Hello, dear student!
Yes, I have felt like that. Of course, not when I was learning Spanish :P, but when I was learning Russian.
I arrived in Russia very motivated to study the language and as time went by, instead of maintaining my motivation, it fell sharply.
I’ll tell you what happened to me: I started to hear comments from some people who told me “uff, Russian is so difficult, you know, we have 12 words for only one noun”.
Of course, I was scared to death after hearing this.
I received other comments like “what’s wrong with you, you’ve been 6 months in my country and you still can’t speak? You look like a little dog that doesn’t speak, but understands”.
It was not only the comments, but the weird letters, the incomprehensible sounds, the grammar like a code impossible to decipher, the speed at which everyone spoke and I had barely managed to understand the first word when the person had already told me his whole story….
All this led me to think that I would never make it, that I would never learn Russian and the problem was that I had gone on to do a 4-year undergraduate degree in Russian, so it was not a matter of just wanting to, but also of necessity.
So, what happened?
Well, I acquired the language 😊. A lot of dedication and effort were necessary. In addition to the help of teachers who always guided my way to achieve the goal.
Then I started to be a teacher, I am not going to say the cliché phrase: “I already went through that, I know how it feels” because I understand that each person has their rhythms, their ways and not all of us learn fast, but what I can say is that I can help you in your journey towards mastering Spanish as a foreign language.
The key to demotivation during the process of acquiring a new language is to see what we have yet to do, but not to congratulate ourselves on the road we have traveled.
When we see that we still do not understand the subjunctive, nor the pluperfect, nor the difference between por and para, nor the difference between ser and estar, we get overwhelmed and feel that we still have a long way to go and that we are not going to make it, but we should plan our short steps and not look at the top of Everest.
During the first years of my teaching practice, I could see that I was not able to motivate all the students.
I decided to pursue further training and I understood that there are two types of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic.
Those students who managed to learn the language with the traditional method did so because they had extrinsic motivation. Their motivation came from parental pressure or rewards, wanting to impress other people, getting into college, getting a job.
The key as a teacher is to stimulate intrinsic motivation and we achieve this with comprehensible input through stories, so students acquire the language because they like it, because they are interested and have fun.
As a teacher, how do I encourage intrinsic motivation?
The most important thing is to satisfy the students’ basic psychological needs: autonomy, relatedness and competence.
I achieve autonomy by offering options, encouraging curiosity, minimizing pressure.
Relatedness is achieved by supporting and valuing what students create.
Competence is achieved when I am understanding and supportive of students so that they have a feel they can succeed. To end this post, you can look for how to satisfy the need for autonomy, relatedness and competence to motivate you more in your learning or you can also join our classes 😊.