Study Skills

MOTIVATION

In order to succeed in any form of voluntary course of study the student needs strong powers of self-motivation. In the classroom motivation is usually generated by the teacher and the group; in distance learning there is a need for the student to generate this motivation for him/herself. It is easy therefore for studying to become a second priority.

Your reasons for studying will have an effect on your motivation.

Let's look at typical reasons why people choose to study.

Tick as many of the reasons that you recognise as yours.

1. To prove to myself that I can study.
2. I am interested in ESOL.
3. To become qualified and start teaching.
4. To become qualified and continue teaching.
5. To move on in my career.
6. My employer says I must become qualified.
7. The government insists that I get qualified to stay in the country in which I live and work

If you have another reason, add it to the list.

Numbers 1 & 2 are personal reasons and mean that you are probably determined to succeed. Success will be its own reward.

In numbers 3, 4 & 5 the reward is what comes later, the studying is not the reward in itself. If these are your reasons, your aims are probably still quite important to you, but when the reward is far away your determination may fade.

Numbers 6 & 7 do not mean that you really want to study at all, you are being forced to do so by an outside force.

Place any additional reasons in one of the three groups.

You must make it enjoyable

You must make it rewarding

OR your determination will fade and you will become bored with studying.

YOUR MOTIVATION

Your reason for doing this course is your motivation.

Whether your motives equate with numbers 1 & 2; 3, 4 & 5; 6 & 7, you will need to find an effective way to motivate yourself.

What does motivate you?

SELF-CHECK 1:1

Self check tasks are a chance for you to try something, answer questions or think about a topic on your own - they appear throughout the course and are an important way of assessing how you are progressing and if you understand a concept.

SELF-CHECK 1:2

SELF-CHECK 1:3

PLANNING AND ORGANISING STUDY TIME

SELF-CHECK 1:4

Success in any course depends on the candidate's commitment to work and the organisation of his/her study time, but never more so than in a distance training course.

Distance training is not an easy option or a quick and painless way of gaining a qualification. Distance training can be very hard work. The strain can be lessened by good planning.

Time is a challenge whatever your sphere of life. It is difficult to fit in any studying when your day is filled with work, domestic duties and personal responsibilities. Advances in the world of technology have made life easier in this respect but there are still only 24 hours in a day and sleep has to be fitted in somewhere. The only way to succeed and fit everything in is by being a good manager of time. It may be hard work and you may need to change the habits of a lifetime but the end result will be worth all the effort.

Student teachers on this course come from many different backgrounds. Some are teachers already, some are full-time students, many come from totally different careers or are unemployed. Home and family commitments are also varied. Some live alone, some have a family.

This course is therefore being studied by a vast range of prospective teachers of ESOL from unemployed, single people living alone to those with full-time jobs and young, dependent children. The amount of study time available to people in each of these groups varies considerably.

No matter whether you have a lot of free time or very little, planning is essential.

Studying cannot be fitted in between breakfast and going out to work, or between your two favourite TV programmes. It must be taken seriously and given its own time and space in your day.

Timetabling your study is a task that can be described both as very simple and as very hard. Simple because anyone can draw up a timetable and fill in the blank boxes. But can you stick to this timetable?

A few years ago one of our tutors found herself doing a distance Masters course at the same time as tutoring for INTESOL. Here are her feelings on distance learning!

Read what she says and go on to fill in the timetabling activities on the next few pages.

I suppose the profile of a distance student is trouble from the start; someone who has commitments that they can’t give up in order to do a full time course. Someone who has to work and study at the same time for financial reasons. We are looking at a lot of outside interference here. Remember, a supportive tutor can’t hang up someone’s washing or play in their volleyball team for them, and the time when every Distance participant is provided with a free household robot to take care of the chores as part of the course is unfortunately a long way off. The course I am doing myself is supposedly ‘going well’. Even so, I have just had one month so busy that I didn’t even touch the folders. My kids spent last week home with the flu, peering over my shoulder every time I tried to pick up a file and hey presto, a go-slow again.

Realistic not idealistic

As a tutor and participant at the same time, I think a lot of the dropping out stems from the unrealistic view we all have of our own time management. If you are thinking of signing up for a distance course in the near future, start off with some realistic maths. Realistic, not ‘idealistic’, that is. Very often, people start by seeing how many hours of study the course requires. Then they play an imaginative game with their working week and pretend that they have exactly those hours to spare. Try doing it the other way round. Start with working hours. Then add preparation hours. Go on to ‘chatting to colleagues’ time, travelling time and photocopying time. There’s time spent talking to mum on the phone, or reading the paper and days you wake up late or feel irresistibly sleepy after lunch. And what about those skiing weeks and beach holidays?

Probably you will end up with about one hour of ‘real’ free time. Build on that, cancel some commitments and get your schedule set up before you embark on a course. Enlist the help of family and friends and give them advance warning that you may be socially ‘gone for some time’. If you encounter much resistance or can only raise your total free time to 2.5 hours a week, then the course will take you longer than you imagine.

This is where it becomes hard. Don't be wildly optimistic and then fail. Look first at what is realistic for you. Being honest with yourself is a good place to start.

Divide your day into time spent on your usual daily activities such as:- working, sleeping and personal life. How many hours do you spend on each during a typical week?

Complete the following chart for YOU, also complete the key. 21.doc