It is common for students to feel unmotivated, at least some of the time. There may be all sorts of factors contributing to this: the weather; the time of day; whether or not they've just eaten; what they've been doing before they came to your class; how good or bad they feel about themselves - lots of things which are nothing to do with you, or their English lessons!
But although it is sometimes reassuring to remind ourselves that there is a wider perspective, that we are not solely responsible for our students' liveliness, good humor, intelligence etc., it is still extremely demoralizing to have students who just sit in class, not doing or contributing anything.
One way of trying to combat this is to try and find out what does interest them.
Even if you resort to using their mother tongue to find out, it will be worth it, Find out what they read, what kind of films they go to, where they like to shop, if they like to shop, if they have any interesting or unusual hobbies etc. It is rare for people, even students (!) to be unmotivated by everything!
Once you have found a few key interest areas, see if you can adapt some activities, texts or lessons to include or refer to these areas. Perhaps ask the students themselves to bring in items of interest, e.g. the lyrics to a favourite song for you to work out.
Young adolescents are more susceptible to pressure from their peers than to any other pressure. It is very important for them to belong to their group. Because of this peer pressure many teenagers, particularly boys, will feel unable to show interest in any form of class work. To do so would be definitely 'uncool'. It is part of their image to look bored! But this doesn't mean that they necessarily are.
If you can find time to arrange individual interviews with your students, preferably on a regular basis, you can find out a lot more about their real interests and real ability. You can also use these interviews to agree with the students' target areas of improvement in their work, which you then review at the next meeting

Even if you only use the interviews for a 'chat', the students generally appreciate having some individual attention from their teacher.
You can use games, activities and competitions to motivate students too. A lot of activities can quite easily be turned into a game or a competition and this simple twist is enough to spur on many classes. Awarding points, stars, prizes for individual or group work can also help some students.

Changing the activities often and varying the 'pace' of the lesson also helps to maintain motivation.

Some students have a very short attention span and are unable to concentrate on anything for very long. There is not much point in fighting this, better to change activity - keep to the same task if you like, so that a reasonable amount of work is achieved, but instead of doing, for example, ten general comprehension questions, set three, then change groups and set a further five true/false questions, then move back to a whole group and together correct three sentences written up on the board. The text will have been covered, but the students will have had variety of activities.

Good morning,

sorry for not interacting with contributors more in the last period, as I was really sick. However, your words Mrs. Aisha inspired and provoked me. Let me give you a positive and a negative example.

THe positive one: I was (ages ago) a German teacher in a language school, teaching German as a 3rd language to kids, whose parents had to decide between German and French. WIth the intention to motivate them on their first day, I filled for each new student a cartoon created colored had with erasers, pencils, colors, a scissor, a fancy rubber...etc.

THe kids of the French class decided on their own to take German classes,... ha ha ha. But I learnt that sometimes you can motivate them with really simple ideas.

I began the first lesson wiht the name of the stuff in the hat and each one was able to show off what he has got... It worked fantastic..... NICE OLD DAYS.

A negative example:
I realized that the students in grade 10 were not interested in my German lessons, I tried to figure out why... they were frank ( alhamdullillah) my relationshiop to them was always brilliant. They told me it is too much reading, too much listening ... they are just fed up, they want to USE the language, the need to feel confident that they can...... MMMM, my fault....

Let's share our experiences... this will add to each one's knowledge and expertise.

Wish you all a nice week end

My dear colleague,

You just hit on a very sensitive issue which most teachers ask cruicial questions about, yet many didn't think of experementing in their own context to get an answer for it.

Intrinsic motivation isn't an easy task for teachers indeed, but once teachers realize that what they do in the classrooms has created a motivated learner, they should know how to internalize this incentive more often.

One way of seeing it is through the age of learners. When we are dealing with very young learners, one way of motivating the learner is to make classroom tasks more interesting and enjoyable for the students. Once students are deeply involved in what they are doing ( because they like it and enjoy it ) , they are motivated internally into completing what they started and trying to persue success every time.

Using competitions between groups, creates a great potential for learning on the side of learners. Young learners seek support by teachers when they fulfill a task . They expect their teachers to encourage and praise them. This works as an energizer for more success and for an appetite for more learning.

Many teachers blame students for not wanting to learn. This has been the hanger on which teachers throw their failure in teaching; while who can blame a young soul that doesn't find a reason to absorb a meaningless stuff from own prospective? No one can nor should.

I have attended classes where teachers brought a circus in the hope that their students would love to learn. I also attended classes when I myself couldn't blame the yawning sleepy children as I myself felt so bored that even I ( supervisor then ) misbehaved.

This is only the gist of a long history of reflection on some classroom practices.