The Motivated Classroom

Educational research consistently finds that motivation is the key factor in young people achieving their potential and succeeding at school. Demotivation, on the other hand, can be defined as “someone who was once motivated but has lost his/her commitment for some reason” (Dörnyei and Ushioda 2011). Even if we are struggling to understand how to motivate our learners, the very least we must ensure is that we are not actively engaged in activities that research has proven to be demotivating. This episode explores the research on these demotivating activities in the language classroom and what we can do to stop them.

For full details a list of these strategies, check out the programme notes with further information and links to research and resources at www.liamprinter.com/podcast.

Keep sharing and spreading the word. I'd love to know what you think, please get in touch or leave me a review 🙏

In this episode I am delighted to be joined by the wonderful Diane Neubauer 杜雁子. Diane is a Mandarin Chinese teacher with over the 14 years experience across age groups. She currently teaches online part-time while working on her PhD in Foreign Language & ESL Education at the University of Iowa. She presents on a variety of language teaching topics at conferences and is involved in research relevant to comprehension-based language teaching and learning. She is currently chair of the ACTFL (USA language association) Comprehension-based Communicative Language Teaching (CCLT) Special Interest Group. Diane talks to us about her PhD research, teaching in the moment, language teacher professional development, raising engagement in the online classroom and what is involved with "language play". 

For full details a list of these strategies, check out the programme notes with further information and links to research and resources at www.liamprinter.com/podcast.

Keep sharing and spreading the word. I'd love to know what you think, please get in touch or leave me a review 🙏

Thank you to the listeners for this question about how we can maintain motivation whilst also grading and assessing for proficiency. In this episode we discuss some strategies for assessing and grading keeping the core psychological need of competence in mind.

For full details a list of these strategies, check out the programme notes with further information and links to research and resources at www.liamprinter.com/podcast.

Keep sharing and spreading the word. I'd love to know what you think, please get in touch or leave me a review 🙏

In this question & answer episode we explore some great questions from listeners about: what to do with reluctant learners or school refusers, how we can adapt a comprehensible input & storytelling approach for younger learners and finally what key language structures we should concentrate on in a reimagined syllabus focused around students' interests.

For full details a list of these strategies, check out the programme notes with further information and links to research and resources at www.liamprinter.com/podcast.

Keep sharing and spreading the word. I'd love to know what you think, please get in touch or leave me a review 🙏

As language teachers, finding ways to move from comprehensible input to 'authentic output' or how to "foster an increase in natural, interpersonal language", as one teacher wrote to me, is often our greatest challenge. In this episode I provide ten zero-prep, practical, strategies to increase spontaneous and enthusiastic speaking in the language classroom. Get in touch and let me know what you think! I'd love to know what strategies work in your classroom!

For full details a list of these strategies, check out the programme notes with further information and links to research and resources at www.liamprinter.com/podcast.

Keep sharing and spreading the word. I'd love to know what you think, please get in touch or leave me a review 🙏

I'm delighted to be joined by the wonderful and highly knowledgeable Dr. Ed Stevens for this episode on teacher's professional identity. Ed is Manager of the Arts & Humanities Research Institute at King's College London having previously been Deputy Head of Public Engagement at the University of Bath. He has recently completed a professional doctorate in Education, where he explored how educators' professional identities may be transformed by, and transform, community engaged research. In this episode Ed helps us to delve further into the language teacher beliefs we explored in Episode 31. 

For full details a list of these strategies, check out the programme notes with further information and links to research and resources at www.liamprinter.com/podcast.

Keep sharing and spreading the word. I'd love to know what you think, please get in touch or leave me a review 🙏

Sometimes, to really change our practice we have to confront our deeply-rooted beliefs. The study of Language Teacher Beliefs or 'Language Teacher Cognition' is gaining momentum in the educational research. In this episode I talk about what the concept is all about and why it is essential for us to talk about it, reflect on our beliefs and ultimately to question whether or not we still value those beliefs we have inherently developed over decades of education both as a student and teacher. 

For full details a list of these strategies, check out the programme notes with further information and links to research and resources at www.liamprinter.com/podcast.

Keep sharing and spreading the word. I'd love to know what you think, please get in touch or leave me a review 🙏

I'm delighted to be joined in this episode with Olly who goes by "Let's Transform MFL (Modern Foreign Languages)" on Twitter. Olly is a vocal and powerful advocate for reinvigorating the MFL curriculum in England so that we can reach more students and help more people achieve fluency. In this discussion, Olly shares his passion for MFL and argues convincingly for a re-imagined curriculum that focuses on the reasons "why" we learn foreign languages in the first place. Explaining beautifully why we should all learn languages, not just from a "useful" perspective but from a wider interest and social justice viewpoint.

Olly teaches French and German in three different secondary schools, although his first teaching experience was in a Berlin primary school. He is originally from the North of England and studied French & German at University.  As a teacher he is busy advocating for languages and contributing to debates about curriculum, uptake and the student experience. Alongside doing a Masters in education, Olly is well versed in the academic literature and research around motivation, subject choices and achieving fluency. 

For full details a list of these strategies, check out the programme notes with further information and links to research and resources at www.liamprinter.com/podcast.

Keep sharing and spreading the word. I'd love to know what you think, please get in touch or leave me a review 🙏

Teacher motivation: A hugely important topic we don't discuss nearly enough. In many countries around the world, teachers are leaving the profession in huge numbers. So what can school leadership do to ensure their teachers remain motivated? In this episode we delve into this thorny issue with a look at recent studies on teacher motivation and discuss what the research can teach us in terms of maintaining teacher motivation. This episode contains many practical, easy to implement, tips for school leaders, Heads of Department and for teachers themselves to help them to stay motivated.

For full details a list of these strategies, check out the programme notes with further information and links to research and resources at www.liamprinter.com/podcast.

Keep sharing and spreading the word. I'd love to know what you think, please get in touch or leave me a review 🙏

Drawing on recent research around error correction and feedback, this episode provides six easy to implement strategies that allow the teacher to give meaningful feedback to students whilst ensuring it doesn't harm their basic psychological need of 'competence'. These strategies will hopefully give you some ideas about how we can ensure our feedback is timely, specific and meaningful to the student so that it helps them to move forward and not over analyse the errors that may be present. Most importantly, these are practical approaches to feedback designed to maintain and build motivation, rather then dampen it!

For full details a list of these strategies, check out the programme notes with further information and links to research and resources at www.liamprinter.com/podcast.

Keep sharing and spreading the word. I'd love to know what you think, please get in touch or leave me a review 🙏