Featured Speaker Session Abstract:                                                                                                   

Engaging in Motivational Teaching Practices

Teachers play a powerful role in motivating learners in their classrooms. In order to engage in effective motivational teaching practices, each teacher must embark on a journey towards excellence. This session will report the results of research conducted in Guatemala and in the United States that report on teacher journeys to achieve a perfect score.

This featured speaker session will focus on ways that teachers can weave motivational moments into their teaching. Research by Guilloteaux and Dörnyei (2008) indicates that “the teacher’s motivational practice does matter. . . . [And that] student motivation is related to the teacher’s motivational practice” (p. 72). Teachers have a powerful role in motivating (or demotivating) the learners in their classrooms.

Because we know that teacher’s motivational practice in the classroom does matters, it is imperative that we take appropriate steps to explicitly plan how we can engage in motivational moments. Using Dörnyei’s components of motivational teaching practice, we will identify instructional strategies for “creating the basic motivational conditions, generating initial motivation, maintaining and protecting motivation, and encouraging positive retrospective self-evaluation” (Dörnyei, 2001, p. 29). Direct implications for increasing motivation in teaching and learning in Korea will be provided.

Academic Presentation Abstract:                                                                                                        :               

Developing Engaged L2 Readers

Developing engaged L2 readers leads to learners who make significant progress. This session will focus on six characteristics of engaged readers and will highlight the links between research and pedagogical practice. Engaged readers (1) activate their background knowledge into the new knowledge they are gaining from texts they read, (2) read widely, (3) read fluently and use their cognitive capacity to focus on the meaning of what they read, (4) develop their comprehension by extending, elaborating, and critically judging what they read, (5) are metacognitively aware as they use a variety of strategies, and (6) are motivated readers.

Neil Anderson Biodata:                                                                                                                                                             

Dr. Neil J Anderson is a Professor in the MA TESOL program in the Department of Linguistics and English Language at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. He also serves as the Coordinator at the English Language Center. Neil has taught and presented papers and workshops in over 40 countries. His research interests include second language reading, motivation, language learning strategies, and teacher leadership. He is the author of a teacher education text entitled Exploring Second Language Reading: Issues and Strategies (1999, Heinle) and an EFL reading series ACTIVE Skills for Reading (2012, Heinle). Neil served as President of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. 2001-2002. He has had two Fulbright research/teaching fellowships, one in Costa Rica (2002-2003) and in Guatemala (2009-2010).