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Inicio > Vol. 2, No. 2 (2000) > Santiesteban Gómez

Trabajo Original

Actividades para motivar a los estudiantes.

Activities to motivate the students.

Lic. Olga Santiesteban Gómez¹, Lic. Ignacia Rodríguez Estévez², Lic. Leidys García Matamoros³

RESUMEN

La enseñanza del inglés como una lengua extranjera es una tarea difícil. Algunos aspectos están relacionados con esto, por ejemplo el que no siempre los estudiantes se sienten realmente motivados con relación al aprendizaje de esta lengua. Los profesores de Ciencias Médicas tienen experiencia de cómo estos intereses cambian. Es decir que durante el primer y segundo año de la carrera ellos están interesados en aprender inglés, pero ya en el tercer año este interés comienza a descender. Por esto los autores de este trabajo decidieron incluir juegos y otros tipos de actividades que contengan las cuatro habilidades de la lengua. Como se esperaba, el objetivo se cumplió al mismo tiempo que los resultados mejoraron.

DeCS: MOTIVACION, LENGUAJE, ESTUDIANTES DE MEDICINA.
Palabras clave: motivación, lenguaje, estudiantes de medicina.

ABSTRACT

The teaching of English as a foreign language is a difficult task. Some aspects are related to this, for example that the students do not always feel motivated towards the learning of this language. The professors of Medical Sciences have experienced how these interests change. It means that during the first and second years of the medical carrier the students are interested in learning English, but in third year this interest begins to descend. This is the reason why the authors of this work decided to include games and other types of activities to integrate the four skills of the language. As it was expected, the objective was accomplished and the results were better simultaneously.

MeSH: MOTIVATION, LANGUAGE, STUDENTS, MEDICAL.
Keywords: motivation, language, medical students.

INTRODUCCIÓN

La enseñanza del inglés es muy importante para los estudiantes de medicina, estomatología y enfermería, pues les proporciona un vocabulario, reglas gramaticales y comprensión para en su formación como profesionales integrarlas con un alto desarrollo de sus capacidades intelectuales de índole la posibilidad de poder estar en contacto con la literatura médica actualizada, la cual aparece casi toda en inglés, así como también les da la posibilidad de brindar colaboración a países de habla inglesa.

La enseñanza del inglés como lengua extranjera es realmente difícil, teniendo en consideración muchos aspectos como es la motivación de los estudiantes en el aprendizaje del inglés. La motivación es considerada uno de los factores más importantes que el profesor debe tener en cuenta. Toda actividad que está concebida en sus clases necesita de algún nivel de motivación. En muchas ocasiones se considera que las actividades iniciales son las que realmente llevan un tratamiento especial prestándole poca o menor atención al resto de los ejercicios adicionales. Por tanto se requiere de la motivación en cualquiera de las partes de las clases para mantener el interés en los estudiantes y crear un ambiente agradable hasta el final de la misma.

La motivación puede ser afectada por algunos factores tales como la diferencia en los conocimientos previos, concientización por parte de los estudiantes de que han avanzado poco si se comparan con el resto del grupo, el cambio del área básica para el área clínica y sus necesidades de aprender inglés para el futuro.

Por tal motivo al estar afectada la motivación de los estudiantes se decidió incluir diferentes tipos de actividades a las clases de inglés conectadas de una u otra manera con los contenidos de las unidades del Kernel III. Se revisaron varios libros acerca de motivación y otros relacionados con actividades interesantes, de disfrute y carácter de reto. El Libro Kernel III también fue chequeado con la finalidad de sustituir las actividades no motivadoras con otras que si lo fuesen.

DESARROLLO

La motivación juega un papel importante en cada actividad llevada a cabo por el ser humano, haciéndolo actuar con cierta energía hacia el objetivo dado. Para mantener la motivación viva se deberá tener en cuenta algunos aspectos como son las necesidades, intereses, ambiciones e ideas, siendo todas estas de gran importancia para mover a los estudiantes hacia determinada tarea. Abbot (1989:73) se refiere a tres formas de mantener los canales abiertos como él decía, que son las siguientes: el iInterés, reto y el disfrute.

Por todo lo antes dicho se decidió insertar un grupo de actividades ya fuesen preparadas por los autores o adaptadas de otros en las cuales estuviesen presentes las cuatro habilidades de la lengua. Estas actividades están realmente lejos de los métodos tradicionales abriendo el camino hacia las nuevas tendencias en las que este presente sus intereses, retos que le hace el profesor a sus estudiantes pues esta seguro de que serán capaces de lograrlo. Dichas actividades aparecerán en inglés para no restarle autenticidad a las mismas.

•  To warm up the reading, the teacher can start by developing a game or an activity called The Rescue. The teacher create a good atmosphere around the activity and explain the situation saying that the earth is condemned and all their good memories are going to die in two days due to radiation. A space ship from another solar system lands and offers to rescue five of their best memories, which could start a New, Word in an empty planet very much, like earth. They should imagine that they are the selection committee and they have to decide which of their good memories may be rescued. They can discuss the problem in-groups and try to work out a list.

•  To work with vocabulary exercises Stepping-Stones could be suitable for checking students' abilities in finding words or phrases with appropriate meanings. For example:

The teacher will draw a river on the board and the task is to cross it by the stepping-stones. For each stone a word has to be said. If it is said correctly it is printed on the stone, if not it is written and they make no progress. There should be a river full of crocodiles or other dangerous creatures ready to eat them up if they don't answer properly.

•  Tell the students to write letters in which they complain about something at school, recommend something to the Dean, the teacher, etc, and to ask persons to do something. Before this, teachers should give a brief explanation about the different types of letters, the kind of vocabulary used in each case as well as the difference between formal and informal letters.

•  The teacher will challenge the students telling them that he/she will bring a word that they will not discover. So, he or she is going to write nine small blanks on the board, which belongs to the word, selected. Optionally, he/she cannot write a letter of the word. If they don't guess the correct letters, the teacher will try to hang them. After getting the word, the students will make a comment guided by the teacher about the problems adolescents face at this age. After the comment she/he will write on the board two incomplete statements.

_ When I was younger I wanted to be. but.

_ When I was younger I wanted to be. and.

The class can be divided into two groups. One selects the first statement and the other the

second one. They will discuss or state the real situation in the group First and in front of the

class afterwards.

•  The teacher will have a conversation with the students in which he/she will ask them to mention a job they would like to do. The teacher will copy them on the board and tell them that only five will be given the job they would like to do. So they will fight for being one of these five people giving as many reasons as they can in order to be selected.

•  The class is divided into two groups. One member of each group leaves the room. The remaining group's members decide on how the person who is outside spent the previous day. They draw up an exact time schedule from 8am_8pm and describe where the person was, what he did, who he talked to, so as not to make the guessing too difficult. The victim's day should not be divided into more than six hours periods. The people who waited outside are called in and returned to their group. There they try and find out by asking only yes or no questions how the group thinks they spend the previous day. When each victim has guessed his fictitious day, the groups try to find out what he really did.

•  The teacher will challenge the students to catch as much information as they can from a letter he/she will read, taking notes, writing a word or a phrase because after the reading, the students will create a letter with this information. It will be compared with the original one. Optionally, this can be done as kind of competition in which the teacher will select the ones that has more similarities to the original ones.

•  Divide the class into groups of three to five students each. Distribute copies of the exercise per group. Explain that each group will have ten minutes to try to organize on the puzzle as many opposite words as possible from the ones given in the exercise sheet. Participation from each group member is of primary importance and group members must be patient. Points will be awarded equal to the number of letters in each word. The group with the most points wins.

•  Before beginning the unit let students discuss in small groups for at least ten minutes about the following topics: Women's Role in Modern Society. After the ten minutes they should select a spokesman who will report to the whole class all the group's thoughts. After presenting the unit, they will be ready for doing a comparison between Jennifer. (One of the main characters from the kernel three book.)

•  Think about a singer, musician you like. Try to say everything you remember about him/her. Get them to start talking as much as they can. There will be a winner, which will be given a gift. (It might be a pen, pencil, rubber or notebook)

•  Dictate different words (5 or 6) fast. Students will write what they can. Then, they will ask their partners afterwards. When they have the five words, tell them to write a short paragraph using the words. They should be related to the content the teacher is dealing with.

•  The students will write about different situations they have faced in real life. The teacher will collect all the papers so that she can read them aloud for the whole class. Then, the class will react to the situation expressing pleasure, doubt and congratulating people.

•  Students will work in pairs. One will refer to the situation given, asking his partner's opinions while the other will give his viewpoint or inquire about the problems.

•  Your partner saw the film The Titanic.

•  Your partner is orthopedist. Your mother broke one of her legs six month ago and she does not walk properly yet.

•  You were invited to have dinner at The Islas Canarias restaurant but you have an exam tomorrow.

•  You have an exam in which half of the group failed.

•  You had a terrible argument with your English teacher. You fell confused now because you do not know if it was your or his fault.

•  You saw a burglar stealing things from a house. You want to tell the police about it but at the same time you are afraid.

•  Your partner watched the film on TV last Saturday/Sunday.

14. Each student in the group will prepare a question, which will be collected by the Teacher and redistributed afterwards. Then the class is divided into groups of six students. Each group receives two dice, and question cards. The question cards put in piles faced down next to the numbers one to six. Each student in the group is given a number from one to six. Taking turns, each student throws the dice. One die indicates the question to be asked, the other the person who must answer the question. The exercise is finished when every one has answered every question. The questions can be based either on the text they are dealing with or personal questions.

CONCLUSIONES

Como se esperaba, la sustitución de las actividades no motivadoras por otras que si lo son, trajo consigo un aumento del interés de los estudiantes y al mismo tiempo mejores resultados. No queda duda que mientras los estudiantes están jugando o haciendo alguna cosa diferente a las actividades que están acostumbrados a hacer se sienten fuertemente motivados. También fue de gran ayuda metodológica para aquellos profesores proyectados en elevar el interés de los estudiantes.

REFERENCIAS BIBLIOGRÁFICAS

Esta obra está bajo una licencia de Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial 4.0 Internacional.

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