On Adoption of Motivating System in Large Multilevel College English Classes

CHEN Dan-dan

（Wuhan University of Technology HuaXia College，Wuhan Hubei,430000）

0 Introduction

During the process of teaching college English,I am offered a chance to glimpse the current situation of college English teaching in china.Like most college English teachers,my colleges and I are teaching groups of seventy or more students in classes where students not only differ in language acquisition ability,but also in age,motivation,intelligence,self-discipline,literacy skills,attitude and interest.And this situation is not at all unusual for us.Teaching English in large classes is far from easy and presents us with a great many obstacles.Through analyzing the challenges English teachers who work in large multilevel class face,I believe that more and more attention should be paid to the motivating system composed of non-intelligence factors of motivation,interest and volition,which can narrow the gap between high-competence students and low-competence students;active students and inactive students.In this way teaching in multilevel class can be improved to be more productive and efficient.

1 Definition of multilevel class

Just as Hess(2009：2)has claimed that multilevel classes are the kinds of classed that have been roughly arranged according to ability,or simply classes that have been arranged by agegroup with no thought of to language ability.It is common that few of classes in China are arranged by ability,while most of classes are classified by age.This situation is the same in college.College English classes are often large classes with more than 50 students in which they vary in their language skills and literacy skills,which increase the difficulties for college English teachers to improve every participant’s proficiency in reading,writing,listening and speaking within limited teaching time.

2 Challenges English teachers who work in large multilevel class face

According to my experience,unlike primary school and middle school students,college students come from different places with different learning style,cultural background,local accents,values and viewpoints.Some students are good language-learners,while some of them are less good languagelearners.Forced to join in the same English class,they would feel anxious and nervous because they could not coordinate with each other in an efficient way.For many students,the language class can be more anxiety-provoking than any other courses that they take(Horwitz et al.1986;MacIntyre&Gardner 1989).

So for college English teachers,effective methods to narrow the gap between high-competence students and low-competence students,to take advantage of the diversity of multilevel students and to create a harmonious language learning environment are worth their great attention.

I will introduce motivating system in the following parts and explain why it is an effective system to help college English teachers solve the problems they face in large multilevel classes.

3 Motivating system

3.1 Definition of Motivating system

It is well known that people considerably differ from intelligence.Furthermore,it is very hard to test everybody’s IQ(intelligence quotient)value.If college English teachers want to make use of students’intelligence factors to improve their language skills,they would face incredible obstacles.To some degree,language talent has nothing to do with intelligence.As a result,an increasing attention is given to the motivating system.Motivating system(張正東,黃泰銓,1999：238)is composed of non-intelligence factors of motivation,interest and volition.The motivating system is able to motivate,regulate,facilitate or to hinder the learning by students.

Using the motivating system in an appropriate way to teach means letting students feel free and relaxed.When staying in an active environment,they get a feeling that they are willing to learn rather than they are forced to learn.Unlike learning other subjects,learning a foreign language acquires more passion and oral practice.If the students feel a great pressure when they are learning English,they would be more afraid of opening their mouths and do more language activities.When they are encouraged and motivated by English teachers and classmates,they might like do more practice and express themselves to be more specific and clear.

3.2 Two important factors in a Motivating system

1）Interest

Interest,subdivided into two phrases of direct interest and indirect interest,is a crucial means to arouse intrinsic motivation(張正東,黃泰銓,1999：240).Direct interest results from direct learning process itself,which lasts for a short time.Because when young students meet difficulties in the process of learning,their interests may disappear immediately.As a result,it needs to arouse students’indirect interest which depends on the teacher’s guiding role and teaching art and student’s desire for success.Only by getting involved in there study,students’interest for learning English or any other subjects may last long.

As an instructor,the teacher is responsible for helping students get involved in their study.So teachers can not teach only by the book,paper and pencil.Beautiful pronunciation and intonation,active and enthusiastic classroom atmosphere,carefully-designed handwriting,or teacher’s good manner,neatlydressed appearance are all useful to make students highly motivated(張正東,黃泰銓,1999：241).

Students can feel high self-esteem and confidence through accomplishing success in games and activities designed by English teachers.Interesting language games and activities have an incredibly positive impact on student in which almost every member can easily involve themselves,especially the ones who stay in large multilevel classes.However,those games and activities should be carefully designed by teachers.They should first consider the capability of students at different levels and then choose suitable games and activities which enable every participant to produce the best possible results.

2）Encouragement

Another important element in a motivating system is encouragement.No matter how old we are,the moment we decide to learn a new language,we become babies who can not read and write.Teachers play a role as parents.If our strange accent and clumsy pronunciation are mocked by teacher and peers,we may feel deeply hurt and are not wiling to open our mouth again.Emotions or feelings may easily be demotivating(張正東,黃泰銓,1999：242).According to Diesterweg,teaching art has nothing to do with skills of impartment of knowledge,but with encouraging and eliciting students’emotional response to what is taught.From my teaching experience,what students need is not correction and critical comments on their performances,but the agreement and approval from teacher and the other classmates,especially in large multilevel classes.This requires teachers to give positive response to their students.At the same time,if English teachers lack spirit and energy,it is impossible to positively affect students’emotions.Some students complain the reason they dislike English lies in those teachers who have negative attitudes towards teaching.Therefore,a stress on students’psychological feelings could cultivate their non-intelligence factors which make their English study more effective.

4 Conclusion

When I was a student,I was too shy to answer my teacher’s questions in the public.The situation was worse when I was asked to speak English in front of my classmate,because I was not a good language learner at that time.I thought if I made some mistakes,I would be mocked by my classmates.But I really wanted to share my viewpoints with my classmates and my teacher when I met some interesting topics.However,I had no courage to express myself in English.Now I am a college English teacher.Through three years’teaching experiences,I find this situation has not been improved to be better.My students are quiet when they sit in the classroom.They will lower their head when I raise some questions.But when I design some simple language activities for them,they become very active and full of interest.They can not wait to attend the game and do act well.

According to the fact,it not difficult to see students need to be involved in something active.If a task or mission’s difficulty beyond an average student’s ability,it doesn't work.Failure makes them feel bad and depressed and finally they will lose interest and desire to learn English.Only by encouraging students,they will keep moving and making progress.So almost everything should be depend on the creative attitude and behavior of the teacher who must be technically adept at ways of getting the students motivated(張正東,黃泰銓,1999：239).

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