Resistance on the Brain—Why Student Demotivation is Normal (and What to Do About it)
Joseph Shaules
Joseph's presentation examined motivation as not only a psychological phenomenon but also a neurological and biological process. Motivation, he argued, cannot be understood as merely an emotion that an individual either possesses or does not possess but rather a complex result of competing dual-emotional systems in the brain. These systems can be described as an Approach / Avoidance duality that can either pull or push individuals into certain types of actions. These systems manifest themselves in the language classroom as students build up often conflicting emotions related to language learning, often resulting in students that can appear to be both motivated and demotivated at the same time. The key to dealing with this as a language instructor, according to Joseph, is to find ways to lower resistance towards language learning in the individual while increasing engagement in the classroom.
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