#1 Unique Solution to Increase Learning and Motivation Every Student and Teacher should Know

This post is all about learning and motivation

Learning and motivation combined will give you a super powerful feeling that everything is possible. For example, that is what you need when you start French courses. Without motivation and realization that you have succeeded to learn, you will not gain that absolute confidence you need to speak French with the French.

When you experience that combines learning and motivation, you will notice like me that nothing can stop you. I came to NYC from Paris. I was super motivated and I started to learn. I didn’t have what I am offering you. It was more difficult for me. But I learned.

Read this and you will feel empowered already.

This post is all about learning and motivation

LEARNING AND MOTIVATION

The Olympic Games

Amazing! I turn on my TV and they were talking about Tokyo, the Olympic Games with all the difficulty to organize due to the covid-19 pandemic situation.

Suddenly, also pops up in my mind the memory of Pierre de Coubertin’s famous quote, that starts like this: The most important in the Olympic Games is not to win but to participate.’ It’s a nice statement indeed but how to put in the minds of all these Athletes that are presented with Gold medals that to win is only secondary to participation?

The Olympic Games are a competition, a real tough competition. And the competition has no better and most motivating goal than to win that medal. How can we promote the idea that participation is what you should embrace when at the same time, we set rules for a system that makes everyone compete? That seemed antipathic to me. The two concepts didn’t seem to fit.

The Classroom

In the middle of my reflection, as I am constantly thinking about the way we could improve Learning, I saw a parallel between the Olympic Games situation and the one in the classroom at school. There’s been a lot of reforms to try to improve the test results.

I’m thinking of one reform that has been about changing the grading system to lower the pressure of competing. When we generally talk about participation, we are imagining students raising their hands. Sometimes students even get a better grade for doing just that. The pressure is on the kid. That’s what I thought is not necessarily the best way to enhance participation. Rather, it’s forced participation.

There is competition

The same way the athletes in the Olympic Games are present on the field, the students are sitting in the class. Some of them are more talented than others and there is competition. Most of the time, the student who is raising his hands will be the one who loves to compete and the one who is already successful in class. As long as we grade, an award is given, there is competition. The students can’t forget that after high school if they want to go to college, they might not be accepted into the college or university of their choice. There is competition. That is obviously for those who already plan to go to college.

Not all kids go to college

A lot of children cannot even think of it. Family and financial situations or just their mindset will not encourage them to even think of it. That is why it is crucial that they wrap up their general education in high school, not college. It doesn’t really make sense to me that they continue GE in college. That is the admission that part of the population never got to finish their general education. That’s kind of pathetic, don’t you agree?

Let’s start to say that if there is participation, the learning is improved. Rest to determine the kind of participation is necessary to get the expected result.

I BELIEVE THAT IN ORDER TO LEARN BETTER, COMFORT AND SELF-CONFIDENCE ARE ESSENTIAL, THAT IS WHY IN ALL MY COURSES I SHOW YOU THESE LETTERS THAT BOTHER YOU FROM BEING THERE WHILE THEY ARE NOT PRONOUNCED. THAT IS ALSO WHY I SIMPLY ASK YOU TO IMITATE ME OVER AND OVER USING A LANGUAGE THAT IS CONTRACTED SO THAT YOU WILL FEEL EMPOWERED WHEN THE TIME COMES FOR YOU TO COMMUNICATE WITH THE FRENCH.

Promoting participation

The way the Olympic Games promote the idea of participation over the idea of competition, over winning, is by the production of an opening ceremony and an end of the games ceremony.

They put up a show. Remember the word ‘show’. I believe strongly in the power of words.

So, there’s a big show. If you have ever seen them on TV, you know. So, every participant, even if he or she knows he or she has little chance to go back home with that medal, will have a chance to shine, to participate in that exceptional parade, that show. Participation is a big deal and it shows at the beginning and at the end. At its best, Pierre de Coubertin’s idea is highlighted at that moment.

Limiting pressure

So I thought that if it works for the Olympic Games, it should work in class. Once the athletes have first demonstrated participation, they can compete, but the pressure is already somehow lifted from their shoulders. Of course, the pressure is always there. It’s the OG. But can you sense it’s different?

On top of it, in class, we pressure the student not only to do well but to participate as well. In the OG, participation is the reward already.

At least, can we do something in class so that the students feel relieved of the pressure to participate? Can we create a situation where the participation is kind of automatic and doesn’t request any effort, where they will be eager to participate? Is it possible to imagine participation that doesn’t depend on the student’s goodwill?

The form

Surely, just by changing the form in which we teach the result could be different. If we do that, all students may be more relaxed and they may learn better. They might also develop a better feeling for the group, more empathy for each other.

Here is what I wanted to come to. If the Olympic Games feel the need to put up a show to format the athletes to participate, to prepare their minds to the idea of participation, would it be possible to put up a show at the beginning of the class, and why not at the end? It would not have to be extensive, and that is just an idea.

But there is more.

The word ‘Show’

Eventually, there is more to the word ‘show’ than a performance. Indeed, it’s all in the word ‘show’. You remember that we have been talking about learning through imitation. I am so thankful to the authors of the series ‘the Crown’ for putting the quote in the Welsh teacher’s mouth when he says: we learn through imitation”.

If the student that I prefer to call apprentice learns through imitation, it’s because someone has SHOWN him something to imitate. Does that make sense?

Someone has to show, to put on a show. The teacher doesn’t have to be a stand-up comedian. That happens sometimes but it’s not a requirement. The best way to show is to fix a problem with another person, a situation, in front of an audience that is learning. If you think of it, if you talk to your students just by yourself, that’s not a show, it’s a lecture.

Two teachers

Change the form

To have a real show situation where the student doesn’t feel under the pressure to absorb the information, we need to have two teachers (masters in their field) concentrated on fixing a problem in front of him.

I can see already some of you thinking of the cost. I thought about it and it is not a problem. There are practical ways to do it so that the cost will not be a problem.

Get a result

The idea is to relieve the kid from the pressure so that he can learn better. It would also relieve the teacher of the pressure to get participation. I think that participation becomes active participation if we are attracted like a magnet by what is going on rather than forced to absorb what is said. A system that entices participation will be better than a system that requests participation in order to be successful.

What is the goal?

What is to be shown in a French class? Many ideas have been proposed to distract from the main goal of learning the language, just because we know that it’s hard, frustrating, and honestly often boring. It’s hard to keep the attention at the highest level for too long with just the language instruction. So we tried to take a detour teaching francophone cultures for example… even in English for the first semester at least.

While I favor introducing information on the francophone cultures in a French class, I also think that we should not lose perspective and decide what is most important. What is the goal? What do we teach in a French class? Is speaking French the main goal?

If it is, then let’s go directly to the main goal.

The key

Building a situation where the child doesn’t feel constrained but instead, free and eager to participate, will be a win-win for everybody, the kids, the teachers, the school, the parents, the taxpayer.

And school will be there to the advantage of every single child, not the few who like school. Everyone will be able to shine, feel included.

I know that in a standard system, it’s always the same nerds who raise their hands. They are often called ‘popular’. The pressure makes them seeking the teacher’s attention.

For French, let’s go back to basics.

What do we want our children to learn in a French class? What would you want them to learn?

Honestly, I think that it’s the bottom line. I am teaching the language and the first thing to learn should be to speak French because writing French is more complicated. And also because to learn to speak first worked and is working for the French. Why would you want to learn French in a different way when you know that it’s what works?

So for me, I would choose to spend all my time on the language itself first. I would not take the back road. I would go straight to it. And it is possible to do that right away. Do you know how? By just showing it. Show me what I need to achieve, the end result. Show me the steps you put in place to help me to get there. If you have a tool, show me how to use the tool. Don’t put pressure on me, don’t lecture me. If you show me, you will not feel the need to pressure me.

How do we show best?

In a French class, I would have a colleague or a friend come to the class and speak with me for a minute or two at the beginning of the class. That is only an idea. I have a bigger idea, a great plan but that is for after. I have an idea for the conjugation as well. Take advantage, and subscribe to the blog. It’s free. Check the exercises. Make your students practice them. My new big idea for the conjugation will be delivered to the subscribers first.

My Free Workshop

To go further with this, you can choose to participate in my soon-to-come free workshop online. It will be 4 days, just a 1/2hour per day. I’ll show you the exercise and I’ll give you your assignment for the next day.

At the end of the week, you will have a tool to use when you want to read the way French people speak. This tool you will master is extremely important. To participate, you need to register. It’s very simple and it takes 2 minutes max. Go HERE. It’s first come first served and I will send you an email for you to confirm you are coming. Registration is free. Participation is free.

The Full French Whisperer Program

I feel for you if you are learning French because you often start with the most difficult part. You often receive misleading information, or at least a confusing one. One way to check if any French program online you are using now is good is to check one sound. Just that will tell you. If your program tells you that the French é sound of ‘café’ sounds like A-Y or part of it, that’s wrong. If that’s wrong, how can you trust the rest? You can check the é sound on my youtube channel (french whisperer learn french). Take advantage and check my whole program HERE

It will completely transform you if you go ahead and purchase the whole thing.

For the price of just a few private French classes, you will have access to an amazing amount of material that you will work on step by step until you master French. It’s between 600 and 1000 documents, videos, audios, and pdfs.

So be an athlete. Be your best at the Games. If you are a teacher, show, show, and show again.

That is what my material is about. That is the way I teach. For sure, I show. In my courses, I have recorded French people and I show, I detail how they speak naturally. I make the student imitate them precisely. You end up feeling you are one of them. Remember the entire quote in the Crown, season 3, episode 6?

“We learn through imitation. Like anything in life, if we pretend we’re something, we may just become it.”

This post can be saved as a learning and motivation pdf to be reviewed at will to improve your learning process and motivation.

This session was all about learning and motivation, hoping you will be able to combine both when you decide to learn to speak or teach French.