Students at end of course - How to keep up motivation?

[jessingermany]

My students are a group of unemployed adults being sent to England by the Labour Agency for three months to shadow a career and improve their English by living in the native environment. We have been working together now for 6 months and it is the last 3 weeks before they go. They have all sorts of other things on their minds - getting ready to go, what to do when they arrive, not to mention nerves, the flight details, leaving their family, etc. They have ben very receptive to learning thus far, but their attention is starting to wane as they now think - I'll figure it out when I get there.

Any ideas for some really fun end of the course activities to keep their interest and motivation?

Thanks!!!!

[Lucy]

Dear Jess,

It sounds like you’ve done an excellent job keeping these students motivated throughout the course.

As most of their energy is now spent preparing for their time in the UK, you could work on this in the lessons. Brainstorm with the students a list of situations they’re likely to encounter during their first week. For example:

Meeting their new colleagues
Taking the bus
Asking for directions
Dealing with (lost) luggage at the airport

The list is endless. Ask them if there are other things they’d like to cover. Then you work on this language with lots of listening, speaking and role play.

You could also cover communication strategies. For example:

a) how to check understanding (I think what you’re saying is……)
b) asking for repetition (could you say that again, I didn’t quite catch it)
c) what to do when you don’t know a lexical item (e.g. I’m looking for something with wheels you use for carrying heavy things). You can take in pictures of unusual objects (or the real thing) and have students describe them.

It also sounds as if the students have got complacent, thinking they’ll work it out when they’re there. You could now start speaking to them as you would to a native speaker, i.e. don’t make allowances for the fact that they’re learning. You could also do a listening lesson with a cassette at a slightly higher level than usual. With this, they’ll realise that there is still room for improvement. I wouldn’t do too much of this as you don’t want them leaving the lesson feeling demoralised.

Of course you can also have a party in class as students will need to practise language for social situations.

[jessingermany]

Thanks so much for the ideas, i am meeting with my co-teacher and will suggest them to her today. I found your post very helpful, and will definitely be checking out this forum more often!

Jess

[Lucy]

Thanks for your comments.

I'm glad I could help.