‘Students experience anxiety only after repeated negative experiences in the language learning context. (Maclntyre & Gardner: 1989)’.

What I understood from the readings was that one bad experience of a “painful or exasperating” situation (p4) is enough to taint student’s future references for language learning. And, since past experience informs current experience, it is important for teachers to “be especially sensitive about their (students) pre-conceived ideas of themselves as language learners and try to change their perception if they are pessimistic” (quoting a fellow student’s post in our forum).

Regarding personal experiences from secondary school, I am lucky enough to have had a lot of positive experiences – not just with languages (French and Latin), but for almost all of my subjects. It was clear my teachers loved what they were teaching, and that passion was passed on to me. So I concur with my class-mate Victoria’s post that “… we, as teachers, have a great power to instil negative or positive feelings in our students towards the subject matter”. Indeed, this is what “set me up” to become the language learning lover that I am today!

In terms of influencing motivation and self-esteem, I attempt to pre-empt possible anxiety barriers to learning, by creating a structured, open class. Unfortunately, having students sit in a “semi-circle or oval” (p7), as suggested in the paper, is ideal, but usually not possible in the typical Chinese classroom, due to large numbers. Otherwise, I try not to “pick on” students, but “call on” them indiscriminately, where they are aware (a regular practice built from the first class) that our raison d’etre for being in the classroom is to communicate, not just between me, the teacher, and them, the students, but also between each other.

I definately agree that ‘personality is what makes the class’. I often get good comments on my teaching. However, I feel that these are based less on my students achieveing certain linguistic goals, but rather a rating on how comfortable they feel in my class. For me, the key is getting to know the students, what they want to achieve and what their current abilities and learning preferences are. If I am seen as a teacher who “made the class fun” or “…who makes it interesing by using interesting situations” (p8), then this positive attitude carries through the learning process, where learning appears to be ‘easy’. In this way, “the instructor will either make or break the course…” (p6) is a valid statement, which inspires us to build trust and confidence amongst out students

Finally, I like the idea of making students aware of how we will teach them, and how we can adapt our teaching to their needs. However, I am not usually explicit in these actions. Rather than having direct conversations with the students (another possible cause of anxiety?), I devise mini-questionnaires asking what topics and activities they like, and which they would like to do again. In this way, I implicitly include them in the decision-making process of what we will learn in the future.

References

Van Worde, 2003, Students’ Perspectives on Foreign Language Anxiety.  Inquiry, 8, 1.