The Motivated Classroom

The final episode in the three-part series on motivating young language learners following up on the interviews with researcher Dr. Quint Oga-Baldwin in episode 63 and with primary school Dutch teacher, Marianne de Best, in episode 64 . In this episode we discuss what secondary or high school teachers can learn from our elementary colleagues teaching languages to very young learners. Keep in touch...

In this second episode in the 3-part series on motivating young language learners, Dutch teacher and author, Marianne de Best , tells us all about practical, zero-prep, strategies we can put in place right away in our classrooms to reach our young learners. Marianne provides listeners with excellent and fun tips to both reach and teach our young learners whilst staying in the target language and p...

In this episode, I had the absolute pleasure to be joined by eminent Self-Determination Theory researcher, Dr. Quint Oga-Baldwin . Professor Oga-Baldwin has conducted years of research into motivation of young learners of English in Japan and has published extensively. We discuss what classroom teachers can learn from the research on young learners and how we can apply these findings to build a mo...

Music ! A key component in every language acquisition classroom but what are the most effective ways to implement it! In this episode I discuss how I bring music into the classroom, ensuring it is understandable and engaging for the students! Most importantly, music allows us a direct door into the target language culture by learning about the lyrics, the background and the artists! I'd love to he...

This practical episode is all about listening activities in the language classroom that are designed to motivate and engage our students. Listening activities in a textbook are often painfully boring for our students due to the lack of autonomy. The 12 activities outlined in this episode engage and motivate our students to listen intently and therefore acquire more language naturally! Keep in touc...

What does the physical learning environment do for motivation and engagement of our language learners? In this episode, the idea of 'going deskless' is discussed outlining the pros, the cons and the logistical challenges. Research around the physical make up of the classroom is also explored and in particular the impact of classroom decorations and posters. How much is too much? Should we even hav...

Thank you to all the listeners who submitted questions for this Q&A episode. We are discussing how to reach and motivate those particularly resistant students , what we can about the increased usage of online translators and finally how we can make teaching spelling fun , effective and engaging! Keep in touch and share widely! Full programme notes are available on www.liamprinter.com/podcast ....

I'm joined by the fantastic Dr. Chris Martin in this episode to discuss the importance of positive parental engagement and how this can impact upon language learning motivation for your students. Chris shares findings from his own research in this area as well as many easy to implement practical tips for the language classroom. Keep in touch and share widely! Full programme notes are available on...

In this episode we look at the research around parental beliefs, and the impact the words parents use have on the motivation for learning among their children. As always, lots of practical examples related to the language acquisition classroom and how we can use the findings from the parental beliefs research to inform how we speak to parents and ensure they are aiding us in the language acquisiti...

This episode explores some of the recent research about homework and how we can apply this to the language acquisition classroom. Should we even give homework in the first place? If so, how much and when? How can we ensure the homework we are providing is actually purposeful and not just 'busy work'? Have a listen to this episode and find out! Keep in touch and share widely! Full programme notes a...

In this episode we speak to the inspirational Dr. Florencia Henshaw about Second Language Acquisition theory, recent research in the area and how we can bring the classroom practice and the academic research together in a way that benefits all students. Dr. Henshaw shares her top tips for language acquisition teachers that stem directly from her research and are related to her forthcoming book ent...

This episode explores the current debates around implicit and explicit knowledge in the language classroom; should we be focusing on meaning or form , or a combination of both. The focus of this episode revolves mainly around the recent Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research in this area and what we, as language teachers, can do to ensure we maintain motivation whilst also boosting acquisition...

In this Question & Answer episode the questions focus on girls v. boys motivation , how to structure a class with no textbook and how to align a more acquisition based approach within school vertical and horizontal alignment policies. Keep in touch and share widely! Full programme notes are available on www.liamprinter.com/podcast . Follow The Motivated Classroom on Instagram @themotivatedclas...

This is another practical, classroom, based episode for language teachers looking for the best ways to set up their class for the year. This episode contains twelve easy steps to follow to ensure you save yourself time in the future and have all your students set up for success from Day 1! From technology, to routines to classroom expectations and materials . It's all in this episode! Keep in touc...

This episode is very much focused on your classroom and how to use classroom jobs to provide more interesting input whilst building bonds with your class. This is a step-by-step guide about to introduce these jobs based on listeners feedback including: When to introduce them? How to pick the students for each job? Tips for success and pitfalls to avoid. Which jobs work best. Keep in touch and shar...

Special Extended Episode! To mark episode 50 of The #MotivatedClassroom we have a special extended episode with Dr. Karen Lichtman and Dr. Bill VanPatten who discuss their research peer reviewed publication on 40 years of Second Language Acquisition research. This podcast was first aired as a livestream for the #CIreboot conference in June 2021. An absolute must-listen for all #worldlanguages and...

This is the second part of two-part episode on motivational strategies. In this episode we build upon the research around motivational strategies that was discussed in Episode 48, paying particular attention to the role of the language teacher in the motivational matrix. There now exists robust and substantial evidence that the language teacher can impact student motivation, for better and for wor...

Ep. 48 of The #MotivatedClassroom marks the podcast's 1-Year anniversary with a jam-packed programme on 'motivational strategies', the research behind them and how we can apply these strategies to our classrooms using minimum prep activities . This is an episode not to be missed for any languages teachers who want a more motivated classroom! Full programme notes are available on www.liamprinter.co...

In this question & answer episode we discuss how to survive as a student-teacher , what to do with an overly prescriptive curriculum , what would I tell myself as a student-teacher and what notes students should (or should not!) write in our language acquisition classes!  Full programme notes are available on www.liamprinter.com/podcast . Follow The Motivated Classroom on Instagram @themo...

The fantastic Maud Waret shares her personal learning and classrooms experiences as a mixed race French woman growing up in France and then moving to the UK as well as many wonderful practical ideas to help language teachers to begin to decolonise some of their curriculum. Maud speaks passionately, powerfully and practically. This is a real must listen episode for all language teachers seeking to...

In this episode, the inspirational Tan Huynh speaks about the use of Larry Ferlazzo's framework for empowering multilingual students as well as how we can all be more representative and inclusive in our choices of materials and the stories we share. Tan provides brilliant practical tips on how we can ensure our classroom is a welcoming, diverse space for all learners. This is a must listen episode...

This episode is a follow up to Ep. 43 on 'Structuring a language curriculum without a textbook' and focuses on the individual language acquisition lesson and how I structure it to keep motivation at the forefront of each class. At the end of the episode I also speak about what this structure looks like in my lesson planning. I hope you find this practical episode useful! Full programme notes are a...

Thank you to The #MotivatedClassroom patron, Margit Alexy, for prompting me to do an episode on how I structure a year of language acquisition curriculum without a textbook . In this episode I go into some detail about what my Spanish Level 1 sequence of learning looks like over a whole year, before giving a brief overview of what this translates into for older, more advanced, students a few years...

Anxiety, stress, nervousness and a high 'affective filter' is often discussed around language learning, but what happens when you focus on positive emotions ? It's time we talked about the research behind positive emotions in the language classroom rather than focusing on the negative ones. In this episode I provide an overview of the key research in this area and how we can apply it to our classe...

In this episode I am joined by the fascinating, knowledgeable and highly inspirational, Steve Smith, to talk about memory and motivation in the language classroom . Steve is a former Head of Modern Languages in England. He has taught French for over 30 years and is the author of the resources website frenchteacher.net. He has also co-authored five books for language teachers with with Dr. Gianfran...