Motivating very young learners of English in a classroom setting

Children seem to be motivated to get new things into their lives. However, it may sometimes be meaningless for a child to be interested in learning a foreign language for its own sake. The fact that they catch new things with no consciousness is undisputable but there is a crucial point that in a learning atmosphere, they need to be strongly motivated to learn the language. Role of motivation for young learners in foreign language education has been studied extensively so far. It has been consistently stated so far that the effectiveness of learning and teaching process is measured according to the level of motivation of learners during that process.The aim of this current study is to discuss the importance of motivation in teaching English to very young learners, the reasons of demotivation and as to what teachers could do to increase motivation and keep students motivated in classrooms of 5-6 year-old learners. With the help of this research, it is aimed to contribute insights to the field of motivation which in fact is regarded as the basis of all kinds of education. Based on this premise, we aim to seek answers to the following questions:?What internal/external factors lead to motivation??What internal/external factors lead to demotivation??How does motivation affect learners? perception of and involvement in activities??How does demotivation affect learners? perception of and involvement in activities?The study has been conducted on 45 participants, whose age range is between 5-6 years. The data are based on the performance of the participants analyzed in terms of three main aspects; teacher attitude, classroom atmosphere and activities andmaterials used in class.