SHARE CONVENTION: "Selfies and Motivation"

Selfies and Motivation

By Mathilde Verillaud

  This seminar was mainly devoted to talk about the new fashion which has recently emerged among teenagers and also some people of all ages.

She mentioned that selfies belonged to the Y generation, which is a generation of students that grew up with technology. They also help students to learn about themselves and it helps teachers to connect to their students by facilitating a self- discovering process.

 To carry out an effective teaching in our classroom we need to have a clear understanding of what our students´ reality is since it is essential to establish a connection between English and students´ daily life. So it is our work to use selfies as a creative tool. Teachers earn students´ respect by getting interested in them and their needs.

  During the workshop we discussed some of the possible reasons why people are so fond of taking selfies. For example, to be cool because everyone does it, they may have an obsession with technology, some of them want to promote themselves on social networks since they look for others´ acceptance and positive comments or they may want to create a better version of them.  In fact, selfies show personality and who our students really are.

  Finally, we saw on screen some possible sequences of activities in which the concept of selfies and photographs in general is present. Those activities were really creative and motivating. The one I liked the most was one in which students had to look at pictures of painters or writers and they had to guess what their personality was. Some of them were also useful to work on vocabulary related to photography.

  In conclusion, I really liked this workshop since consider that students´ interests should be present in lessons as much as possible. Selfies and many other fashions are really significant for our students´ life since they are part of their culture and reality. The real task for us is to take advantage of those interests to enhance English learning and students´ motivation.