Samenvatting

Motivation is a current issue. Constantly it is questioned whether today's pupils are motivated to learn, and what the educational system can do to get them more motivated and willing to learn. I myself questioned this as well, during my first working experiences at three different secondary schools and experienced differences in gender concerning their motivation. Therefore I wrote this report. In this report there is one main question, namely: what are the best approaches to get different groups of pupils motivated for and during the English lessons? My final goal was to present approaches and instruments which I could link to different groups of pupils and to different circumstances, with the goal to get these groups or individual pupils motivated during English lessons. In order to answer this main question and reach the final goal, I investigated several resources. To make sure I used the most suitable and reliable sources, I read a lot of articles and studies on the topic of my research. Because there was quite a lot to be found, I decided to make a selection of appropriate articles, while using one book in particular, which was written by Dörnyei. To make my research more suited for my own situation, I did a survey amongst the pupils and colleagues of the Bonnenfantencollege in Maastricht. In the first chapter it was important to understand the definition of 'motivation'. The book 'Researching Motivation' provided me with a great number of different approaches and techniques of how to get people motivated. I made an elucidation of the presented techniques to make clear how these techniques could be used in practice. The first few chapters of the research clarify the aspect of motivation and its techniques and approaches. In the following chapters, I had to find out more about the differences in gender and their motivation. Firstly, I used articles and studies to theorize this aspect of the main question of this research. According to the studies and articles, it shows that genders do differ on several levels, and also in school performances and attitudes. After determining the underlying information about motivation and differences in gender, I could do my field research. During lessons I tried to use several techniques, but most of the results were found by using questionnaires for both the pupils and the teachers. The outcomes of these two parties are very much similar. Both pupils and teachers agree that pupils get motivated if a teacher offers structure in a lesson. Next to that, enthusiasm, humour, creativity and variety in lessons are important to get the pupils motivated. If the atmosphere is safe, secure and relaxed, the pupils will feel this and get more interested and motivated as well. One aspect did not match the theories and my hypothesis, namely the fact that no difference in motivation was found between genders. The last thing that I needed to do to answer the research question, was to link the collected results of the questionnaires to the theories written in the first chapters of the research. Because of the fact that all the techniques and approaches to handle demotivation can be effective, it was important for me to find the ones that I could use in practice and I would feel comfortable using. I could conclude that especially the 'creating the basic motivational techniques' approach fits best with both the teachers, pupils and myself. The subgroups in this approach include applying structure and humour in a class, being enthusiastic and creating a good atmosphere in class, while having varying lessons. Not every sub group of any other motivational technique matches the results of the surveys. However, some of the sub groups of the other techniques do relate to both the answers of the pupils and teachers.
In the end, my goal of this research was to be able to present approaches and instruments which I could link to different groups of pupils and to different circumstances, with the goal to get these groups or individual pupils motivated during English lessons. By linking the results from the surveys of the teachers and pupils to the theory, while having in mind my own teaching style, I have been able to set some approaches which can be very useful during lessons, while staying true to myself.