Keeping students motivated in the lead-up to the holidays

Young children in a group smiling and raising their hands

As the holiday season approaches, learners often struggle to stay motivated and focused on their studies amidst the festive cheer and distractions. It's easy to get caught up in the excitement of the holidays, but maintaining consistency in language learning is crucial for making progress. To help you stay on track during this joyful yet potentially distracting time, here are some effective strategies and tips to keep things going.

How to keep students motivated in the lead-up to the holidays
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1. Setting goals

(like SMART ones - specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) can significantly improve motivation and performance. This principle can be applied to language learning, helping students stay focused and committed, even during distractions such as holiday preparations and celebrations.

Get students to regularly set small but realistic goals to keep them motivated; a lot of students aren't really thinking of after the holidays or the new year so make sure they're achievable in the time before they break up for the holidays.

2. Repetition

Cognitive psychology has shown that spaced repetition is an effective method for retaining information in memory. shows that information is forgotten most rapidly shortly after learning it and that the rate of forgetting decreases over time. In other words, the greatest amount of forgetting occurs right after learning something new, and the rate of forgetting slows down as time passes.

and platforms that use spaced repetition algorithms, such as , can help with long-term language learning by reinforcing vocabulary and grammar at optimal intervals. This technique is handy during the holiday season when study patterns may be irregular.So, make sure to keep picking up the same topics to help retain knowledge. You may want to do quickfire quizzes to help learners recall what they've learned.

3. Rewards

Rewards play a crucial role in . By implementing a system where students reward themselves for achieving language learning milestones, we can reinforce positive learning behaviors based on (where reinforcing positive behaviors encourages that behavior to happen more frequently). The festive season provides an excellent opportunity for students to reward themselves with holiday-themed incentives, which can boost their motivation to learn.

Depending on their age, you might want to reward them with something like stickers (for younger students) or allow them to have a short break to watch a video. Incorporating what you know your class likes as rewards is important to incentivize positive behavior.

4. Keep it short and sweet

To learn a language effectively, it's important to practice regularly. Studies show that the brain can adapt and grow with consistent practice. It's best to break your study sessions into short, manageable chunks to help students remember what they've learned. Even if it's busy during the holiday lead-up, regularly encourage and offer opportunities to stay on track with language practice. This will help strengthen learners' brain pathways and make it easier to acquire new language skills in the long run.

Keep lessons and tasks short and varied. Students' attention spans are much more likely to dwindle during the festive season, and there isn't much you can do about that. So, by having these short and sweet tasks it'll be a lot easier for students to pick up and engage with, as opposed to a long continuous task.

5. Be mindful

The festive season can be stressful just as much as it is exciting, so it's important for mindfulness to be included in your daily teaching itinerary. Mindfulness has a positive impact on focus and cognitive function, particularly in. Encourage students to practice mindfulness techniques to manage holiday stress, enhancing their ability to concentrate on language learning amidst festivities.

Make some time in your teaching schedule for meditation activities or quick breaks. You can read more about mindfulness in the classroom here. Don't forget as a teacher, to be mindful about your own wellbeing as well.

6. Involve parents and guardians

Learning often declines during holidays, but it doesn't have to be that way. Before the holidays start, you can encourage families to get involved by suggesting language learning activities that students can do at home. You can reinforce learning outside the classroom by sharing resources or ideas with parents.

Learning outside of the classroom can keep students engaged when inside the classroom as they're already familiar with the day's teachings and/or are eager to learn more to take back to their families and show off their ability. It also breaks down the mental strain or pressure to learn something, if they have more than just opportunities in the classroom to learn, it can make learning a lot less intimidating or frustrating.

During the holiday season, it is important to remember that this time is about celebrating and spreading joy. When trying to teach something like a new language, use this festive period as an opportunity to learn in a fun and engaging way. You don't have to make it feel like a chore; embrace the opportunities the season brings. You will continue to see your language students progress by staying motivated and consistent and setting a positive tone for the upcoming year.

Check out our blog post on mindfulness for teachersduring the holidays, or if you're looking to upskill, our professional development opportunities.

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    4 key challenges in secondary education

    Por Anna Roslaniec

    Let’s examine four of the most common challenges secondary teachers have and look into some strategies to help solve them.

    1. My students are afraid of making mistakes

    You’re not alone! Many teachers say their teenage students are quiet and unwilling to answer questions in class. Sometimes, this might simply be because they don’t know the answers, but more often than not, they are nervous about making mistakes.

    When children grow into teenagers, they tend to become more self-conscious and worried about what their peers think of them – and making mistakes in public is a big no-no for them. However, there are several ways to facilitate a safe learning environment where your students are happy and willing to talk. Sometimes, though, it takes a little experimentation. Here are some things you can try:

    Celebrate mistakes

    When students make mistakes, ensure that you praise them for taking a risk or making an effort. Correct their errors and be clear with the rest of the class that the only way to learn is to try new things.

    Be firm

    Don’t tolerate any bullying or laughing when someone gets an answer wrong. If your students fear that others will mock them for their efforts, they’ll stay quiet. So make sure you have clear rules and that your students understand that mistakes are normal and to be expected.

    Have students discuss their answers in pairs or groups

    If your students are painfully shy and afraid of making mistakes, avoid picking on individuals to answer questions in front of the class. Instead, when asking a question, tell your students to discuss it in pairs or small groups first. This will allow them to formulate their ideas and feel more confident. Afterwards, you can ask the pairs to share what they discussed – leading to a natural open-class discussion.

    Listen to your students

    Another, powerful way of engaging your students in discussion is to listen to a conversation they are having with their partners and then express how impressed you are with their ideas during a feedback session. E.g. “You said X, which I thought was very interesting. Could you explain this to the class? It was a great idea.” This gives them the confidence to share their thoughts.

    2. My students are not engaged with the activities I choose

    This is another very common problem for teachers of teenagers. You spend a lot of time thinking of fun, interesting activities – then, when you present them to the class, your students look away and say they’re bored. Soon enough, you’ll get frustrated and not know how to re-engage them. Here are some ideas to help:

    Get to know your students

    Without fail, the best way to engage your students is by getting to know them as individuals over the year. Find out about their hobbies and interests outside of school, and learn what makes them laugh and what worries them. Use your knowledge of your students to find interesting books to read, videos to watch, or relevant subjects to discuss. This way, you’ll deliver tailored lessons your students find truly interesting and useful.

    Allow a degree of autonomy

    Sometimes quietness is also a sign of disengagement with the learning materials. To get past this obstacle, you can get your students to brainstorm things that interest them in groups, list them on the board and have a class vote on the topic of their next class project. As a teacher, you always have the power to veto inappropriate ideas, but giving students a voice is a powerful way of making them feel valued and involved in their own education.

    Make things (a little) competitive

    Even teenagers love games! And play is an integral part of learning, as it allows our students to be themselves, have fun, and communicate freely at the same time. By allowing them to play language-focused games in class, they’ll soon forget their inhibitions and start talking.

    3. My students just want to do grammar exercises

    Language is all about communication, speaking, listening, reading and writing – yet all your students want to do is grammar exercises. Frustrating as this is, it’s probably a sign that our students are not confident in their speaking or listening abilities. Here’s what you can do:

    Encourage free language practice

    Grammar activities are very structured and there is often a clear answer. Day-to-day communications, however, are much freer, which can intimidate less confident students. This activity will help you combine the two aspects of language learning:

    • Put students in small groups and give them a set of cards with exciting topics printed on them—for example; music, sports, environment, school, vacations, friends, food.
    • Tell students that they should each choose a card and speak freely about their topic for 30 seconds – the short time will help them overcome their fear of speaking and can be gradually increased as they get used to this type of activity.
    • Have students record themselves when they are speaking and then, when they listen back, have them identify the grammatical structures they used.

    They should write down and correct any mistakes under your guidance. Not only will this get students used to talking and encourage a lot of emergent language, but it will also help them feel they are practicing grammar.

    If your students really enjoy learning grammar, you can ‘flip’ your grammar activities and make them more communicative. First, provide them with a series of sentences or listening clips which have a common grammatical structure (second conditional sentences, for example).

    Then have students work together (in English) to identify how the language is structured, so they can discover the grammar point for themselves. This not only gets them talking, but they are doing something they feel confident at.

    4. My students are bored of all the repetition

    Repetition is an important part of language learning. By practicing things over and over again, your students will come to understand it better and will be able to produce the language more easily. However, repetition is often quite dull, especially for fast learners. Here’s how you can make things more interesting for your teenage students:

    Use a greater variety of activities to engage your learners

    If you’ve been teaching your students a particular set of vocabulary, a grammatical structure, or some pronunciation rules, think about how else they can practice them.

    For example, instead of drilling pronunciation over and over again, ask students to think of all the words they can think of that have the same sound in them (e.g. book, look, cook, shook, etc.). This will help them ‘hear’ the sounds in their heads and improve their understanding of other words.

    If you have been learning vocabulary through reading, have students write or tell stories that incorporate the words.

    The idea is not to stop repeating the target language or skill, but to practice it in different ways. Apply this principle to other areas of language learning so your students won’t feel like they are repeating things.