Some ideas to motivate students to use English outside class

Abstract

English is supposed to be one of the most important subjects in University of Economics, Ho Chi Minh city (Vietnam). However, our students are with us every week for just a limited number of hours. What happens when they leave class? How can they use English outside the classroom? From my teaching experience and my analysis of students‟ needs and interests, I have come up with some ideas to motivate the students to use English outside of class and help them to acquire as much practice as possible. Those ideas are to get students to do the sort of good homework (some kind of homework but doesn‟t like homework and often isn‟t even called homework), that encourages them to use English on their own in their own way. The ideas may be diversified, but all of them are oriented by task-based approach, which the author believe really generates students‟ own language and creates an opportunity of natural language acquisition.