This paper examines students’ motivation to learn English in Saudi Arabia schools. It explores the important role teachers should have in increasing their students’ desire to learn. The paper reviews the current context of teaching English in Saudi schools and suggests several approaches and techniques to motivate students to learn as well as to lower their feelings of anxiety. These approaches consist of various communicative oral activities and alternative assessments which introduce students to real-life situations and give them feelings of comfort, self-confidence, and independence. The study concludes with some recommendations to maintain students’ motivation while learning English in Saudi Arabia.
Keywords: student motivation; oral activities; EFL; ELT; communicative oral assessment; Saudi Arabia
