Abstract:

In the recent past, generally speaking, kids’ and teenagers’ motivation for learning English and developing their skills by continuous practice used to be quite high in Romanian schools. After 1990s, an overwhelming percentage of students began their study of English as early as second grade, if not all of them even during pre-school years. Moreover, with the Romanian media preponderantly broadcasting movies, documentaries and shows in English, with the world changing due to technological advances on the one hand and the development of internet content and social networking, on the other, it has become almost preposterous to ask somebody if they speak/know English. Of course they do! “Everybody knows English!” is the common answer you get if you ask the average citizen in the street. This is one of the causes for young people being/becoming highly demotivated in studying English. The Covid 19 pandemic dealt another blow to teenagers’ practice of learning, as their patience decreased, their addiction to technological devices grew and their emotional availability towards “traditional” classes came close to none in most cases. It should be no wonder then that teachers need to confront this new reality and find or create new ways of making students actively participate in their classes, do homework, embark on projects and, generally speaking, learn English. The article is a case study of first year military students within National Defense University with respect to their attitude towards language learning. Based on qualitative research methods such as empirical observation supported by twenty-five years of experience in teaching English, a survey conducted among these students, as well as interviews and free discussions held in the classroom, we wrote this article aiming not only to depict the current state of facts, but also, more importantly, to find the essential aspects needed to construct another approach towards English language teaching. Student-centeredness and individual needs analysis seem to have become most instrumental in preparing future officers and leaders with respect to their linguistic competences.

Keywords:

English Language Teaching, military students, motivating strategies.