Teenagers have a reputation for being difficult to motivate. Subject matter like English is not a priority on a teenager's to-do list. Engaging teenagers to learn the details of the English language is done best by allowing them to take control and catering to the natural egocentricity of being a teen. This strategy grabs their attention by offering advice on how to be an attractive person and giving them an intrinsic desire to learn.

Introducing English as Cool

Explain to the teens that English is not just about learning how to spell words and where to put the punctuation. These things are important because they are part of a greater issue: the issue of being cool by being smart. Teenagers are completely wrapped up in their worlds and are mainly concerned with how they appear to their peers. Describing learning as part of being an attractive person gives them an internal desire to learn.

Make a list on the board of what the teenagers consider to be the characteristics of an attractive, likable person. Guide them by asking what type of things they find appealing in other people. Ask what makes them admire or want to emulate another person. The list will likely contain items like good-looking, smart, money, successful, trendy, nice, popular, fashionable or strong.

Read the list and point out that the characteristics describe successful people who have some degree of learning. Explain that people who lead these successful lives present themselves in a way that people will know they are not dumb. Tell them that even a fashion model has to be able to speak and present herself in a manner that will engage people intellectually and emotionally. Rappers and songwriters have to use English skills to create songs that are catchy and will sell.

How Will You Need English

Ask the students to make a circle in the middle of their paper and write one thing they would like to achieve as an adult. It can be a small dream like owning a certain car or a large dream like becoming a veterinarian.

Have them write all the ways they will need to use the English language, both spoken and written, to obtain this goal. Have them do this in a bubble chart form where they draw lines from the middle circle to many smaller circles around the paper. The smaller circles are where they will write the ways they will use English. They need to come up with at least four ways they need to be able to use English.

Explain that they have created an outline by making the bubble chart. An outline is a valuable tool in English that allows you to organize your thoughts before writing.

Ask the students to use their outlines to write a short essay on how they need the English language to obtain their goal. The essay needs a beginning, middle and end.

Explain that this entire process has shown them that successful, attractive people are proficient in the English language. Tell them that they have learned how they need English to meet their goals in life. The process of group brainstorming, making an outline and then putting the ideas into writing has given them one more tool to meet their goals.