Increase Motivation with Your Word Choice

Would you like to increase motivation in your classroom?

Most teachers would readily say “Yes” to that!

It can be a struggle to find ways to motivate students to do what we want. Teachers bemoan the fact that their students aren’t motivated.

Actually we are all, always motivated to do something. That something might not be what you want your students to do.

You can’t actually motivate anyone to do anything, but you CAN set the stage to increase motivation.

Here is a tip that you can quickly adopt in order to increase motivation and increase that chance that students will engage in the tasks you want them to do.

Replace the words “have to” with “get to”.

Think about the words you use when you speak to students. Language is important. The words we choose convey a message to our listener that can negatively or positively impact his/her perception of the task.

By replacing “have to…” with “get to…” in your daily language, you can send a subtle but very different tone and message to your listener. With this word substitution, you can easily change a negative connotation into a positive statement.

Here are some examples:

Here are some examples of how teachers can dramatically alter the tone of their conversations with students by substituting the word have for the word get:

• “You have to read this book” sends the message that it is an unpleasant obligation to read the book. “You get to read this book” implies that reading this book is  fun or a privilege.

• “You have to work together” sets the tone that there will be downfalls to working in the group and sounds much less appealing than “You get to work together.”

• “You have to do this project ” implies a tone of begrudgingly hard labor. “You get to do this project content” sounds much less brutal.

• “You have to show your work (thinking)” sounds like you are forcing students to do extra work, but telling students they “get to show their work (thinking)” gives the impression that the student is able to let the adult into their secret thoughts.

Increase motivation by changing word choice in your classroom.

You can also use this word substitution to correct students when they speak. When a student states that they “have to” do a task, you can reply that “Yes, you get to do the task.”  

If this still seems like only a silly word change, try this one out for yourself: “I have to go to work tomorrow” versus “I get to go to work tomorrow.” Which would you rather say?

Once you are aware of this language substitution you will catch yourself and others when they say they “have to” do something versus when they “get to” do something. You will be amazed by how quickly this one trick can increase motivation and even transform the culture of your classroom by helping students focus on the positive things they are doing.

You don’t “have to” try it out, but we certainly hope you “get to.”

Our best,

Paula and Michele