Sep 25, 2026 · 1 hr 4 min · 14 segments
In this special, extended episode, I am joined by **Janet Schneider and Michelle Scot**t to talk about how they transformed dwindling numbers in their language courses to now, where they have waiting…
Liam PrinterHost
Janet SchneiderGuest
Michelle ScottGuest
And I think for me, what it really comes down to and what I'm hearing really, you know, clearly come through is the word autonomy.
Like you have shifted completely the student autonomy and the teacher autonomy and people forget just how important that psychological need is for motivation.
Like you talked about the teacher having more freedom, they have more freedom to do what they want, they have more freedom to assess in different ways and that freedom, that sense of autonomy to do things is really powerful and it really makes the teacher like pick things that they're passionate in, pick books that they like, pick music videos they like, pick songs they like, it changes things.
But you spoke so much about the students' creativity, the students being involved in tasks, the students have an ownership over a task.
But the second thing you talked about, of course, was because there are multiple occasions for attainment and multiple occasions for low stakes, progress and for them to see, oh, I'm making progress, I'm moving through, I can do something now I couldn't do before.
You're also hitting the psychological need of competence because now they're feeling like I can do it.
And then the last one of relatedness is being built now because they're doing these tasks that are collaborative, that they're working together, they're making funny storyboards, they're making manga cartoons, they're making music videos.
So you're hitting The three psychological needs of motivation, autonomy, competence, relatedness.
And that is why, in my opinion, at least, that is why you're seeing this big change in engagement, enrollment, motivation.
And it's such a... a lovely lesson for all of us listening around the world that these subtle changes and shifts can have a huge impact.
And just by rethinking our assessment and going, well, it's quite scary to do two or three minutes of speaking to your teacher when you've only been learning the language for a few months.
What can we do to kind of flip that or change it? And a couple of examples I was thinking about from our own school, like we quite commonly do these things called like a smash doodle at the end of a book.
So students have read a little novel or a book and then they have essentially kind of like this poster where they can write down the key themes and quotes and they can make some drawings essentially summarising the book, but they've total ownership over it.
But while they're doing it, I'm going around to each student like every day for about three or four days, just chatting to them about their poster and just being like, oh, so what's going on here? And like, why did you pick this sentence? And what was going on there? And like, you know, and then the person beside them might chime in a bit and be like, oh, yeah, that was that part in the book when this thing happened.
But because I'm doing it like kind of over a few days and it's just these little chats as I'm walking around, that's me assessing their oral proficiency and how well they know the book.
And I think for me, what it really comes down to and what I'm hearing really, you know, clearly come through is the word autonomy.
Like you have shifted completely the student autonomy and the teacher autonomy and people forget just how important that psychological need is for motivation.
Like you talked about the teacher having more freedom, they have more freedom to do what they want, they have more freedom to assess in different ways and that freedom, that sense of autonomy to do things is really powerful and it really makes the teacher like pick things that they're passionate in, pick books that they like, pick music videos they like, pick songs they like, it changes things.
But you spoke so much about the students' creativity, the students being involved in tasks, the students have an ownership over a task.
But the second thing you talked about, of course, was because there are multiple occasions for attainment and multiple occasions for low stakes, progress and for them to see, oh, I'm making progress, I'm moving through, I can do something now I couldn't do before.
You're also hitting the psychological need of competence because now they're feeling like I can do it.
And then the last one of relatedness is being built now because they're doing these tasks that are collaborative, that they're working together, they're making funny storyboards, they're making manga cartoons, they're making music videos.
So you're hitting The three psychological needs of motivation, autonomy, competence, relatedness.
And that is why, in my opinion, at least, that is why you're seeing this big change in engagement, enrollment, motivation.
And it's such a... a lovely lesson for all of us listening around the world that these subtle changes and shifts can have a huge impact.
And just by rethinking our assessment and going, well, it's quite scary to do two or three minutes of speaking to your teacher when you've only been learning the language for a few months.
What can we do to kind of flip that or change it? And a couple of examples I was thinking about from our own school, like we quite commonly do these things called like a smash doodle at the end of a book.
So students have read a little novel or a book and then they have essentially kind of like this poster where they can write down the key themes and quotes and they can make some drawings essentially summarising the book, but they've total ownership over it.
But while they're doing it, I'm going around to each student like every day for about three or four days, just chatting to them about their poster and just being like, oh, so what's going on here? And like, why did you pick this sentence? And what was going on there? And like, you know, and then the person beside them might chime in a bit and be like, oh, yeah, that was that part in the book when this thing happened.
But because I'm doing it like kind of over a few days and it's just these little chats as I'm walking around, that's me assessing their oral proficiency and how well they know the book.
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