Mitigating Engagement and Motivation Deficits in Young English Language Learners Using Experiential Learning Strategies

Abstract

Kong (2021) explains that the performance of language learners in the classroom and elsewhere is often directly related to how motivated they find themselves in the classroom (p.1). However, traditional teacher-centred classrooms are often hostile environments where the students are forced to become passive participants, which hinders and hampers their proper socio-physiological development, leading to excessive stress and anxiety in the classroom. Hadfield and Dornyei (2013) state that motivating learners should be central to language teaching (p. 1). However, simply using methods and practises without considering the barriers and struggles language learners may face could make them disengaged and passive learners. Educators and theoreticians, therefore, argue that teaching strategies that encourage learners’ volitional and active engagement in language classrooms should be adapted to the classroom to ensure active language learning and acquisition. Experiential Methods of Language Teaching, devised and developed by David A. Kolb, seeks to ensure that young language learners develop and improve their competencies in English not through ineffective teacher-centred methods but rather through innovation, invention, discovery and research, leading to a marked improvement in the various language competencies needed. Thus, this paper aims to study how these experiential methods of language teaching could be effectively implemented in the English Language classroom and how these methods can change the classroom dynamics, leading to highly motivated and engaged students who learn and develop their skills much more effectively than in the traditional teacher centred classrooms. Therefore, for this paper, we surveyed English language teachers teaching in various parts of India to study how implementing these methods in their classrooms as per the recommendations of NEP 2020 has led to much more engaged and motivated students.