Eltam journal no 2 8th eltam iatefl tesol international biannual conference managing teaching and learning

 
85 
Flexible and easily movable desks and chairs ease the teachers` ability to organize the 
classroom to suit his/her needs;
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The flexible classrooms give freedom of the teacher to plan various types of activities and 
encourage creativity 
Motivating students 
Being able to motivate students to learn is the most useful skill a teacher can have. When a 
student is motivated to learn their own impetus takes over and the teacher is able to guide, 
provide structure and information, suggest methods of working, pose questions and the students 
will willingly take them forward. 
Motivation is often classified in three ways: extrinsic, when students are motivated by the 
possible results (winning a prize or a good grade, fear of punishment) or intrinsic, when students 
are motivated by the experience itself and internal motivation, when a task is not intrinsically 
motivated but the students recognize that it will be worth doing in the long run. 
Teachers tend to use a lot of extrinsic motivation. They offer stickers or merit points, smiles, 
praise and threats of sanctions. However, if only the extrinsic motivation is used, the students 
do not learn to motivate themselves or they will not understand the importance of the task for 
its own sake.  
In motivating students to learn well there are numerous of things a teacher can do.  
Observing what students find intrinsically motivating can be very useful for the teacher to steer 
the teaching and learning to positive outcome of the class. If a majority of the class loves team 
games or singing or drama then using those techniques to teach can be very motivating. Putting 
learning in an authentic or realistic situation can also motivate students to learn and make the 
learning atmosphere effective and pleasant for the students. 

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86 
Exploring opportunities that occur naturally in the school, teachers can think ahead to plan 
opportunities for learning to happen in authentic situations. Some situations for learning can be 
stimulated by using role-play techniques. 
The activities that the teacher uses as role-play or authentic situations stimulates the students` 
need to learn and display certain skills within a context that the students feel to be authentic, 
even though recognizing that it is stimulated, they engage in the learning with a will, and that 
is the utmost goal the teachers can achieve in class. 
However easy this can seem, making students like learning and engaging them in the activities 
the teacher has planned is a challenging and difficult task.