Engaging International Music Students: Interventions in an English for Academic Purposes Classroom

Abstract

This paper reports the study of motivating international music students in a language module using certain strategies. What inspired this study was the common observation among tutors who had taught this English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course—the significantly low level of motivation among these students in language learning. The tutor (also the PI of this study) also noticed a wide range of interest levels at the beginning of each cohort of the course. The student profile is interesting. Each class has students from several countries, including Uzbekistan, Russia and East Asian countries. While there are many studies on motivation in language learning that partly support my teaching, there is a gap in literature on motivation specifically on international music students taking EAP at tertiary level. Therefore, the tutor became keen on investigating strategies to raise her students’ motivation and, in the process, learnt about the effectiveness of three teaching strategies, namely goal setting, reflection writing, and vocabulary presentation. These are based on Dörnyei’s (2005) Second Language Motivational Self System (L2MSS) and Norton’s (2000) social identity, agency and empowerment framework. The findings of the study indicate that all three strategies led to (1) higher levels of motivation in class, and (2) higher motivation in and out of class as learners apply strategies to their majors, start to plan ahead for future learning and become more enthusiastic about setting goals for themselves in various aspects of their learning. This paper thus recommends the considered application of these or similar strategies to other modules in the EAP classroom and even other disciplines.