INTRODUCTION

There is a saying that: “If you study to remember, you will forget, but, if you study to understand, you will remember”. Have you achieved this goal in teaching? Practically, there are many kinds of learners with very different levels, distinct characteristics and various motivations, which is really a big barrier for teachers as well as educators to get this goal. Innovation in higher education has been variously associated with learning technologies, pedagogical approaches, organizational processes, grant opportunities (Alexander, 2006), responses to globalization and the agendas of government (Roberts, 2004). Thus, changing our methodology aims to improve the quality of teaching and learning in schools.

The importance, significance and exigency of teaching innovation have been raised by the government and authorities for a long time. However, it is not regularly implemented at every school, and also by every teacher. It just stops on the surface and the facade and does not create a productive mutation in teaching. Besides that, it does not still become a need and a very necessity for teachers. If only each of them considered it as their urgency, they would try to broaden their knowledge, practise skills actively. At that time it would be effective and successful indeed.

I have experienced some contextual factors affecting my teaching innovation in my school. Absolutely do I recognize its importance and try to accomplish this objective. To recognize these factors will help me teach better and choose the appropriate methodology.

SOME CONTEXTUAL FACTORS

My teaching is considerably affected by my pupils’ motivation. To be clear, we will get through some definitions of motivation:

Motivation is commonly thought of as an inner drive, impulse, emotion or desire that moves one to a particular action. Or, in more technical terms, motivation refers to “the choices people make as to what experiences or goals they will avoid or avoid, and the degree of effort they will exert in that respect.” (Keller 1983:389).

Motivation is the set of reasons that determines one to engage in a particular behavior. The term is generally used for human motivation but, theoretically, it can be used to describe the causes for animal behavior as well. This article refers to human motivation. According to various theories, motivation may be rooted in the basic need to minimize physical pain and maximize pleasure, or it may include specific needs such as eating and resting, or a desired object, hobby, goal, state of being, ideal, or it may be attributed to less-apparent reasons such as altruism, or morality, or overcoming mortality (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia)

According to Edward (1975:23), there are two kinds of motivation: Extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation:

Intrinsically motivated activities are ones for which there is no apparent reward except the activity itself. People seem to engage in the activities for their own sake and not because they lead to extrinsic reward…Intrinsically motivated behaviors aimed at bringing about certain internally rewarding consequences namely, feelings of competence and self-determination.

Extrinsically motivated behaviors, on the other hand, are carried out in anticipation of a reward from outside and beyond the self. Typical extrinsic rewards are money, prizes, grades, and even certain types of positive feed back.

Experiencing from my teaching, I would identify how my pupils’ motivation affected my English teaching. My school is Thua Thien Hue Vocational training secondary school (TVS) with its purpose to train a specialized job for workers. Pupils studying in my school must be expert in one particular field of job such as electricity, mechanics, industrial sewing etc. In the curriculum of English, they, hence, just learn some technical words and some useful expressions in communication relating to their learning fields. Most pupils enrolled in my school have a low standard of knowledge in general, especially in English. Additionally, they spend less time learning English as well as practicing English at home. I found it difficult to persuade them to have a copy the textbook so that they were able to do exercises at home and I also taught them more easily. In their feelings, learning English was not important and they could learn without the textbooks. They learnt English passively and grudgingly. On the contrast, we would see how active when they learnt Korean. My school has the permission of the government to give labors to work in Korea. There are, absolutely, many qualifications for them when working in Korea with many preferential conditions but one of the most important one they must fulfill is that they have to pass the exam of Korean. Doubtlessly, most of them wanted to work in Korea, which was clearly identified in the course of Korean. Although it took place at night and at the weekend but rarely was no one absent from the class. Despite the high cost of textbook, all of them had one. They learnt Korean actively and asked the teacher the questions that they did not know, not found in an English class. They usually contacted with the training bureau to know the results of the tests as well as their concerning information.

From the above comparison, we can easily identify how important the pupils’ motivation is. The more they have proper motivation, the more teachers will easily carry out their teaching. There is also a question proposed here: Do they have the motivation in learning English? It is the kind of extrinsic motivation. The answer is “Yes”. However, having a good result in English is not so superior as getting a chance to work in Korea with many advantages. Will they have a good job with high salary when learning English well?

As far as goal orientations are concerned, there are two kinds: mastery goals and performance goals. Recently, motivational theorists have further distinguished achievement goal orientations to highlight how each has an approach and avoidance component (Elliot, 1999). The following three configurations of goal orientations have received the most attention in the research literature: mastery-approach goals, performance avoid goals, and performance-approach goals.

Students who have mastery-approach goals define competence in terms of self-improvement and self-set standards. When engaged in achievement-directed behavior, they focus on learning, skill development, creativity, and understanding. The empirical evidence suggests that when students approach achievement tasks with a mastery orientation, they experience a variety of desirable outcomes: enhanced interest in learning, more positive attitudes toward learning, viewing of errors as informational, attribution of failure to lack of effort (rather than lack of ability), academic engagement and effort, perseverance in the face of challenges, more risk-taking, and asking for assistance when needed (Pintrich & Schunk, 2002).

Students holding performance-avoid goals, on the other hand, are focused on avoiding looking dumb, stupid, or less able than other students. Students with these goals are concerned with protecting their self-worth at all costs. Consequently they are more likely to engage in self-sabotaging behaviors, such as cheating, avoiding help when they need it, and withdrawing effort (Urdan, Ryan, Anderman, Gheen, 2002). In addition to self-sabotaging behaviors, this maladaptive set of motivational beliefs has been linked to a variety of undesirable outcomes. For example, students who have performance-avoid goals are more likely to view errors as indicating a lack of ability, experience high levels of anxiety, exert less effort, place less value on tasks, give up in the face of difficulty, and ultimately demonstrate lower levels of achievement (Pintrich & Schunk, 2002).

Finally, students holding performance-approach goals engage in achievement behaviors for the purpose of demonstrating their ability, besting others, and obtaining recognition (Pintrich & Schunk, 2002). Students with a performance-approach orientation define competence in relation to others (e.g., getting the highest grade).

In comparison with the above kinds of above goals, I have identified that most of my pupils belong to the type of the performance-avoid goal. They were afraid of making mistakes and always tried to manage themselves when having difficulties. They feared that the others would know their mistakes and that they were not good at learning English. They had the feeling that mistakes were something terrible and unacceptable. Accordingly, they rarely attended to contribute their opinions to the lessons or to answer the questions actively. Therefore, it was very difficult for me to organize the interactive activities in my class. They felt uninterested when role playing, working in groups or in pairs. In order to encourage them, I promised to give them good marks, or add the extra marks to their tests if they have the right answers or actively attend to the lessons. Most of them, therefore, participated in the lessons zealously, trying to contribute theirs answers even if they did not know the answers.

Because of the distinction of my school, a large number of my pupils live in the country or in the remote areas with the deficiency of living conditions. Some of them live far away from home so they have to get up early to go to school and take a short siesta at school if they have to study in the afternoon. So, in some situations, I have to sympathize with my pupils. If they do not do their homework or absent themselves from the class, I have to ask for the reasons and try to encourage them to overcome the difficulties.

As regards the textbooks, there are many disadvantages to identify. This current textbook is designed for vocational training schools but it lacks of lessons of technical fields. Some lessons such as “a British wedding”, “Holidays and festivals” do not meet their needs. Moreover, the textbook also does not have many authentic pictures and interactive activities also. It primarily emphasizes on literary reading, pronunciation and many vocabularies to remember. There are also listening activities for learners but it cannot attract the pupils. There is a famous Swedish saying: “We are putting the cart before the horse”. What will happen when we put the cart in front of the horse? There is nothing happening, the cart cannot run. It is also true in this situation because the students are not able to understand the listening lessons because of their low levels in English as I mentioned above, which does not make them interested and attentive. Moreover, with a very limitation of periods in the curriculum, I could pay attention much to a specific skill.

I use both deductive and inductive methods when presenting the new points of grammar. The first involves beginning with a rule or a form first and then moving on to exercises, examples. On the other hand, the latter begins with the explanation, examples and then comes to the conclusion and forms. With the difficult and complex points of grammar, the first is preferred. In doing so, the pupils will know how to apply the given forms to do the requiring exercises. The inductive method is also needed when the pupils find difficult to conclude a complex rule from examples such as structures for inviting, asking for advice etc. Note that the advantages of using inductive and deductive method together should outweigh the disadvantages of the two strategies and these two methods are best used in combination. And most learners probably do so without being conscious of their choices.

In addition to the contextual factor, applying IT in teaching English has also a big influence on my teaching. Before teachers can successfully implement technology, they need a change in their pedagogy. Such change requires a paradigm shift from viewing their role as a giver of knowledge to a facilitator of knowledge (Dexter, Anderson, & Becker, 1999). With the expansion of Information Highways and technology teachers must also take on the added responsibilities of teaching pupils how to use the computer as a tool and creating innovative strategies to enhance computer literacy and computer based training in the curriculum

Inspired by the rapid development of technology from the 1980s, computer has now become an influential component of second language learning pedagogy. Educators recognize that utilizing computer technology and its attached language learning programs can be convenient to create both independent and collaborative learning environments and provide pupils with language experiences as they move through the various stages of second language acquisition (Kung, 2002).

Applying computers in my teaching gets many advantages because I have received many supports from the school-board and also from my colleagues. With the help of computers and other multimedia, I effectively transfer the knowledge to my pupils and they also acquire my lessons in an active and easy way. Because of the lack of authentic pictures in the textbook, I can show them the lively pictures, the video clips I have searched from the other resources, which will get more my pupils’ interest and attention. Although preparing an electronic lesson plan takes me much time and efforts, our period will be more active and successful. The biggest barrier that prevents me from using IT is the preparation at the beginning of the period. There are no available computers, projectors and other multimedia as well in each room so I have to spend much time preparing facilities for my period. Additionally, the electricity network in the region of our school is not stable compared as the city so it is very risky to be totally depended on the electronic lesson plan.

Class size may also affect the quality and effectiveness of teaching. In smaller classes it can be easier for teachers to spot problems and give feedback, identify specific needs and gear teaching to meet them, set individual targets for pupils, and be more flexible and adventurous in the use of different styles of teaching. Realizing from my teaching, I will feel at my ease and more convenient when encountering a class less than twenty-five pupils. They are more likely to interact in an active way with me and I can also control my class more entirely. I will also have a proper assessment in small classes because the disciplines are also easily carried out.

CONCLUSION

Above are some contextual factors affecting my teaching innovation. Recognizing these ones has helped me have effective and successful lessons. Besides, it should take me more time to overcome some difficulties during my teaching. One of the biggest factors is learners’ motivation and I would like to suggest some ways to encourage the learners:

Correction: The way that teachers correct mistakes of learners can also help them more self-confident and comfortable. Teachers can use self-correction. When students make an error, they can sometimes correct themselves. This is the best form of feedback. A technique for doing this is to repeat the error for the student so they recognize that they have made an error. Indirect correction is also considered as one of the most effective ways to create the proper motivation from the learners. Teachers should not interrupt pupils to correct them. Instead of that, they take notes of the errors and give feedback to pupils at the end of the class or next period. Errors here are considered as a process of learning and getting new knowledge. The most important thing is for the teacher to be flexible and to be aware of the effect on each individual learner of correcting errors. So a good teacher will use different strategies according to the kind of error, the ability and personality of pupils, and the general atmosphere of the class.

Compliment: Providing pleasurable rewards creates eager and productive people. We should try to encourage learners in an active way. Consequently, they may think that they have achieved fruitful knowledge from their teachers, which will continue helping them have forceful feelings in the next lesson.

Deadlines: Many people are most productive right before a big deadline. They also have a hard time focusing until that deadline is looming overhead. Use this to your advantage by setting up a series of mini-deadlines building up to an end result (John Wesley, 2007).

Backwash effect: It is an effect of a test on teaching. In some countries, for example, national exams have a major impact on teaching and teachers often “teach to the tests”. In order to bring about changes in teaching, changes have to be made in the tests. For example if the education department in a country wanted schools to spend more time teaching listening skills, one way to bring this about would be to introduce a listening test into state exams. The backwash effect would be that teachers would then spend more time teaching listening skills.

A well-prepared lesson plan: A good lesson plan will play an important role in the success of the period. Don’t ask people to do the same boring tasks all the time. Pupils will feel more interested and engaged in the lessons if there is an attractive warm-up with cheerful games, many alluring activities for practising and clear instructions for exercises.

REFERENCES

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Brown, H. Douglas (nd). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. Prentice Hall Regents.

Cheng-Chieh Lai. (2006). The Advantages and Disadvantages of Computer Technology in Second Language Acquisition. Doctoral forum National journal for publishing and mentoring doctoral student research volume 3 number 1, 2006.

Doff, A. (1994). Teach English. A training course for teacher. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hannon, J. (2008). Breaking down online teaching: Innovation and resistance. Ascilite 2008 Melbourne.

James, R. (nd). Evaluating Teaching Innovation. Retrieved from

www.cshe.unimelb.edu.au/pdfs.

Larsen, D. and Freeman. (nd). Techniques and principles in language teaching. Oxford University Press.

Su, Q. (nd). Teaching innovation using a computerised audience response system. From www.itee.uq.edu.au/~aupec/aupec02/Final-Papers

Wesley, J. (2008). Increase Motivation. Retrieved October 24, 2008 from

http://www.strategicconcepts-ca.com/news/258/increase-motivation-john-wesley/