Motivating Learning

Motivation is a vital element in learning, and the most commonly cited explanation for success or failure in language learning.  Jill Hadfield and Zoltn Drnyei present a new theory of motivation centred around the notion of the Ideal Future Language Self, arguing that if students have a rich and inspiring vision of themselves as successful future language learners and users, they will be motivated to work hard to actualise the vision and become that learner.

This book:

- integrates the latest research in language teaching with innovative classroom practice

- offers suggestions on how the various components of the theory could be structured into a teaching sequence

- includes a variety of imaginative classroom activities designed to aid both student and teacher in creating and actualising the Ideal Self through visualisation, goal setting, task identification and planning, and a selection of appropriate learning strategies.

- shows how teachers can undertake motivation-related research in their own classrooms.

This is an ideal guide to and activity book for the theory and practice of motivation in language learning for students and teachers alike.

Jill Hadfield is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Language Studies  at  Unitec in New Zealand. She  has worked as a teacher and teacher trainer in Britain, France, China, Tibet, Madagascar and is the author of over thirty books, including the Communication Games series, Oxford Basics, Classroom Dynamics (1992) and An Introduction to Teaching English (2008). She  is also the editor of  the online magazine for teachers: ELTmag.

Zoltn Drnyei is Professor of Psycholinguistics at the School of English, University of Nottingham. He has published widely on various aspects of foreign language learning and teaching, and is the author of several books, including The Psychology of Second Language Acquisition (Oxford University Press, 2009) and Teaching and Researching Motivation, 2e with Ema Ushioda (Longman, 2011).