The story happened when I was in elementary school.
I moved to Canada when I was 6 and, clearly, English is my second language. Since then I was put in the English as Second Language (ESL) program and was taught separately with the other ESL students when it comes to language arts subjects (like English and Social Studies). This arrangement did not de-motivate me in learning in general, and in fact, it made me work harder (in English) to try to get myself out the program earlier. Another thing that motivated me to work harder in school was my interest in mathematics and sciences – something I have been good at. The incident that completely de-motivated me in learning happened at the end of Term 1 of my 4th grade when I did not receive any grades on my math and science subjects because I was in the ESL program! My parents and I asked for a further reason and what we got was still because I was in the ESL program. Up until now I still cannot understand how my fluency in English can affect the teacher’s evaluation on say my algebraic skills. This incident de-motivated me in learning English for long, which still makes English as my worst and, perhaps, my least favorite subject of all.
I do not think the teacher needed to do any additional things to motivate me in learning English (in fact I was). In contrast, the teacher should not did what she had done to de-motivate a hard working foreign student. The situation might also had been better if she well-justified why she treated me separately on other subjects, but I recall that she didn’t (if not, poorly).