KEEPING ALIVE THE INSPIRATION CHAIN IN TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH

The professionals working in the field of language teaching are well armed with different methods and tools to make the teaching and learning process more efficient.
It is up to the teacher to choose the most appropriate tools, taking into account the students’ needs, lacks and wishes. But why, having made the right choice of methods, materials and classroom organization, the results are sometimes far from satisfying?
The study offers the analysis of students’ motivation to study English and the role of the teacher in encouraging and inspiring the students to improve their language skills. The study is based on the experience gained through many years of teaching English for specific purposes (ESP) to the students of Landscape Architecture, Forest science, Forest Engineering and Wood processing specialities of Latvia University of Agriculture analyzing students’ surveys, observing and interviewing them. In the process of acquiring the English language in their respective fields of study the students need to have not only a language professional, but a teacher who is able to inspire the students and who can gain inspiration him/herself. The students have their part to play in this process as well. They listen, they hear, they share, they participate.
This study is to show the relationships between motivation and inspiration in the process of acquiring and teaching a foreign language for professional purposes. Both students and teachers need to be inspired to succeed in their work since inspiration feeds inspiration and thus the chain of inspiration is kept alive to reach the best results.