Motivation is what makes a student want to learn, and want to try hard. Children may be self-motivated, motivated by the teacher or their classmates, or by the activities and environment around them. Different children are motivated by different things.

Rewards can be motivating to children, but try not to use rewards too much. Instead you can include some friendly competition into your lessons, and make sure that each activity has a challenging but achievable goal. If there is too much competition or the goal is too difficult to reach, the children may feel de-motivated.

Teachers need to try to keep all students motivated throughout the lesson. The best way to do this is to use a variety of activities, including both group work and individual work, serious activities and fun activities, and to balance work on the four skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening.

To motivate children to learn, be sure to personalise activities to make them more meaningful and memorable. Let the children show you what they have learned and design activities that allow students to express themselves. Feedback should be carefully constructed to not only tell students what they did well, but to give them a chance to suggest ways to improve.

Finally, remember that maintaining a high level of motivation isn’t easy. Remember to incorporate a variety of activities in your lesson plans and make sure that your students have as many chances to succeed as possible.

This article is taken from:

http://www.englishonline.org.cn/en/teachers/teaching-articles/methodology/motivate-children#