論 文

Designing a Motivational Conversational Unit

Jack Ryan

要

旨

大学一年生必修科目の英会話授業を担当しています。この授業は学
生のモチベショーンが永遠の課題です。どうすればモチベショーンをあげられるかずっと研究しています。いかにして『教え方』，『教授法』，『教授細目』，『シラバス』，『アクティビティ』の要素を組み合わせれば良い授業，または良いコースになるかをこの論文にはこれらの要素を組み合わせてコースの枠組みを提案します。会話授業を成功するために楽しく，リラックスできる，和気あいあいとした教室の雰囲気の必要性も強調します。それでいて，楽しく，モチベショーンをあげる授業のほとんど毎回使えるアクティビティのいくつかを提供します。授業が楽しければ楽しいだけ学生のモチベショーンをあげることができ，必死に参加してくれれば英会話力につなげることもできるでしょう。
Keywords：motivation（モチベショーン），intrinsic motivation（本質的なモチベショーン），extrinsic motivation（非本質的なモチベショーン），conversation（会話），activities（アクチビティ／授業活動），information gap（インフォメ
シ ョ ー ン ギ ャ ッ プ ／ 情 報 交 換 す る プ リ ン ト ／ 穴 埋 め を す る プ リ ン ト ），syllabus（シラバス），topics（テーマ／課題），content（授業内容）― 103 ―

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No. 20In this paper I will outline a simple and hopefully useful process to utilize to help ateacher design a motivational English conversational unit. I will explain how todevelop a unit based on largely student self-selected themes and topics and how todesign activities around the respective themes.

Background
In my current teaching context I am responsible for teaching required English
conversation classes to first-year university students. Most of my students have had
at least three and most likely up to six years of required English classes. Personal
experience and anecdotal evidence indicates that most of those classes have been
conducted predominantly in Japanese by a Japanese teacher. Grammar-translation
methodology with explicit grammatical explanations and sentence translations seemto have been commonly recurring topics in class. Explicit or implicit goals of
instruction were to facilitate the students ability to pass entrance exams for highschool or university. This is despite the fact that, in 2003 the Japanese Ministry of
Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (hereinafter MEXT) issued thefollowing guidelines:“On graduation from a senior high school, students can conduct normal
communication with regard to topics relating to daily life.”
I mention this goal only because, as a university teacher teaching first year students,
it is relevant for me to know what competencies my students should be entering myclasses with. While the goal is rather vague and provides great latitude for individual
schools and teachers to interpret it as they see fit, in my experience, the senior highschool goal is not being reached. Despite the reference to the ability to “conduct
normal communication” it seems likely this goal is being largely ignored in favor ofusing English class time preparing students for entrance exams. Inevitably,
preparation for discrete item written tests means more time spent on grammaticalexplanations, question types and test-taking strategies all of which can be mostefficiently conducted in Japanese by most Japanese English teachers.

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Designing a Motivational Conversational Unit

As such, after completing years of required and often unexciting English study inprimary and secondary school, often for the purposes of passing an exam at sometime in the future, many of my students are looking forward to leaving English andforeign language study behind completely or moving on to other languages inuniversity. Therefore, motivation is often quite low in my required English
conversation class for first year students. Motivation is an important issue for me as
I enjoy teaching, would like my students to enjoy and benefit from their experiencein my classes, and try to always provide quality instruction for all my students. I am
constantly working to refine my methodology, improve my classroom techniques andactivities and provide pedagogically sound, fun and appropriate classroom activities
for my students.

Teaching Philosophy
In my English conversation classes I teach English as a vehicle for communication, torealize social interaction and to transmit and receive information. Another ancillarygoal is to promote an enjoyment of using English to communicate. One simple way
to promote enjoyment and therefore hopefully increase motivation, of speaking
English is to adapt teaching materials to reflect student interests. Communicative
language learning theory holds that activities that involve real communication
promote learning. Activities in which language is used for carrying out meaningfultasks promote learning and language that is meaningful to the student supports thelearning process.
In my context of teaching required courses to first-year university students I would
describe the majority of students as extrinsically motivated in that they participate inclass and complete activities, even if they have little interest in the material, because
they anticipate receiving a reward for their efforts in the form of a passing grade.
There certainly are some students with intrinsic motivation. This can be described asa motivation to participate in activities without expecting any reward or externalbenefit but simply for enjoyment. One of my goals as a teacher is to promote thedevelopment of intrinsic motivation because research has shown that intrinsicallymotivated students have increased long-range interest in a topic. Factors that― 105 ―

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No. 20promote intrinsic motivation include:
Challenging but achievable activities
Curiosity (something students are interested in)Control (the ability to have some degree of control over the environment; somethingthat is inherently difficult in a foreign language classroom with a teacher who is aforeigner and a native-speaker of the target language)
Competition (the ability to compare their performance with classmates)
Cooperation (helping others to achieve their goals)
Recognition (having their accomplishments recognized)
While I may often have few intrinsically motivated students at the university level, I
have the luxury in my conversational classes of not being constrained by a need toprepare my students for entrance exams. This means that there is nothing to holdme back from experimenting and trying to achieve my goals and promote intrinsic
motivation by practicing my beliefs. The techniques and activities I use are designed
to promote all of the above mentioned factors said to encourage intrinsic motivation.
I know from my own ongoing experiences studying Japanese and other languages
that I am more motivated when I am studying material that I have an interest in.
Why should it be any different for my students? Similarly, in my experience, very
few students want to learn a foreign language simply as an academic exercise or to beable to read Shakespeare in the original English (although there very likely are people
with this sort of motivation). Most of us, myself included, want to learn languages
to be able to communicate with native speakers of that language.

Classroom Environment
Most language teachers readily acknowledge that affective factors are an importantelement in creating the optimum language learning environment. Even so, it seems
to me that many teachers do not spend enough time working to create a positive
affective environment in their classrooms. Based on my own experience studying
Japanese and other languages, I still agree with what Stephen Krashen said so many
years ago when he noted that learners need to have a “low affective filter” forlanguage acquisition to take place. Conditions for learning should be positive andthe atmosphere must be low-anxiety and non-threatening to the students for learning― 106 ―

Designing a Motivational Conversational Unit

to take place. A non-threatening, low-anxiety atmosphere should be created inwhich students can make language attempts without fear of excessive embarrassmentor shame. If those students are simultaneously motivated and (hopefully) confident
we are close to optimum conditions for language learning to take place. Before evenmentioning syllabi, units, topics, techniques and activities this is the classroom
environment I strive to create from which everything follows. In my classroom,
creating a positive affective environment includes playing soft background music at a
low volume to help relax students and to help minimize any awkward silences that
may occur. I also make it a point to try to single out for praise students making areal effort in class regardless of whether they are the best English speakers in class ornot. As for error correction, rather than singling out individual students in front of
the entire class I will point out mistakes by pulling students aside or by choosing acommon mistake and illustrating it on the whiteboard. Another thing I do that may
seem trite to some is to show an interest in students lives and Japanese pop culture
by chatting with them before and after class. Students always seem happy to talkabout their hobbies, clubs, part-time jobs, sports, pop stars and movie stars among
other things. Rather than hearing a foreign teacher talk to them about David
Beckham or Brad Pitt they are pleased to know that their teacher knows and can chatabout the latest Japanese pop, movie and sports stars. In my opinion, this helps
create a bond with students and can reassure them that their teacher is interested intheir lives and culture and is not solely interested in implicitly imposing a culturalimperialism on them. If students feel that a teacher really wants to help them learn
and succeed it can only result in a positive effect on the classroom environment. The
attitude students have towards the teacher, the material and the learning environment
all affect their level of anxiety and hence their ability to perform in the classroom.

Unit Composition
For the sake of simplicity I have separated the parts of my unit. The two mainelements of my unit are fixed elements and content. The fixed elements refer to thetypes of activities and teaching techniques which stay relatively constant. Content
refers to the topics and themes and are largely suggested or dictated by student input
and feedback. The fixed elements are the types of activities used in class which― 107 ―

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No. 20include dialogue drills, substitution drills, information gap activities, running
dictations, ordering strip stories and role-plays. The content would usually be a
general topic like “Eating out” or “Part-time jobs” or “Family” etc.

Fixed Unit Elements
Earlier I mentioned dialogue drills and substitution drills, which are not considered
to be communicative activities, among activity types I often use in class. Even so, I
like to use them as pre-communicative activities in my lower-level conversation
classes for a few reasons. It seems advisable to give students the opportunity forcontrolled practice of any language they will be expected to produce incommunicative activities. This will allow them to focus on the language form
without having to worry about offering input or communicating a message. They
can also serve to increase their confidence and prepare them to succeed in acommunicative activity. This is particularly important in my view as anecdotal
evidence suggests many Japanese students of English have a negative, defeatist
attitude towards English due to previous unsuccessful experiences studying thelanguage. The failure to adequately prepare our students to succeed on in-classconversational activities is one of the most egregious mistakes we can make.
Examples of pre-communicative activities I commonly use include dialogue read andrepeat and substitution drills. For example, I might give the students a handout witha dialogue between two people and they would repeat chorally after me. Alternatively
I might conduct a substitution drill based on the handout by substituting a name orsome other information from the dialogue and again having student repeat. For
instance, I might give the students an information gap handout about part-time jobs
(Appendix 2). Their are two handouts, an A version and a B version, and half theclass will get each version. The handout has four names and five questions about
part-time jobs. Before beginning the activity I will have the students chorally repeat
the questions. Then I will confirm understanding by asking questions about the
information on the handout. Next, I might substitute names and ask various
questions and solicit answers from students. For example, I may ask “Where does
Shinobu work?” and any student with handout B should be able to answer correctly― 108 ―

Designing a Motivational Conversational Unit

that she works at a cafe. Then I may ask “Does Asami like her job?” and any studentwith handout A should be able to answer that, “Yes, she loves her job.”
After completing a pre-communicative activity and confirming that students knowwhat is expected of them and what the objective of the activity is it is time to moveinto a more communicative activity. Using the example of the part-time job
information gap, I would ensure that students know that their initial task is tocomplete the empty half of their handout by asking classmates questions. Once thisis complete we would reconvene as a whole class and I would visually confirm thateveryone has completed the task by checking to see that they have filled in all theempty spaces on the handout. Then I would proceed to ask the whole-class questions
about the information on the handout. The next step moving toward more naturalcommunication is to have students write their own answers to the five questions
under the “You” column. We would then chorally practice the handout questions toensure that students are comfortable with the language form changes. For example,
the form will change when we ask directly rather than using the third person form
(i. e. “Where does Ryuta work?” becomes “Where do you work?”). Immediately
following that the students must find two classmates to ask all five questions andrecord their answers in the Partner 1 and Partner 2 columns. After this is complete
we will again reconvene and I will ask questions about class members. For example,
if their are students called Nao and Masaya in the class I may ask questions like
“Where does Nao work?” or “Does Masaya ever go out with his co-workers?” I will
be sure to also randomly ask students directly “Where do you work (Tomomi)?”,“Do you like your job (Naoki)?, “How many days a week do you work (Kaori)?”,“How much do you make per hour Yasu)?” and “Do you ever go out with your coworkers (Ayumi)?” The next stage is to have students ask classmates the fivequestions from the handout without writing down their answers. I direct students totake their handouts and find two classmates they have not spoken to yet and ask eachother the questions. By now they have had a considerable amount of practice andshould have memorized the questions. The final activity requires the teacher tocollect the handouts from the students and then have them find two more newpartners to practice speaking with. Obviously as they have no handout at this stage
they are not required to write anything down. The point is for them to have as― 109 ―

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No. 20natural and communicative a conversation in English as possible. This is a very
common activity I use in most of my required English conversation classes.
Information gap activities work quite well in moving from controlled practice toreaching a communicative objective because the students can see on the handouts
themselves what questions they must ask their classmates and what information theymust gather to complete the task. The ultimate goal is to wean students completely
away from the handout and have them speaking fluently in English about something
they are interested in. As such, all the above procedures are in place to move fromcontrolled practice to freer practice and ultimately leading to my collecting thehandouts and students speaking freely on the assigned topic (or any topic) without
relying on or referring to any handout or notes.

Selecting Content
The most important single factor in making this unit motivational is the content
selection. Well-planned lessons with fun and creative activities often fail to inspire
students if they are not interested in the material being presented to them. I want tobe confident that the material I present in my classes is what students want to study.
To do that I use a variety of techniques to select content including input andfeedback from informal student interviews, a questionnaire and classroom
observation. One other thing I often do that may seem almost naive andcounterintuitive is to simply ask students what they want to study in class.
Occasionally the answers are vague and unhelpful but oftentimes they are very frankand helpful and sometimes even quite thoughtful. Some students seem taken abackby being asked what they want to study by a teacher. Perhaps it seems to them animplicit violation of the typical teacher-student relationship in which the teacher
dictates material and the student is a completely passive recipient. However, even if
nothing beneficial comes from their comments or suggestions, I believe that the very
act of asking students their opinions about course content can serve to motivate
them. Making students feel that they have a stake in the course and that theiropinions are being sought out and considered shows that they are valued andrespected. I also use an unscientific questionnaire (Appendix 1) that I give to students― 110 ―

Designing a Motivational Conversational Uniton the first day of class to help me decide on content for the semester. The
questionnaire has a list of topics that I ask students to rank in the order in which
they would like to study those topics. It also has a number of questions about
activity types and class groupings. I consider the answers to these questions indetermining which types of activities to present in class. Finally, I use classroom
observation over the first few weeks of class to see if overt student enthusiasm andmotivation changes as tasks and activities change. For example, if an explanation of
the ordering of a strip-conversation activity elicits a roomful of groans or rolled eyes
I can probably safely presume that students in that particular class may not enjoy
that type of activity. On the other hand, if an explanation of a running dictation
elicits a class full of smiles and “tanoshii” comments I can probably safely presume
that this class enjoys that type of activity.

Alternative Activities and Unit Topics
Let’s say that the sum total of my data collection efforts have shown me that mystudents want to study the following topics in the following order: Sports, Music,
Part-time jobs, Hobbies, Movies, Travel and Family. I determine the order based on
a combination of oral feedback and the numbered answers to the list of possible unit
topics on my questionnaire (Appendix 1). The activity types have largely been preselected (including dialogue drills, substitution drills, information gap activities,
running dictations, ordering strip stories and role-plays etc.) and the unit themes
have now been selected. Now, the teacher is responsible for simply plugging in
relevant content for each theme into each or a number of activity types. The
previously discussed information gap activity (Appendix 2) is a good example of anactivity for the unit on Part-time jobs. Appendixes 3 and 4 show examples of how arunning dictation can be created around the topic of Part-time jobs. The handout
Appendix 3 is affixed to a wall outside the classroom and the members the previouslygrouped four or five groups takes turns going outside and reading and memorizing
one sentence and reporting it to a classmate who records it on a blank sheet of paper.
The same pattern applies to the handout Appendix 4 which is a list of questions thegroups will answer together when they have completed the dictation. Another― 111 ―

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No. 20example of an activity might be to have groups of students order a strip conversation
talking about Part-time jobs (Appendix 5). The procedure I use to present strip
conversations to my students is to make and laminate enough copies for each groupto have one copy of the conversation. Then, the teacher should cut up eachlaminated copy and present one copy each to every group for them to cooperatively
put in the correct order. This is a fun competitive activity as the group compete witheach other to be the first to get the conversation in the correct order. When allgroups have finished we read chorally and then I often have students practice theconversation as is with a partner. Next, I have them personalize it by replacing theinformation on the handout with their own part-time job information whereapplicable (i. e. “I work at a supermarket” might become “I work at a cafe” dependingon the student’s actual; part-time job etc.).

Conclusion
Using the unit theme of part-time jobs as an example, I have demonstrated an
extended information gap, a running dictation and a strip conversation activity.
These are just some of the activity types that can be productively used to help
promote active participation and encourage intrinsic motivation in the English
conversation classroom. The activities are designed to be challenging but achievable,
have content students are curious about, allow for a certain degree of control byusing information gap handouts with clear finite tasks, promote competition byseeing who can complete the activities (information gap, running dictation etc.)
accurately the quickest, encourage cooperation both as pairs and groups and allow
for recognition as I always acknowledge the efforts and accomplishments of thehardest-working students.
Filling lessons with fun, well-thought out communicative activities with content
students want to study seems a sure-fire way to promote intrinsic motivation. As
such, any teacher who wants to have intrinsically motivated students in theirclassroom should be willing to spend the time necessary to collect data on what theirstudents want to learn. After all, presumably we are in this profession because we
enjoy teaching and it should be in both our students and our interests to provide
them with the best and most motivating instruction as possible.
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Designing a Motivational Conversational Unit

Bibliography
Bantjes, Leon. “Motivation in the Classroom.” Engines for Education. 1994. The Institute for the
Learning Sciences, Northwestern University
Krashen, Stephen D., Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. Prentice-Hall
International, 1987
Krashen, Stephen D., Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. PrenticeHall International, 1988
Lepper, M. R., & Hodell, M. (1989). Intrinsic motivation in the classroom. In C. Ames & R.
Ames (Eds.), Research on motivation in education (Vol. 3, p.73–105). San Diego:
Academic Press
Lightbown, Patsy M. & Brown, Nina How Languages Are Learned. Oxford University Press,
2006
Malone, T. W., & Lepper, M. R. (1987). Making Learning Fun: A Taxonomy of Intrinsic
Motivations for Learning. In R. E. Snow & M. J. Farr (Eds.), Aptitute, Learning andInstruction: III. Conative and affective process analyses (pp. 223–253). Hilsdale, NJ:
Erlbaum
Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, 2003 publication
Nunan, David Editor, Practical English Language Teaching, McGraw Hill, 2003
Richards, Jack, The Language Teaching Matrix. Cambridge University Press, 1990

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No. 20Appendix 1
Pre-course Survey
1. Rank the following topics based on how much you would like to study them in this class?
以下のテーマはこの授業で勉強したい順位でランクして下さい。最も勉強したい事１最も勉
強したくない事８をお願いします。勉強したい事書いてなければ以下の線に書いて下さい。

Travel/ 旅行________

Singers/Movie stars 歌手／俳優／女優________

Family 家族________

Hobbies 趣味________

Economics & Politics 政治経済________

Movies 映画________

Eating out ／外食________

Sports スポーツ________

Part-time jobs アルバイト________

School life 大学／大学生活________Music 音楽________

Clubs 部活________＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿________＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿________

2. How do you feel about doing the following classroom activities in this class?
クラス内での以下の内容（アクティビティ）授業でやりたいですか？

1) Information Gap activities（A と B のプリントを使って，お互いに情報交換をすること）

1
Not interested

2

3

楽しくなさそう

4
5
Very interested

楽しそう2) Dictation（一人が教室の外の掲示板の文を読みに行きその内容を暗記し，もう一人に伝え，それを紙に書く）

1
Not interested

楽しくなさそう

2

3

4
5
Very interested

楽しそう― 114 ―

Designing a Motivational Conversational Unit
3) Textbook（この授業で教科書を使いたいのですか？）1
Not interested

2

3

楽しくなさそう

4
5
Very interested

楽しそう4) Songs（曲を聞いて歌詞を埋める）
1
Not interested

2

3

楽しくなさそう

4
5
Very interested

楽しそう5) Putting conversations in correct order（会話文の単語を並べ替えて，正しい順番に入れること）

1
Not interested

2

3

楽しくなさそう

4
5
Very interested

楽しそう6) Concentration game（神経衰弱ゲーム）
1
Not interested

2

3

楽しくなさそう

4
5
Very interested

楽しそう

8. How do you feel about the following classroom configurations?
授業を受ける時の配置について，以下のやり方についてどう思いますか？

1) Whole class work（クラス全体で講義を受ける）
1
Not interested

2

3

楽しくなさそう

4
5
Very interested

楽しそう2) Small group work（４～６人のグループで練習する）
1
Not interested

2

3

楽しくなさそう

4
5
Very interested

楽しそう3) Pair work（2 人ペアになって会話練習などをする）
1
Not interested

楽しくなさそう

2

3

4
5
Very interested

楽しそう

9. Comments（率直な意見を聞かせて下さい。この授業で勉強したい事教えて下さい。思うこと何でもオッケーです。先生に参考になります。
）― 115 ―

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No. 20Appendix 2
A

Kenji

Shinobu

Where does at an izakaya____ work?

Does ___
like his/her
job?

No, shedoesn’t

How many
3 or 4 days adays a week week
does ____
work?
How muchdoes___make per
hour?

Where does____ work?

Does ___
like his/herjob?

Partner 2

YouPartner 1

Partner 2

No, hedoesn’t likehis coworkers

Shinobu

Yes, he
does.

Ryuta

Asami
She works at acram school

No, he doesn’tlike it.

She works
Saturdayand Sunday

How much
he makes
does
900 yen per___make per hour
hour?
Does ____
ever go out
with his/her
co-workers?

Partner 1

She makes
1500 yen perhour

She works
at a cafe

How manydays a week
does ____
work?

You

Yes, she lovesit.

800 yen per
hour

Kenji

Asami

Every week isdifferent

Does ____
sometimes
ever go out
with his/her
co-workers?

B

Ryuta
at Shidax
KaraokeEveryweeknight

He makes 750
yen per hourYes,because her
boyfriendalso works
there.

No, she neverdoes.

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Designing a Motivational Conversational Unit

Appendix 3

ATom is nineteen years old.
He works at a family restaurant called Royal Host.
He works five days a week.
Tom makes 900 yen per hour.
His main job is to be a waiter.
Another one of his jobs is to keep the restaurant clean.
He likes his job because there are many cute girls at his restaurant.
He usually works in the afternoon and evenings.
Tom has been working at Royal Host for about six months.

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Appendix 4

B
How long has Tom been working at his part-time job?
When does he usually work?
How many days a week does Tom work?
Where does Tom work?
Does he like his job?
How old is Tom?
Why does Tom like his job?
How much does Tom make per hour?
What is Tom’s main job?
What is another one of Tom’s jobs at the restaurant?

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No. 20Designing a Motivational Conversational Unit

Appendix 5
Hi, how’s it going?
Great, how about you?
I’m really tired. I’ve been so busy with my part-time job.
Oh, really? You have a part-time job?
Yeah. I work at an izakaya. How about you?
I work at a supermarket. Do you like your job?
Yeah, it’s pretty good. What about you?
It’s okay. How often do you work?
I work five nights a week. How about you?
I work Saturdays and Sundays. Do you like your boss?
Yeah, he’s pretty nice. And you?
No, my boss is mean. How much do you make per hour?
I make 900 yen per hour? What about you?
I make 850 yen an hour. Do you ever go out with your co-workers?
Sometimes. How about you?
No, never. Do you get a discount on food?
Yes. It’s great. What about you?
Yeah. me too. Well, I’ve got to go. nice talking to you.
You too.

― 119 ―