Làm thế nào để học tiếng Anh hiệu quả What is motivation? In psychology, motivation is defined as the process that initiates, guides and maintains oriented behaviors. Motivation is something that helps us take action, such as drinking water to reduce thirst or reading books to gain knowledge. In daily life, motivation is defined as the need or desire to achieve a certain goal. In other words, motivation is why a person does a thing. Concretely in education, the motivation for the study is what you hope to gain from our studies. Where does motivation come from?
HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY ENGLISH DEPARTMENT ********* STUDY SKILLS FOR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH ASSIGNMENT A REFLECTIVE PAPER Student’s name: Nguyen Thi Tuoi Class: DHTA1C - K6 Hanoi, January 2012 English is a total new and unfamiliar language with us, so it is not easy and simple to study it However, we still need to study English because of its importance Studying English well requires many elements, such as: patience, practice, concentration, knowledge, experience…And one of the most important elements is motivation because it plays a great role in our study We need motivation if we want to success not only in studying foreign languages but also in doing anything else As we know, motivation is needful part in study, so finding out more about motivation is knowing more about methods and skills to success What is motivation? In psychology, motivation is defined as the process that initiates, guides and maintains oriented behaviors Motivation is something that helps us take action, such as drinking water to reduce thirst or reading books to gain knowledge In daily life, motivation is defined as need or desire to achieve a certain goal In other words, motivation is why a person does a thing Concretely in education, motivation for study is what you hope to gain from our studies Where does motivation come from? Motivation can come from two sources: from inside of us or from outside of us In the first case, motivation derives from our hopes, expectations, dreams and desire to something or to be someone Motivation for study that results from inner ourselves are individual and various, such as: desire to gain more and more knowledge, hopes to know lots of interesting new things or dream about discovering the world and the universe, etc…For example, motivation for study of a tourism student is desire to travel many places, that of a diplomacy or marketing student is desire to meet many types of people, that of politics students is desire to improve the world’s problems, and that of a medicine students is desire to cure human’s diseases, etc…For an English students, motivation for study is numerous, such as: love for English language, hope to make friend with foreigner, expectation to study abroad…This kind of motivation is not easy to lose because it comes from deeply inside us However, not everyone has strong motivation from within, and no one has continuous motivation from within Consequently, there is another source of motivation: from outside In education, grades are the most immediate and obvious motivation from outside For many students, grades are really important to their studies With these students high grades are tools expressing success and helping them pass examinations, but after that they will certainly lose motivation to continue studying Therefore, it is completely wrong to set grades as our only goal They also try to study well because they want other people admire them Moreover, they try to gain high grades so that they can get good jobs with high salaries in future Besides, some students study just because their families expect much in them This kind of motivation only can help us try from day to day because it is artificial, and it can not maintain for long time It does not really come from ourselves, so it won’t help us improve our studies, gain knowledge or achieve our last goal In general, it is very valuable and useful to know that good motivation will create great encouragement for us No matter where our motivation comes from or what our goals are, it must help us study harder and more efficiently How important is motivation for study? We have known the definition and origination of motivation Have you wondered that why we need motivation for study? The answer lies in the importance of motivation The role of motivation is much greater than we think It affects all the process of our study First, motivation helps us start There is a great difference between studying something we like and studying something we not like When we have motivation about something, we can study it effortlessly, and we needn’t to be forced or reminded by anyone A good starting can lead to a good process Starting is the toughest part of studying, so motivation may be helpful for us As long as we determine to study seriously, we have won half studying battle Second, motivation helps us keep studying continuously Starting is an important problem, but keeping studying is another more important problem Whatever we study, there are always obstacles on the way which can prevent us from achieving our goal It is easy to be disheartened when we meet too many obstacles if we not have motivation because motivation puts our resources into studying It also drives us towards our goal Thanks to motivation, our resources can be used fully and effectively Third, motivation helps us study more than necessary Motivation can create studying inspiration for us When we are interested in something, we will voluntarily study further and deeper than requirement For example, if we study English just because it is a compulsory subject, we certainly can not improve Motivation will improve our level of efficiency of study because this level does not only depend on qualifications and abilities The combination between abilities and motivation can fill up our chance of success We can get best of study too Fourth, motivation helps the study become more interesting The way to success may be difficult, long and boring to people who not have motivation This way may be still difficult but enjoyable to people who are motivated to study Motivation is an important factor bringing satisfaction of study for us Of course, there are always times when our studies are not good, but motivation will be a guiding angel helping us stay, move ahead and pass all the challenges and difficult times Finally, motivation helps us study more concentratedly Even though we are interested in studying, we sometimes realize that our concentration can be interrupted by various factors These factors are called distractions, such as: unexpected visitors, suddenly noises, favorite movies or attractive video games They will take our attention away from our lessons We can not prevent distractions from coming when we are studying, but we can refuse them with the help of motivation As we can see, motivation helps us in many different ways It brings for us determination, effort, patience, concentration and even positive actions Therefore, there is no doubt that motivation plays an important role in our success How can we get motivation for study? The role of motivation can not be denied, so each of us should think carefully about finding out our motivation for study But this work is not easy to One of the most effective things we must is setting our goal First, let think seriously about what we want to or who we want to be Then determine which job our abilities are suitable for or which work will bring happiness and satisfaction for us After that, set a certain goal to try based on our dream, demand and hobby It could be either short-term goal like upcoming exam or long-term goal like achievement we want to reach after our study Lastly, write down our goals and stick them in front of our desk so that we can see whenever we study Our goals will give us right directions to follows They are the best source of motivation because they keep us focused and help us whatever to achieve our aims However, setting goals is not the only problem After finding out our motivation for study, we must face to another important work It is keeping that motivation during our process of study which is even more necessary and difficult But if we really try, there are still many ways to keep being motivated to study First, be really interested in our subject Think of how it is important to our study, how it is related to other fields and how it affects our life With English students, it is not difficult to realize the role of professional knowledge Nowadays, English is clearly the world-wide language It is used in every fields in every area in the world We speak English at international places like airports, harbors, immigration offices…or in trade, tourism, technology, communication, education abroad Being good at English can help us find a high-salary job, make friend with more foreigners, understand more humankind knowledge…Therefore, it is necessary for all of us to be able to use English fluently When we see the role of our main subject, we will have true interest To raise up our interest, we should search a lot of interesting information of the subject by reading books or using internet The more interest we develop, the more motivation we have Second, find out an effective method of study for ourselves Start with experience and habit we had in the past Then compare them with our study in the present and consider all process and problems Lastly, sum up to choose the best method of study There are many ways to study English well We need have useful dictionaries, books or document We should also know how to learn vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, structure and rules of English If we know the method to study effectively, we will become more motivated and inspired Third, choose comfortable place and suitable time to study The best place of study we can choose is our own private rooms If they not have quite enough, we can choose another better place such as library Moreover, put all our notebooks, reference books, pens…in our study place To have best time of study and save our time, we need set a definite schedule and try to follow it Our study schedule depends on our class in school, social activities and private time We should plan study time and relaxing time equally to avoid tiredness and boring Good place and good time will not only inspire us but also enable us study more efficiently Fourth, avoid prolonging during the process of study One of the main reasons of lacking enthusiasm about studying is the fact that we prolong the beginning of the study too long This has negative effects on our study To limit prolonging, we need see our aims clearly and plan our study detailed Let start with simple steps before complicated and difficult work Whenever we prolong or want to give up, try to forget that intention and only focus on studying by remind ourselves about our motivation and purpose why we study Fifth, be concentrated as much as possible When we have television, cellphone, computer, magazines…nearby, we will easily lose concentration These distractions will become obstacles on our way Consequently, we must remove all these distractions from our place of study Just only think of subjects and get stared with studying no matter distractions are attracting us If we are tired or boring, we can allow ourselves to relax like listening a good song Whenever we feel lack of interest to study or being lazy, free our mind from negative thoughts and we will get back our motivation Sixth, have positive thoughts and avoid negative feelings Our attitudes about studying can have a great impact on our motivation We can increase our motivation only by thinking toward positive way On the other hand, negative feelings such as boring, anger, anxiety or disappointment can kill our motivation before we start studying Our study will become worse if we keep thinking about our results are excellent or not Do not waste our valuable time and energy on negative emotions We needn’t think of something we can neither change nor control like other students’ result Instead of, we should try to forget pressure of grades and think more about knowledge, skills as well as experience we can get from studying When facing to stress, calm down and remember that everything is depend on our attitude Seventh, reward ourselves If we feel lack of motivation for study, set our goal and give an attractive prize for us when we success It is really simple but very effective By rewarding ourselves, we naturally put higher effort on studying This helps us achieve success faster and easier However, we must apply a certain rule that simple goal means small award and important goal means big award When we have a few small success, we will have gratification to try more So, we can increase our motivation drastically and maintain this motivation on a high level until we reach our last goals Finally, be more responsible with our study We need time to review what we have achieved after a period of study We should consider about both success and failure so that we can have experience as well as right direction for future One thing we should remember is not to scare mistakes because they are inevitable The most important thing is the fact that even if we have determination to redress our wrong, we will success As long as we have responsibility with our study, being motivated to study is not a problem anymore In short, we have known definition, origination, importance and ways to have motivation for study Motivation is decided element in our study It will determine how far we can go and how successful we can achieve It will help us overcome challenges and difficulties during the process of study too While studying, if we have positive motivation, it means we have half victory The end