Designing Motivational Activities to Rekindle Senegalese Students' Passion of English

In Senegal, West Africa, students learn English as a foreign language (EFL). French is their first foreign language and the main language of instruction used by all teachers of any subject from kindergarten to university. One decade ago it used to be a pride to be able to speak or write English fluently whatever efforts it needed to take. But as years go by, students' parents, teachers and educational authorities have noticed that students are not keeping up the pace any longer as shown by their grades in national examinations. However, all Senegalese education actors have been active in substituting linguistic competence for communicative competence either in class activities or in coursework assignments in the hope to create a better teaching/learning environment. And yet the problem still remains unsolved if not worse. Students are more and more poorly motivated in learning English properly. In an attempt to circumvent the problem, this paper outlines a number of motivating and interesting activities that could rekindle Senegalese students? passion of English.