Hey everyone, i'm oliver and welcome back to the easy english podcast, and today we are going to be talking about a very important part of language learning, and that is motivation and persistence.
So what is persistence?
Persistence is when you keep doing something.
You continue to do something and you don't give up.
You don't quit it.
This is something which will affect every single one of you when it comes to learning English.
The motivation to keep learning, the reasons for why you learn and what makes you study it every single day or every week.
We all know that learning a language consistently, so regularly, like every day or every week, having a routine, is key for success.
After all we need to learn and practice to get better.
For some of us this could be a class.
This could be listening to this podcast every episode.
It could be doing a self-study course or learning vocabulary every day.
For others, it can be easier.
Maybe you live in the country which speaks your language or the language that you want to learn.
For example, an English-speaking country or a country where lots of people speak English.
And in this case, you are speaking English every day, which is great practice.
But for most of us, we don't have that privilege.
So we don't have that benefit.
We have to motivate ourselves every day to try to study and practice.
Motivation is the driving force behind language learning.
So it is what pushes us forward.
It is what makes us improve.
Whether you're learning for personal, academic or professional reasons, having a strong motivation fuels your commitment and determination to succeed.
The best thing to do is to reflect and think about your reasons for learning a language and to set clear goals for the future, which will help keep your motivation very high.
So before we can keep ourselves motivated, it is better to understand what are the types of motivation.
There are two main categories or types of motivation.
These words might be a little bit hard or difficult, but I will explain.
So the two main forms can be intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
So intrinsic motivation is motivation from internal factors, so from things inside of you.
This can be an example, for example, a genuine interest in the language or a desire to improve yourself.
Extrinsic motivation, on the other hand, comes from external sources, or rewards or incentives.
So that can be, for example, passing an exam or impressing other people.
And it is good to use both motivation factors to keep on track.
But I will be honest with you in my experience with language learning, with teaching students, motivation is never enough.
Motivation will not teach you a language, motivation will not make you good at english, and the reason for that is our motivation is not consistent.
It is not always the same To learn a language, and to improve and get better we need routine.
We need habits, strong habits.
And the only way to do that is by putting in the work and creating a healthy language learning habit and routine.
Some days you will feel more motivated than others.
You might notice progress or feel very good about yourself and it will make you want to learn.
Other days you might be tired.
Maybe you had a bad night's sleep or a problem in your family or personal life.
We can't control so many of these things, and if we rely on our natural motivation, we will always have problems.
However, even with all of this talk about routine and habits, motivation is still important as a foundation.
What I mean by that is we need to know why we are doing something.
For example, think about why are you learning English?
It can be for so many different reasons.
Are you learning English to get a better job?
To move to another country?
To increase the ability to talk to people from around the world?
Or maybe you just want to watch English movies. or read English books in the original format.
All of these are amazing motivations and it's important to know why you are doing something.
And when things get tough or difficult and you're finding your motivation low, it's good to remember why you're doing something and why you're working on it.
What I'd like you to do is, if you're watching or listening on YouTube, comment below what motivates you to learn English.
Like why are you learning English?
What are the reasons?
And if you're watching on Spotify, you can answer in the question as well on the Spotify episode.
So I would really love to hear your answers.
So once we know the reasons why we are learning English, we then need to create a healthy habit and routine.
This is different for everyone.
Maybe you want to do a little bit of English every single day.
Then your habit might be to learn some new vocabulary every day.
Maybe to read or listen to something in English every single day.
Or maybe every day is too much and you would rather two or three times a week do this, or once per week?
Whatever works for you is great.
Everyone has a different schedule.
There is no one correct routine for each person.
But the most important thing is to build a routine.
And that means that when you feel tired or maybe less motivated on a day to learn English, it is your routine, like eating your breakfast or brushing your teeth.
You will do it.
And this doesn't have to be all of your learning.
It's good for not all of your learning to be routine or habit.
But what this does is it gives you a good base level of learning.
So a basic level of learning in your week.
And all the extra bits that you might do, that can come from your motivation.
So when you feel extra energetic on a day, maybe you want to watch an extra movie in English or do some extra learning, and that's great.
But this changes every day.
Even on the days and the weeks that you don't feel like that, you will still have your base level of English learning and that routine which you have established, which you have built over the previous weeks.
These habits and routines can take about, I would say a couple of months to build.
So some people say it takes 10 weeks to build a habit.
For each person, I would say it's a little bit different.
But just try to build your habit and routine as best you can.
I believe each and every one of you can make great progress with English.
So don't rely or don't depend on your motivation.
You need to make your own progress, your own structure.
You are your own person as a learner.
You don't rely or need motivation to do this all the time.
So thank you for listening.
I hope this was a useful episode.
Remember to comment down below what your motivations are for learning English.
Why do you learn English?
And I will see you in the next episode of the podcast.
Goodbye and have a lovely day.
