鳥取環境大学紀要
第７号（2009．3）pp.１‑６

A False Motivation: Another Way to Encourage Students to Learn

UCHIDA Hiroki

和文要旨：英語学習者にどのようにしてモチベーションを与えるかという議論は、英語教育史上絶えることがない。国民のすべてが英語を学習する時代になって久しいことから、学校教育においては、特段英語学習に強い関心を持たない学習者も少なくないと言える。個々の学習者が具体的な学習目標を持って教室にいることが望ましいが、実際にそれを実現することは困難であろう。本論では、成績の記録用紙を与えるというきわめて簡素な方法で、学習者に擬似的なモチベーションを与える方法を紹介し、結果を報告する。
【キーワード】モチベーション、学習意欲
Abstract ：How can teachers motivate students to learn English? This is a question which is as old as the history
of English education itself, but has never been answered. All citizens of Japan are required to study English at
school, which has led to the situation where quite a few students have no clear goals in learning English. It is, infact, extremely difficult to literally motivate students to learn. In this article, I report on an attempt to give students
quasi-motivation by using a simple grade record sheet.
【Keywords】motivation, learner autonomy
１． Introduction
In some countries in Europe, it is usual that people usethat term exams are the main reason for them to study

English as their communication tool in everyday settings. The

English, whereas the latter two desired replies stay at low

situation where different people of different languages live

levels.

and work together naturally requires a common language.

Table 1.1

People involved in English education have made a lot of effort
to design better textbooks or teaching methods. It is time toassume the non-working of English teaching in Japan may
have nothing to do with teaching itself. How teachers canmotivate their students should be discussed. As a familiar

term exams.71

required for college entrance exams.68

want to acquire English fluency.25

necessary for future career.08

proverb says, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t
make him drink. In this article, I report on how teachers canAnother question asked to the same group is "When or

false-motivate their students, which consequently leads towhat occasions do you feel it is good to study English?" Ifauthentic motivation.

you were asked to name just one purpose of learning foreign
languages, it would probably be the latter of what you see in

２．What Makes Students What to Learn

the Table 1.2. Still, you can’t blame your students for not

I have asked the same two questions to all of my students

considering English as a tool for communication. Especiallyover the last 15 years. One of which is "Why do you study

in less populated areas like Tottori, you seldom have

English?" And the result is what you see in the Table 1.1.

opportunities to use English. If you were not teaching English

The total numbers of the students involved is now 5125. It isthere, you could spend one whole week without saying a word

impressive that as many as 71% of the whole group answeredof English. Words like internationalization and globalization―1―

鳥取環境大学紀要

第７号

seem to sound romantic to the ears of students, yet are not realencouraging their students to learn English so much that they

to them. It is, though, very predictable that our country is

may have lost sight of the very basic situation in which they,

going to accept more people from other countries to support

in fact, could not find any appropriate ways to achieve theits domestic economy very soon. Such situations are notprimary goal.

visible, and they are just around the corner, which is the
problem. It is really hard to make people believe what is not

４．False Motivation

there in front of them. How could we motivate our students?

In your English class, you may give a quiz to yourThis could be at the center of questions discussed in TESOL.

students regularly. I have realized that giving quizzes is notconvincing enough for my students to believe they have toTable 1.2

study. If they do not benefit from doing things for quizzes,

when I mark higher scores in exams.72

they are not willing to do something. "Benefit" here means

when I make myself understood in English.12

that the students get rewarding points by successfully going
through those quizzes. In terms of learner autonomy, provid-

３． Definition of Motivation

ing students with situations where they feel they must work on
what they are asked to do can be a strategy. In this article, the

COBUILD (1995) defines "motivate" as follows:main focus is on how you can lead your students to thoseIf you are motivated by something, especially ansituations or settings, and on how your students possibly react

emotion, it causes you to behave in a particular way. (p.

after they get fully used to the settings.
If "motivation" or "autonomy" should wear a sense of1078)

interest or passion, the settings I am seeking for here would
Necessity is the mother of invention. This also goes withsomehow differ. When you look at outputs, however, bothlearning. Algebra, for example, is actually a very complicatedwould achieve the same goals. Intentionally guided autonomy

and sophisticated skill. Surprisingly enough, most Japanese

without passion or strong interest in learning English is called

people acquire this skill in the early stage of life. On the other"false motivation" in this article.

hand, you could easily find someone who cannot tell a single
musical note played on the piano. Telling different notes you

５． Experiments

hear should be the most fundamental step in learning music.

It might be more convincing if you let your students

This authentic situation seems to come from your everyday

know how much they can benefit from the quizzes they takelife where you have no necessity to be able to know musicalin the course. To be more specific, you could announce n% of

notes. Without the skill you can enjoy listening music, or sing

the final grade would come from the results of the quizzes.

any songs you like. You may have seldom heard any criticism

The first step taken in the research was to specify what figures

against music education in Japan, however, when you look atshould come in n.
Three different figures were taken for n. The resultsi are

TESOL in Japan, it may be way harder to pick up any kind ofshown in the Table 2. It is interesting to know that n=20 andrewarding words.
English is a visible communication tool, which makes

n=30 show a greater difference than n=10 and n=20. The

the story sound very different from the situation with music

results of the questionnaireii given to the students involved,

education. Let us see English as a tool. When you would want

and among those who think they worked hard for the quizzes,

to be equipped with a tool, you should naturally need it. To be

68% of them think they cannot make up for 30% of the wholemore precise, you take a male screwdriver when you find ascore for the term grade. When it is n=20, as many as 62% ofloose male screw. You would not pick up a female screwdriv-

the whole students think 20% is not too big a portion.

er for that purpose much less a searchlight.
Willingness is an important facet in learning something,and if willingness is vitalized by the necessities of the object,
it is extremely difficult for you to motivate their students tolearn English. Teachers seem to have been involved in―2―

Uchida A False Motivation: Another Way to Encourage Students to Learn

the students’ scores. The total number of students involved isTable 2263. The number of quizzes given is 256.

Year

n=10

n=20

n=30

2004

.20

.24

.38

Along with the group I mentioned, I had another group

2005

.30

.35

.49

of students without the record sheet system. They were told

2006

.37

.40

.48

that 30% of the grade is from the quizzes again and again.

2007

.41

.44

.53

Actually every quiz sheet had that statement on it. Table 3.2
shows the change or progress of the group without the record

After the announcement, the students did better thansheet system. Period A and Period B are the same of those in

before, but still many students seemed to be indifferent to theTable 3.1. As you can guess from this table, the students takequizzes. The path may have been right, but the whole strategy

a longer time to realize 30% of the grade meant much to them.

was on the wrong track.

Some students realized it, and started to work harder, butiii

A very simple record sheet for the quizzes did help aothers still did not see how much the 30% meant to them. This

lot. The sheet allows the students to know how many points

is why this group made slower progress than the group in

out of 30 they have earned at any period of the term. Thus the

Table 3.1.

students are always aware of their status, and this means the
Table 3.2v

students are reminded of their starting points before the term
exam. If you have earned 20 points, for instance, your startingYear

Period A

Period B

point should be 90, which clearly indicates that you cannot

2004

.22

.36

make up for the 10 points you have lost in quizzes.

2005

.38

.42

This is another story, but I figured out that 30%iv of the

2006

.39

.51

whole grade is somehow a very appropriate portion for

2007

.40

.53

quizzes. If it is 10% or 20%, your students may not be willingto prepare for the quizzes. They seem to believe they still canI need to let you know that at the end of the school year,

have 80 or 90% if they do very well in the term exam, which

a period for the last term exam, which is for two months, I

usually turns out to be a really bad idea.

terminated the system, and observed how the students reacted

After the record sheet was introduced into the classes,

to it. The students were not asked to keep a record sheet, but

students suddenly began to work harder than they did before.

were kept reminded that 30% of the final score for the term

Table 3.1 shows the average points in a series of quizzes. The

grade was from quizzes. In short the situation went back tofigures in the "Period A" columns are the averages in percent

that of period A in Table 3.1. The same figures for Period A

scale before the record sheet system was introduced. And theand Period B are also shown in Table 3.3 for your reference.

figures in the "Period B" columns are from the period when

Period C is the period after the record sheet system was

the students were asked to record their points on their sheets.

abolished. As you can see from the figures in Table 3.3, theaverage scores in Period C did not drop to the level that they
were in Period A.

Table 3.1
Year

Period A

Period B

2004

.24

.61

2005

.35

.63

Year

Period A

Period B

Period C

2006

.40

.75

2004

.24

.61

.49

2007

.44

.82

2005

.35

.63

.55

2006

.40

.75

.70

2007

.44

.82

.68

Table 3.3

p< .05In each different year, I had different students ofdifferent ages in a high school. The numbers of students
varies year to year. So, a direct comparisons may not bejustified. In each year, however, you can see the progress in―3―

鳥取環境大学紀要

６． Conclusion

第７号

they know how much work deserves how many points. For

The results from the experiments imply that once
students understand what they need to do, many of them doexample, in each quiz they earn more points than when theyknow nothing about evaluation policies.

not stop doing them as long as their efforts are evaluated. In

Here is the last question to be answered; if we givethe questionnairevi afterwards, many students said "They got

students the same quiz after a long period of time, will it stillinterested in doing the work while they are doing it." It wasshow a difference? If it wouldn’t, the strategy suggested here

the very time when their "false" motivation turned into theirwould work just temporarily. Items taught should be in theauthentic motivation or autonomy; their willingness to learn.

students’ long-term memory.

I repeatedly told my students that English fluency will beof importance in their future in many different ways, but it

Reference

was not convincing enough. By just adding a peck of pepper

Sinclair, John, et al. (1995) COBUILD English Dictionary,in the evaluation system, it suddenly began to work, which

HarperCollins

was a quiz record sheet.
Other unexpected results were collected in the othergroup without record sheets. In this group, I assumed that thei

532 high school students in Tottori-shi were involved in thisscores would fall down to the level that they used to be in the

research.

Period A, but actually they didn’t. But the average scoresii

were still far below those of the other group with a record

survey. The total number of students is 532. The questionnaire

sheet. I assume that some students in this group as well as theincludes the following two questions:
1) Do you think you worked hard for the quizzes? (answer

ones in the other group may have got interested in studying
the given materials, which is to have acquired motivation or

Questionnaire asked to all the students involved in thisin four scales)
2) Why? (answer in free-writing style)autonomy, but the slow traffic can be accelerated by using
record sheets which keep students aware of how they areiii

See Appendix.

actually doing in the course.

iv

n=40 resulted in slightly better than average scores. On theother hand, the students made less effort in preparing for the
７．Further Steps to Take

term exams. The questionnaire results show 38% of all theIn the settings of English teaching at school, it may be

students gave up because they thought they would be able todifficult to involve all of your teaching staff in the system you

make up for the lost scores in quizzes, which implies between

suggest. If so, your students would be free from chances ton=30 and n=40 is a well-balanced figure to keep students

control their grades outside your classroom. My results show

encouraged to work both on quizzes and term exams.

many students will continue working on once they getv

Period A and Period B are the same as those indicated ininterested in what they are doing. How you can involve yourtable 3.1, and the quizzes given are also the same.

colleagues in your attempt is another big problem toviovercome.

writing column.

32% of the students made similar comments in the free

The second question here has been, to some extent,
answered; Can the record sheet system work with older
students? I applied q very similar system to the class at Tottori
University, where I teach part-time. The difference was way
more visible and clear. I have collected data from the students
there for three years, but the number of students is not enoughfor the report here. College students worry more aboutpassing/failing things, and that is why they show a larger
difference.
I’m currently working on collecting data in the long run.
It is now clear that students are more false-motivated when―4―（2009年１月７日受理）

Uchida A False Motivation: Another Way to Encourage Students to Learn―5―

鳥取環境大学紀要―6―第７号