Setting the Stage for Student Success: Avoiding Demotivating Students
Marjorie Keeshan Nadler & Ann Bainbridge Frymier
Teacher Verbal Communication Factors that Affect Student Motivation
I.
Teacher Verbal Communication – the words and structure you use to
communicate your course content influences students’ ability to learn. We’re
not talking about making it “easy;” we’re talking about not making it harder
than it needs to be.
A. Clarity – a set of teacher behaviors that contribute to the fidelity of
instructional messages (Chesebro & Wanzer, 2006).The main factor in
teacher verbal communication that has been found to affect student
motivation is teacher clarity. It is very important to being able to
understand and interpret information so that it can be committed to
memory, linked to other content, or used to solve a problem. Teacher
behaviors that have been found to enhance clarity include:
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stressing important points
presenting information at a pace appropriate for understanding
presenting material in a logical manner
using lecture cues to facilitate note taking by students
providing sufficient time for practice
informing students of learning objectives/outcomes
providing clear guidelines for assignments and grading criteria
using relevant examples
providing sufficient examples
repeating things
asking questions to find out if students understood
answering students’ questions
B. When students perceive teachers as immediate, students report:
• Greater motivation to study
• Greater affective learning
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Greater cognitive learning