Non-Material Rewards to Motivate Adult Learners

Though we waste more time, money, and resources buying stickers, certificates, and trinkets for young learners, older learners also need motivation. Many adult learners are satisfied with intrinsic rewards (such as being able to explain a grammar point or define a word from a reading). However many adults thrive on a challenge and most long for recognition. This doesn’t mean you have to buy comic books, junkfood, or pocket dictionaries for winning teams or older students who make drastic improvements. There are a number of non-material ways to reward adult learners.

5 Non-Material Rewards to Motivate Adult Learners

1. Homework Pass: Though your best students probably enjoy doing their homework, there might be a day when they just don’t feel like writing a journal or doing a take home quiz. Offer the “homework pass” as a reward to a student (or group) who deserves a break. This reward doesn’t have to be based on academics. If you reward students who volunteer to help you pass out assignments, more students will volunteer. You can even give a homework pass to the student who always comes to class in a good mood. (Note: To motivate others you can put the student’s name up on the board beside the homework details or announce your decision to exempt this student at the end of class.)

2. DJ for the day:
Listening to music in the classroom is one of the most popular ways of learning English these days. Give one of your students the chance to share his or her favourite English music as a reward. You can avoid printing out lyrics (that may never get read again), by gathering a small group around a computer screen. Here is a good list of music that is currently available on YouTube with lyrics.

3. Classroom blog: You can “emotivate” your students by starting a classroom blog and featuring those who are working the hardest. If you haven’t heard of the classroom blog, check out this interview with teacher trainer Burcu Akoyl. Burcu explains how to motivate and reward learners by assigning a “blog helper”. You can also set up your own class group on MyEC and thank hard workers in your blog. Offering one of your students extra time in the computer lab is another idea for a reward.

4. A Secret Learning Tip:
Many teachers these days have student email addresses on file. You can reward a hardworking student by sharing a secret learning tip. For example, email a link to a learning English website or resource you stumbled across. Or, search EnglishClub.com for pages related to certain skills such as grammar or vocabulary. Find other ideas at EnglishClub Site of the Month. Keep a copy of the tips you email out to use in future classes. Keep in mind that shy students may not want to be singled out even for “good work”. You can motivate these students by praising them in a private email message.

5. VIP Coffee: Okay, coffee is something you buy, but this reward is all about the experience, not the consumption (which you’re probably going to do anyway). If you take a regular coffee break, invite your top 3 achievers (or 3 “very improved persons”) to join you at the end of a month or term. Explain that this is not a tutoring session, but rather an opportunity to engage in free conversation with the real you. Keep it green by encouraging the students to bring in their own refillable cup. (If you don’t want to “foot the bill” you can teach the idiom “to go dutch” or “to pay your own way” in class the day before your coffee date.)

See also: Non-material Rewards to Motivate Young Learners

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