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HOW DOES THE

LEARNER DEAL WITH


THE PROCESS OF
LEARNING?
CHAPTER 7
PSYCHOLOGY FOR LANGUAGE TEACHERS
BY MARION WILLIAMS & ROBERT BURDEN

ACCORDING TO COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY


Learners are not passive in their learning, but active
constructors of knowledge
Learners make sense of tasks or problems they face by
using different resources E.g. cognitive strategies, but
we may also use feelings, social and communicative
skills.

LEARNING STRATEGIES
Repeating words over and over again.
Listening attentively.
Trying to work out rules of the language (forming hypotheses)
Trying out those hypotheses.
Testing yourself to remember the words.
Guessing the meaning of new words.
Rehearsing in your head what you are about to say.
Practising the sounds of the language yourself
Asking a speaker to repeat sth.
Pretending that you understand to keep conversation going.
Some of these are conscious while others are uncounscious.

SKILLS AND STRATEGIES


EDUCATION= LIFE-LONG PROCESS
MAIN AIM IN EDUCATION: TO DEVELOP THE SKILLS OF AUTONOMOUS LEARNING

Learning strategies are like tactics used with a particular learning purpose
in mind. They are the executive processes which manage and coordinate
the skills.
Learning strategies are goal-oriented.
Effective learners do not simply have a high IQ, but they manage/monitor
their learning process in an appropriate way (They develop strategies,
select them, adapt them, monitor their progress, etc).
* Asking questions
* Planning
* Monitoring
* Checking
* Revising
* Self-testing

PAST AND PRESENT SITUATION IN


EDUCATION
In the past years, learners were taught forms of language, but not
how to learn the language.
In recent years, teachers focuss on teaching how and when to use
strategies to become more autonomous learners.
Cognitive Strategies
mental processes concerned with the
processing of information in order to learn (Obtaining, storing,
retrieving, using info).
Metacognitive Strategies
operate at a different level,
involve an awareness of ones mental processes and an ability to
reflect on how one learns (Awareness of which strategy one is using,
etc.)

LEARNING A LANGUAGE REQUIRES


Cognitive and metacognitive strategies, but also
Social strategies (Seeking opportunities to speak to
tourists, listen to songs, watching movies, watching
interviews, writing to a Facebook friend, etc.)
Communicative strategies (Finding ways to continue
when you lack the necessary vocabulary or
knowledge of the rules, etc)

EMOTIONS AND FEELINGS AFFECT COGNITION


AFFECTIVE VARIABLES INFLUENCE STRATEGY USE MORE THAN INTELLIGENCE AND APTITUDE.

LEARNING STRATEGIES ARE ALSO AFFECTED BY


* age of learners
* attitude
* motivation
* personality
* gender
* general learning style
* proficiency
* tasks requirements
* etc.

HOW TO TRAIN LEARNERS IN


METACOGNITIVE AWARENESS?
Tell Ls about what learning a language involves,
Tell them about the feelings involved in language learning ,
Train them to become aware of their personality, strenghts,
learning styles,
Train them to select appropriate strategies according to their
purpose,

OPINION SHARING

SHOULD WE TEACH THINKING STRATEGIES


INDEPENDENTLY AS LESSONS (OR A COURSE)?
SHOULD WE TEACH THEM INFUSED WITHIN OTHER
SUBJECTS?

FEUERSTEINS INSTRUMENTAL ENRICHMENT (I. E. )


* A series of tasks rigurously structured which involve Ls into making comparisons, categorizing,
organizing ones thoughts and drawing inferences.
ANNE BROWN AND COLLEAGUES
These skills and strategies are best taught in relation to specific curriculum subject reas.
OMALLEY AND CHAMOT
Devised their own strategy training procedure for the ESL programme: CALLA (The Cognitive
Academic Language Learning Approach) This involves a sequence of:
Identifying strategioes that they already use.
Presenting and explaining a new strategy.
Modelling the new strategy.
Practising the new strategy (scaffolding)
Evaluating success.

TEACHERS ROLE
Ts need to become effective mediators.
Ts need to take roles as advisors, facilitators, consultants, co-communicators,
partners and joint problema-solvers.
Ts attitude towards the value of learning strategies is crucial.
Ts should be aware of the strategy implications of every language learning task that
they give.
Ts should organize class work from simpler tasks (more control over how they are
solved) to more complex tasks (Ls select their own strategies to solve them).

THE ROLE OF CONTEXT


THE USE OF STRATEGIES WILL BE AFFECTED BY THE
WHOLE CONTEXT OF LEARNING:
* Classroom culture and ethos (competition vs cooperation)
* Home culture
* Community around them.

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