Top Scientist Webinar talk "Motivating Indonesian learners of English: Insights from theory, research and personal experience" - Dr Martin Lamb

On Saturday 13th November Dr Martin Lamb took part in a 'Top Scientist' webinar programme at Hasanuddin University, Makassar, Indonesia, giving a talk entitled "Motivating Indonesian learners of English: Insights from theory, research and personal experience".

In his talk, Dr Martin Lamb explained how his own interest in academic motivation grew out of his early experiences teaching English in Indonesia (he was a VSO teacher at Hasanuddin University from 1984-86). Almost every student claimed to want to learn English, yet few invested the necessary effort in learning the language to make significant progress. Using the conceptual tools of Self-Determination Theory, Dr Lamb argued that the challenge for educators was to help internalize learners’ motivation and thereby promote their engagement in learning. He described a number of motivational teaching strategies that classroom teachers could adopt for this purpose. At the end of the talk, two of the audience admitted that they had been students of Dr Lamb in the university Language Centre nearly 40 years ago.