For many years, academics, psychologists, teacher trainers and teachers have been trying to define how to motivate students. There has been a lot of research, which has also become more specific and transferred to the ELT field, in an attempt to harvest motivation among students who learn a foreign language. We read about these techniques every day but we never find out if they are finally implemented or work out.
This session will try to give another twist in the way we view motivation, starting with the basics. The speaker will analyse the “dark side of motivation” as a pitfall that we may all be falling into often without realising it. Certain fundamental values of human motivation will be mentioned and briefly discussed, along with suggestions on how they can be positively transferred through ELT tasks. Having all of the above in mind may be useful to help any teacher transform from an educator into a motivator.
Biography
George Kokolas has been working as the Academic Director and Teacher Trainer for Express Publishing for the last 20years.He is a certified LEVEL 5 TEFL teacher and a certified ADVANCED Neurolanguage CoachⓇ,practicing Neurolanguage CoachingⓇprofessionally. He currently studies Positive Psychology trying to merge ELT into it. He also holds a BA in English Literature. Right after his graduation he branched out from his major in English Literature and devoted himself fully to ELT.
He likes to be considered a frontline teacher spending many hours inside the classroom teaching and learning at the same time. His vast experience has been of considerable help in developing helpful and practical views about different topics of ELT Methodology, like motivation, effective learning, technology in the classroom, critical thinking, differentiated instruction and, of course, neurolanguage coaching. He has delivered several successful seminars in conferences throughout the world. Since 2017 he is the co-host and producer of the educational podcast Teachers’ Coffee.
