20+ Classroom Rewards To Encourage Target Language Speaking

In the classroom, language teachers need to find ways to encourage and motivate their students to speak in the target language. This is especially true with kids, who might not come with the same level of personal buy-in as adult language learners. It can be hard when kids don’t always see “what’s in it for them”, especially if they were placed in an immersion class by their parents when they might not have originally chosen to try it on their own.

First, we have to know what exactly we are rewarding. It doesn’t always have to mean “speak in the target language for X amount of time, get Y reward.” In order to motivate students to speak, we want to encourage positive habits over the course of a whole term. Thinking beyond individual tasks opens up many more possibilities for what and when you reward. In addition to rewarding those specific, per-task goals when they’ve been achieved, you can also reward things like demonstrating the use of new habits you are teaching them, or making a markedly “bigger” effort than previously in a circumstance they might have been shy in before, or showing “consistent persistence” regarding speaking over several classes cumulatively.

Tip #1  For older kids you can, with some pre-planning and scaffolding, set up part of the reward system to be student-led, which allows you to teach that showing patience and helping others communicate is valued along with participating in speaking themselves.

For example! Student A might nominate Student B for a reward when Student B invited Student A into a conversation; or they asked a follow-up question that kept the conversation going; or they helped a classmate communicate by rephrasing or gesturing without immediately translating. You'd have to spend some time thinking about rules for this system that make sense for your class and the personalities within it. But generally speaking, empowering students to have a say in part of the reward system can be highly motivating and inspire them to get the most out of working almost like a team to make the class as communicative as possible.

Fun twist! Students could also be empowered to reward mistakes, to a certain level. Making mistakes is part of improving speaking, and if they are occasionally rewarded rather than likened to failure, then more students will be more comfortable opening their mouths in the first place. Meanwhile the listening skills of their classmates who have to be tuned in to the conversations happening around them will be sharpened too. It can be something as simple as giving them “bravery tokens” to hand out.

Types of Rewards

If you are teaching kids at home, then often “connection” rewards are effective, such as special one-on-one time with a parent (ex. 10 minutes of “kid chooses” time), or letting them help you with a grown-up task you normally would say no to (I, for one, plan to teach my kids to cook some day, but not now. Normally I prefer to cook alone, so I know if I were to say they can help me in the kitchen now, it would be a big motivator because it would be rare!).

But for classroom teachers, it’s different because you can’t give each kid one-on-one time every single time they achieve a goal. Fear not, however, because here are three other groups of classroom-style rewards for you to choose from: Privilege/autonomy, recognition, or fun/novelty. Before choosing a reward, remember: the best rewards are not necessarily always the biggest ones, nor do they have to break the bank or involve a physical item.

Tip #2 Not everyone has to have the same reward - the reward just needs to be one that’s somewhat valuable to the student in order for it to be personally motivating.

You’ll quickly see how different these rewards are and how they appeal to different students.

Privilege or autonomy rewards

• You get to be the “leader” for a task!
• You get to sit beside a friend!
• You get to choose to work alone (with or without headphones)!
• You get to choose the review game!
• You get to choose a brain break for yourself!
• You get to be the classroom DJ for 3 songs!
• You get extra time for a favourite activity!

Recognition rewards

• Teacher adds their name to a class accomplishment board
• They get a “Caught speaking great Mandarin!” certificate
  Student gets to observe Teacher composing a positive, quick email that is sent to their parents or guardians, telling them of Student’s achievement
• A handwritten note from Teacher, or what has the potential to be even more fun: You can ask the parents/guardians, without the kids’ knowledge, to prepare a note to surprise their kid on a random day, which you can collect at the beginning of the year and surprise individual kids with theirs at appropriate times. You can tell the parent or guardian that you will email them when their kid was given their note, so they can know to bring it up at dinner later that day.

For example! Give the parents a structure to follow, such as “Your teacher told me you persevered in your Speaking skill today! I’m so proud of you. Keep up the good work. Love, (Mum/Dad/Auntie Sue, etc.).” Of course, you can also offer them a handout that’s already in the target language if you don’t want to use English. The parents can sign it and add their own embellishments.

Fun/novelty rewards

• Some of these blend with an “autonomy” style award too, but you’ll get the idea!
  Surprise class dance party
• Teacher has to salute the student whenever they answer, till the end of (you pick the timing, of course!)
• Student gets to choose when to say “Ahoy!” to the teacher at some point during the rest of the day. Teacher then has to speak like a pirate for two minutes.
• Student gets to decide when the Teacher has to use a puppet to explain something
  Teacher does a silly challenge chosen by Student from a list of things you have prepared for them to choose from (things you are willing to do, such as stand on one leg while counting backward from 30 in the target language, with a book on your head.)
• Everyone must call Student "Your Majesty" for ten minutes
• Teacher has to do an air guitar celebration “solo” for the student, but there’s a catch: The student who gets the reward has the option to choose another student for the teacher to stand in front of while doing the “solo”.
• Student gets to assign 2 classmates a target-language tongue twister they have to say to the class 5 times fast. Another optional catch: Students can also be awarded secret pass cards which give them the power to pass their imposed “turn” onto someone else (ex. A play on the “immunity idol” idea from the tv show “Survivor”).
• (If you do like to give stickers or erasers or other trinkets, you can do this one) Treasure hunt: Teacher hides an inexpensive reward in an envelope labeled “(Student’s) treasure” in the target language, in the classroom. The rewarded student has to find it.

Now, we’re not looking to create students who only speak when there is a reward attached. Rewards are not about bribing kids to speak; they are about reinforcing the behaviours that lead to language growth. The “reward” is helping students build positive associations with speaking. We want to create a learning environment where students feel comfortable taking risks, making mistakes and participating in conversations in the target language. When students feel that their attempts to communicate are recognised, they are more likely to keep trying, even when they don’t have the perfect words yet.

We’d love to hear what works in your classroom too. Have you discovered a reward that motivates your students to speak more? Reply to this email and share your ideas.

The best classroom strategies often come from teachers experimenting, adapting and learning from each other. Here’s to building a culture in classrooms where students associate speaking with success, connection and progress!