How to be motivated to improve your English!

Do you come home after work with the intention to learn English, but you’re tired, so you say you'll do it tomorrow instead? Then tomorrow comes and you know you should learn, but you find yourself cleaning the house? Do you then feel guilty or disappointed in yourself for not acting towards your goal?

We all have our own reasons for wanting or needing to learn English. We all also have many things happening in our lives- work, families, studies, hobbies, fitness…. the list goes on! While learners have the same common goal- ‘to speak English’, why is it that some of us can ‘easily’ take consistent actions towards goals, but others struggle to do it?

It all boils down to motivation!

If you find yourself in a habit of delaying your development, you are likely lacking in it.

Don't worry though- together we will explore motivation and how you can find it!

Desire vs Motivation

Most English speakers have a desire to learn English either directly or indirectly, but not everyone is motivated. Even if our greatest desire and life ambition is to be fluent in English, it doesn’t guarantee we’ll achieve that that, just because we want it.

So what's the difference?

Desire is having the feeling, intent, want or need to do something. Motivation on the other hand, is the inner driving force that allows us to take action to our desire.

I can see if clients are acting on desire by their attitudes & behaviour. 'Desire Clients' might attend sessions for a few weeks, then go on holiday or have a deadline at work and take a short break (nothing wrong with that!). But...these holidays or deadline breaks turn into weeks and then months. When 'Desire Clients' return, they complain of feeling frustrated with their English skills and lack of progress. So they come back for a few sessions then disappear again when something else comes up!

'Desire Clients' tend to only give time to English when in a session, and don't do anything independently in their own time. This causes major delays to improvement, and because they're not seeing results as quickly as they like- they lose interest again! The cycle continues, with their English Communication skills unimproved!

Clients driven by motivation always make time for English. 'Motivation Clients' find the energy, even if they are exhausted and would rather skip a session or dedicated learning time. Many of my 'Motivated Clients' have sessions before work, use their lunch breaks, stay after work, or have sessions at 11pm to ensure they incorporate learning into their schedule! All need a temporarily pause with sessions to give attention to other areas of their lives, but they continue to fit independent learning into their schedule- even if it is for 10 minutes a day. When they actively return to sessions, they have maintained or made progress in this time away. Learning English becomes part of their lifestyle.

From the coach's perspective- one client is not better or worse than the other. We are here to support the journey and that looks different for everyone!

If you lack motivation to learn English- don't worry!

Continue reading for a 4 step guide on how to identify it!

Step 1- Finding motivation

Of all the different factors that contribute to the successful completion of any goal, desire or skill, motivation is by far the most critical aspect. Experts refer to motivation as ‘the combination of effort plus desire to achieve the goal of learning the language plus favourable attitudes toward learning the language.’ (p 10 the social psychology of language).

In her book Elements of Educational Psychology, psychologist Jeanne Ellis Ormrod claims that motivation:

• directs our behaviour towards goals

• increases effort and persistence of activity

• affects our cognitive functioning

• determine which consequences are reinforcing or punishing

• improves performance

Most importantly, she claims being intrinsically motivated is the key element towards successful results, compared to those who are extrinsically motivated. So what does this mean?

Someone who is intrinsically motivated, is motivated from an inner need or desire.

You are likely to be intrinsically motivated if you:

• feel a genuine enjoyment when learning

• feel a ‘high’ before learning or knowing that you will be engaging with the language

• have a natural drive for achievement and self-accomplishment

• have a natural curiosity and need for more knowledge on the language and culture

Extrinsic motivation describes someone who is motivated by external rewards- from things outside of themselves. This can be in the form of tangible, physical, or measurable things such as money, a promotion, or a grade; or something intangible like praise, recognition or fame.

You may be extrinsically motivated if you:

• continue an activity or towards a goal even if you don’t enjoy it

• Are only interested in learning to get the reward- a promotion, a pay-rise etc

• You would not choose to engage in the subject if a reward wasn’t present.

• You engage to avoid a punishment or negative consequence for not doing it.

• You are engaging to satisfy someone else’s desires or expectations.

If you’re not sure of your motivations, ask yourself these questions:

• Do you have an inner sense of enjoyment learning English?

• Is learning or engaging with English exciting and something you look forward to?

• Do you have a genuine love of English language or culture?

• Do you feel wholly motivated and inspired by the language alone?

• Would you learn English if you didn’t have another benefit like a pay rise or new job?

• Do you take consistent steps to your English goals?

If you answered yes to most of these questions, you have a dominant intrinsic motivation towards English.

If you answered no to most of them, you have a dominant extrinsic motivation.

Sometimes people can be motivated by both intrinsic and extrinsic desires.

While being extrinsically motivated isn’t necessarily a bad thing and yields positive results, if you don't naturally enjoy learning English, you will need a different strategy to keep you on track!

Step 2. Identifying and connecting to your motivational ‘selves’

The psychological ‘Self-discrepancy Theory’, claims we have three different ‘selves’ we operate by. Our different ‘selves’ are created from our unconscious programming, beliefs, and expectations we have about our different ‘selves’- compared to that which we experience. Together these three selves form our ‘self-concept’, that is how we see ourselves to be.

They are:

• The actual self: the qualities you or somebody else, believes you actually have.

• The ideal self: the qualities you or somebody else would like you to have

• The ought to self: the qualities you or somebody else believes you should posses

This theory has been applied to language learning into what Hungarian linguist Zoltan Dörnyei’s brands the ‘L2 Motivation Self-System’. It is built on the premise that people’s behaviour is influenced by an ‘ideal self’, the person who we would like to become when acquiring a second language (L2).

We can think of the selves as: (make into a table with the L2 Theory)

• The ‘actual self’- who we are now- our circumstances, thoughts, beliefs, feelings, mood, habits, routines, abilities

• The ‘ideal self’- who we want to be in the future- our circumstances, thoughts, beliefs, routines, abilities

• The ‘ought to’ self- what you know you should do, or be like to be your ideal self; OR what other people want you to be like, do or achieve.

When our ‘actual self’ doesn’t match or meet the expectations of our own or another person’s concept of our ‘ideal’ and ‘ought to’ selves, it can have positive and negative effects on our motivation towards the ‘ideal self’.

Stopping to explore our different 'selves' can help us greatly. Not only will it help identify where you can focus your attention, but also you can see where you might be operating by your own or someone else's unrealistic beliefs or expectations for you.

Journal about the three different selves to see who you are operating by.

Read this blog post to do this in more detail.

Step 4: Maintaining Motivation!

Now you have identified your intrinsic and extrinsic motivations and have gotten to know your ‘selves’ and their motivators or limitations here are some practical tips to maintain your motivation.

The key to maintaining motivation is to give your brain the dopamine boost it needs to want to continue with the behaviour!

Do this by:

• Focusing on smaller ‘micro’ goals and how they contribute to the larger ‘macro’ goal or improvement. Micro improvements are done daily and are actionable behaviours that contribute to your macro goal.

• If you lost motivation or you lacked it from the beginning, it is important for your brain to mentally reward yourself for your action- even if it felt extremely small and insignificant in the moment.

• Tell yourself (your brain!) that ‘you did a great job’, ‘you made an achievement’, ‘you did that much better than 2 months ago!’, immediately after the action and you will begin to associate the reward response chemical with that action. Tomorrow you should also feel like you can repeat that behaviour because you know it made you feel good, and the cycle continues.

• Do something you enjoy or feel good about immediately after the action towards your language goal. This tricks your brain into feeling good like the English action made the positive feeling!

Conclusion

Hopefully by now you have a clear sense on what motivation is and why it is important to know what motivates you, and what is sabotaging your English acquisition and larger life goals.

If you would like more support on your English journey- schedule a consultation with me to discuss your unique plan.