Managing the Language Learning Process

We provide help for self-directed language learners in setting their goals, developing their own lessons, and for self-evaluation.

Most of us have never had to plan and manage our own language learning because teachers and curriculum designers did it for us. But in a typical field situation,  there is no professional teacher. In such situations language learners must be self-directed; they need to set their own goals, develop their own lessons, and monitor their own progress. Although the emphasis is on providing help for field workers learning undocumented languages, many of the principles and techniques are applicable to self-directed learners of any language.
As part of the LinguaLinks product, SIL has developed an extensive set of resources to help the self-directed language learner with this task of managing the learning process. Many of these resources are made available here as part of this Web site.

Principal tasks

These are the principal tasks involved in planning and managing a language learning program:

• Set appropriate language learning goals.
• Make a strategic language learning plan.
• Monitor your progress by periodically evaluating your language proficiency.
• Identify and solve language learning problems.

Even though this is a short article, I think it says something really important. Many learners expect that their teachers give them a plan of their language learning; however, there are situations where language learners need to set their own goals, develop their own lessons, and monitor their own progress as the article said. Sometimes, the only person that you can depend is yourself.

Engaging and motivating students

In this video, teachers and students talk about strategies for improving engagement and motivation learning environments. For example, it is said that education can be very lonely, so the teacher has to create a good class atmosphere. Another opinion that called my attention was that a teacher is not in the classroom to tell the students what to learn; instead he is there to help them. Besides, according to this video, it is important create a learning community, so students can share information. To conclude, I believe that the most important strategy to motivate students is to make them feel that what they say is important; therefore, the student would feel included.

DOGME

DOGME

Dogme: A teacher's view

Submitted by TE Editor on 6 August, 2004 - 13:00

In this article one teacher gives us her view of how the ideas and principles of a new approach to teaching have shaped her classroom practice.

Dogme is a teaching philosophy. It goes beyond the standard pedagogical methods that we are so often used to hearing about.

• The thinking behind it is that students learn when they feel involved and interested in the subject.

• If the material they use isn't relevant to them then the likelihood they'll retain any information is slim.

• The solution within Dogme basically consists of removing all irrelevant material to enhance learning. It involves in fact removing all material.

• A Dogme classroom is a textbook free zone. To a certain extent we could say that a Dogme space is a classroom free zone as we know it.

Scott Thornbury is the main force behind this revolutionary movement. He and his colleagues realised that too many classes were being invaded by lesson plans, textbooks, workbooks, tapes, transparencies, flashcards,
cuisenaire rods, tapes and other such gimmicks that the students themselves were no longer (assuming they once had been) the focus of the lesson. By inventing Dogme they've put the learner back into learning.
There are Dogme rules that can be followed but in true Dogme style they are there to be bent and moulded to your own teaching context. Here are some of the main ones:

• Resources should be provided by the students or whatever you come across. If doing a lesson on books then go to the library.

• All listening material should be student produced.

• The teacher should always put himself at the level of the students.

• All language used should be 'real' language and so have a communicative purpose.

• Grammar work should arise naturally during the lesson and should not be the driving force behind it.

• Students should not be placed into different level groups.

My Dogme classroom
The students aren't seated behind desks. It's much harder for them to express themselves in this artificial setting. There's no reason why they can't have some paper and pens but definitely no textbook. I always have
a paper board or white board for them to use, if possible some comfy chairs or with larger classes a comfy floor space and cushions, and some music playing in the background. In a 'pure' Dogme classroom though there wouldn't be music unless produced by the students themselves. The atmosphere should definitely be relaxed. Once the students understand the concept of autonomy and controlling their learning I find they are far more willing to participate, lead the sessions and discipline almost becomes a thing of the past. They soon enter the classroom brimming with ideas and enthusiasm while you sit back and facilitate the learning process rather than drown it.

Learner objectives
Before looking at the detail of a lesson itself I always begin the year by looking very closely at the students' objectives. With younger students the linguistic objectives are more likely to resemble each other, but the older they get the more aware they'll be of why they're learning English and what areas they need to work on. However this is not always the case and spending time on this before you launch into a course makes so much sense to the learners themselves as you progress through the year. The advantage of doing this is that each lesson the students can refer back to their personal objective sheet and relate everything they choose to do in class to at least one of their objectives.

The lesson plan
I always start a lesson by putting the class into three or four smaller groups. How you organise this stage of the lesson will obviously depend on the number of students you have in your class.

• Each group decides what they want to work on in the lesson with their objective sheets close to hand. This could take the form of speaking skills and 'practising talking in front of other people' or 'improve grammatical accuracy when speaking' for example.

• Then a spokesperson from each group goes to the board and writes up in note form a couple of the most popular choices from what the group has decided. This process should be fairly quick and will become quicker as they get used to it. I prefer to leave the classroom and return when the time limit is up and the notes are on the board. However for security reasons this is not always possible and with the younger pupils I make it clear that I am not going to intervene at all in this process.

• Then I read what the students would like to work on and use this information to facilitate the rest of the lesson.

• You may find that some students want to concentrate on writing while others on listening. This is up to the students to negotiate whose objectives they're going to work on in that particular lesson and up to you to have activities up your sleeve that enable them to work simultaneously on different skills. A great example of this is a running dictation where some people can work on their writing, some on their listening, some on their reading and others on their speaking.

The Dogme file
I do find it helpful for students to have a file of what they learn and I advise on ways to record their work. It is of course up to them how they organise their files but it's useful to guide them on the various possibilities in the beginning. I do say though that they should keep it a monolingual file as much as possible.

• Instead of writing the translation next to the English word for nouns and adjectives I get them to draw a quick picture. For students to become more independent they always have access to monolingual dictionaries and are free to look up words when they want. This enhances a thirst for knowledge and they are more likely to remember the word than if I were to tell it to them.

• One of the ways I advise them to record their language is in different subjects rather than alphabetical or chronological order as it's often easier for them to retain and reuse the word.

Pros

• From a teaching point of view it cuts down tremendously on preparation time.

• The students feel completely in control of their learning and are therefore so much more motivated.

• It keeps you alert and spontaneous as you never know exactly what could happen in class and so must think on your feet.

• You can handle almost anything once you've taught in a Dogme classroom.

• Students are constantly aware of the 'why' behind everything they do.

Cons

• Some students may feel uneasy about it at first, feeling they're not being spoon-fed a teacher-led lesson.

• It might be daunting for a newly trained teacher to work without the security of a textbook.

• Some teachers may be locked into a specific syllabus.

• You may be working in very large classes where tables are bolted to the floor.

• Some teachers may feel that their role and 'power' is being undermined by this more student-centred approach.

In my opinion, this kind of teaching is so much more than an open conversation class. It involves a hidden structure which allows the students to become independent in their learning and gives them complete control over what they learn and how they learn it. You are there to guide the process and watch your learners bloom into enthusiastic English speakers.

Language-Learning Objectives do Make a Difference

Language-Learning Objectives do Make a Difference

Flavia Vieira

As a teacher trainer, one of the most troublesome areas I deal with in my interactions with beginning EFL teachers is the definition of language-learning objectives. This may seem a trivial problem if you believe that setting objectives for a lesson is a rather formal and unnecessary task carried out by trainees just for the sake of teacher-training demands. Objectives, and plans in general, are things too many teachers are suspicious of. “It’s a waste of time!” they say.
Surprisingly, methodologists themselves have had little to say on the subject. When looking through the TEFL literature in search of practical guidelines, one usually finds objectives described either as global tasks learners are supposed to accomplish, like “writing a letter of complaint,” or as expressions of the teacher’s intentions, like “teaching students to write a letter of complaint.” The difference is just one of focus-on the learner or on the teacher-not one of content, and any specification going further than this is hard to find.
This situation is strange, since one of the main theoretical concerns within language education has been the clarification of FL teaching/learning contents and aims. The semantic approach to course design, particularly the work carried out by the Council of Europe (see van Ek 1986), appears to be contradicted by a widespread tendency by practitioners to overlook the specification of language-learning objectives when planning units, lessons, and tests.
Despite the generally negative and simplistic attitude towards the definition of what it is that learners are supposed to learn, I would like to stress the fact that objectives do make a difference. The way you choose to define them affects all that you do as a teacher, because objectives stand for what you believe is the goal of your and your students’ actions; they show your personal perception of the teaching-learning situation; they reflect your teaching and testing priorities; they determine your choice of activities and materials; they influence your teaching procedures, your attitude towards learner errors, even your teaching pace; ultimately, they determine the kind of learning that occurs in your classroom.

What makes a language-learning objective relevant

Given the importance of objectives, why is it that they constitute a problematic area for FL teachers? How do we define language-learning objectives? And what is a relevant language-learning objective?
Within the context of teacher training in general, teachers have been encouraged to use taxonomies from curriculum theory, in which affective, cognitive, and psychomotor categories of learning content and behaviour are organised hierarchically. However important it is to have these taxonomies in mind (see Tsopanoglou 1990), one must question their value in the context of FL teaching and evaluation for one simple reason: they do not specify communicative competence, which is, in fact, the goal of language learning. Objectives derived from such taxonomies can bring about a sense of frustration and uselessness among FL teachers, because they do not provide a clear definition of the linguistic skills to be developed in the classroom.
It is my contention, then, that FL learning objectives are relevant to both teacher and learner only if they are described in terms of the specific areas of knowledge and ability involved in the development of communicative competence. One might argue that learners must also “learn how to learn the language,” that is, acquire “learning competence.” Our reason for focusing only on communicative competence is simply a matter of priority: until we determine what we want our students to learn, it is impossible to establish how they should learn it or what learning skills and strategies they should develop.

An approach to defining relevant objectives

A possible approach to defining relevant objectives for the FL classroom consists in using a taxonomy of language skills. Munby’s taxonomy, published in 1978, is still the most complete one available. My proposal is based on it, and is intended as a contribution to a thoughtful reflection on its potential application in planning units, lessons, and tests.
Munby is particularly well known for his complex sociolinguistic model for specifying the content of purpose-specific language programmes. In his Communicative Syllabus Design (1978) he presents a taxonomy of 54 language skills, with a total of 260 subcategories of productive and receptive language use. His purpose was “to facilitate the process of selecting skills appropriate to previously specified activities” in the program (p. 117). A “skill” is conceived as a “microconcept, to be distinguished from the macroconcept of an activity, to which its relation is that of enabling factor to resultant activity” (p. 116). A linguistic activity like “ensuring a passenger understands regulations on illegal exports” would imply the use of enabling skills like “expressing information explicitly” or “using indicators in discourse for emphasising a point.”
According to the activity-skill distinction, we can say that there has been a tendency to overlook “skills” and to identify learning objectives more in terms of “activities,” like “writing a letter” or “reporting.” But when you decide to teach your students to write a letter or to make a report, what is it that they have to do in order to accomplish those linguistic activities successfully? What skills must they develop? Surely, if you are not able to answer this question, you cannot possibly know what your students should learn and what you should do to help them learn it.
Munby groups his 54 skills into 14 skill types (examples in parentheses were taken from his original list; for a complete reference, see Munby 1978:123-31):
A. Motor-Perceptual Skills (e.g., “articulating sounds in isolated word forms: phoneme sequences”)
B. Understanding and Conveying Meaning (e.g., “producing intonation patterns: neutral position of nucleus and use of tone, in respect of falling tone with declarative/moodless clauses”)
C. Inferencing (e.g., “deducing the meaning and use of unfamiliar lexical items through contextual clues”)
D. Understanding and Expressing Information (e.g., expressing information implicitly through inference)
E. Understanding and Expressing Conceptual Meaning (e.g., “understanding conceptual meaning, especially time: tense and aspect”)
F. Understanding and Conveying Communicative Value (e.g., “understanding the communicative value-function of sentences and utterances with explicit indicators”)
G. Understanding and Expressing Relations (e.g., “expressing relations between parts of a text through lexical cohesion devices of repetition”)
H. Relating Textual to Extra-Textual Information (e.g., “interpreting text by going outside it, ‘reading between the lines’ ”)
I. Understanding and Using Discourse Coherence Devices (e.g., “using indicators in discourse for introducing an idea”)
J. Summarising (e.g., “extracting salient points to summarise the whole text”)
K. Reference, Skimming and Scanning (e.g., “basic reference skills: understanding and use of table of contents and index”)
L. Initiating, Maintaining, and Terminating Discourse (e.g., “initiating in discourse: how to initiate the discourse-elicit, inform, direct, etc.”)
M. Planning and Organising Information (e.g., “planning and organising information in expository language, using rhetorical functions, especially description of process”)
N. Transcoding and Recoding Information (e.g., “transcoding information presented in diagrammatic display, involving straight conversion of diagram/table/graph into speech/ writing”)
Munby’s taxonomy has great potential as a tool for language planning and monitoring in general. You can build a checklist of skills to be covered throughout a period of time, and make a regular register of when and how they are taught and/or tested. The same list can be used in class/individual progress charts, where performance levels for each skill are established (e.g., 1=Poor, 2=Satisfactory, 3=Good). And, of course, it can be used in the definition of lesson/unit/test objectives. Teachers working within this framework become increasingly aware of the significance of their pedagogical action: teaching and evaluation are seen as interdependent, purpose-oriented tasks which focus on the learner’s communicative competence.
In my work as a teacher trainer, I have made some adaptations on Munby’s taxonomy, the result of which is presented in Appendix 1. My purpose was twofold: (1) to make the taxonomy simpler and readier for use by teachers who do their teaching practice in a class of beginners or near-beginners (levels 1-3); (2) to expand the taxonomy so as to include two missing dimensions of language learning: the metalinguistic/cultural and the strategic.
As far as the first purpose was concerned, the following changes were made: (a) a selection of skills more relevant to low-level learners; (b) some simplification of their original formulation; (c) specification of the possible relations between each skill and the macroskill area(s): listening, reading, speaking, and writing; (d) rearrangement of skills according to four broad components of communicative competence: grapho-phonic, grammatical, discourse/sociolinguistic, and strategic.
The selection mentioned in (a) was made with reference to the Portuguese syllabus and common textbooks, and also to criteria of communicative relevance and linguistic complexity. Any selection of this kind will have to be made according to the educational context and must not be regarded as final; particular situations may require further specifications, either from Munby’s original list or added by the teacher himself.
Eight skills were added to Munby’s list (signalled with an asterisk in the proposed version): (a) skills referring to the development of the learner’s metalinguistic and sociocultural awareness (see B. 4/5, C. 14/15/16); (b) skills referring to the strategic dimension of language learning-that is, to the negotiation of meaning (D. 1/2/3).
Some of the skills included under (b) were already in Munby’s taxonomy, but not with the underlying concept of strategic competence, which was developed much later by theorists like Michael Canale (1983).
A large number of beginning teachers have used the modified version of Munby’s taxonomy with success in planning units, lessons, and tests. The materials were produced by Carla Menezes, a young teacher who did her teaching practice in 1990/91. The grid formats were suggested in training sessions so as to include a column where objectives could be described in linguistic terms and related to the other grid components. Clearly, this kind of work facilitates a good perception of teaching direction, thus providing a sound platform for teaching action.
If other people feel sufficiently motivated to try out my suggestion, it would surely be challenging to receive feedback and to share ideas and experiences on this somewhat forgotten but inescapable and crucial issue. (Address for correspondence: Flávia Vieira, Universidade do Minho, Instituto de Educação, 4700 Braga, Portugal.)

REFERENCES

TEACHER´S PERFORMANCE CAN PROMOTE LEARNING AND THINKING

How Can Teachers Promote Learning and Thinking?

Teaching FOR Thinking--Teachers create learning environments that encourage active learning and promote higher-order thinking a. Focus on the higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy when asking questions (i.e., analysis, synthesis, evaluation). b. Use a variety of question types (e.g., analytical, evaluative, interpretive). c. Incorporate writing into all classrooms. d. Use brainstorming to generate ideas. e. Incorporate a variety of cooperative learning structures. f. Enliven lectures using a “Three-Minute Pause.” g. Incorporate inductive and inquiry-based approaches to learning. h. Additional strategies for extending student thinking include: • Cue student responses. • Remember “Wait Time I and II.” • Use think-pair-share strategies. • Ask follow-up questions and related probes. • Withhold judgment during key sections of discussions. • Ask for summaries to promote active listening. • Use class surveys to determine opinions and check for understanding. • Allow for student calling. • Ask students to defend their positions. • Ask students to “unpack their thinking,” (i.e., pre-determine the possible thinking skills, processes, and strategies they might use during a lesson or unit). • Call on students randomly. • Encourage student questioning. Teaching OF Thinking--Teachers directly teach thinking skills and processes a. Introduce a skill or process by modeling it. b. Provide individually or in cooperation with teachers in other disciplines opportunities for students to apply this skill or process in new or novel situations. c. Incorporate the following strategies into the direct teaching of thinking skills and processes: • Define the skill and/or process for students. • Have students explore the use of the skill/process . • Identify the steps or components involved in applying the skill or process. • Provide flow charts and other graphic organizers to articulate the key steps and components. • Provide students with opportunities to practice the skill or process. • Link the skill or content to the content of the discipline(s) being studied. • Plan for transfer: provide opportunities to use the skill in new contexts while providing scaffolding/bridging strategies and support. • Allow students to reflect upon their understanding and use of the skill or process. Teaching ABOUT Thinking--Teachers promote metacognitive reflection and self-evaluation   a. Model the thinking skill or process for students. b. Use a variety of writing tools to reinforce students' understanding of and reflection upon key skills and processes: • Think Logs • Reflective Journals • Learning Logs c. Use de Bono's O-P-V technique (requiring students to defend the opposite point of view about an issue than the one they personally espouse). d. Use the “I-Search” paper to introduce or reinforce students' research skills: i.e., have students investigate a research question in which they are interested; they then write a narrative about how they constructed their answer to this research question. e. Coach students in the use of self-cueing strategies. f. Use think-aloud's to reinforce students' understanding of key elements and steps in a thinking operation or process. g. Allow for process reflection to occur, with students verbally expressing their perceptions, responses to, and evaluation of a particular activity or process. h. Encourage paired problem solving.

I found this article interesting because I believe that teaching how to think is really important, too. Most of my English teachers at ICPNA gave me the advises of this article. Besides, it reminds me that my teachers were always worried about my thinking, so I could learn in a better way. In conclusion, I am going to apply this in the future.

CREATING A POSITIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Creating a Positive Learning Environment
(Aug 2003)

All of us can remember sitting in a classroom listening to lectures and trying to stay awake. The effective trainer is one who can create a positive learning climate. In order to create a positive learning climate, you first need to understand the characteristics of adult learners.

Adult learners:

- Require learning to be relevant 
- Are highly motivated if they believe learning is relevant 
- Need participation and active involvement in the learning process 
- Desire a variety of learning experiences 
- Desire positive feedback 
- Have personal concerns and need an atmosphere of safety 
- Need to be recognized as individuals with unique backgrounds, experiences and learning      needs 
- Must maintain their self-esteem 
- Have high expectations for themselves and their trainer 
- Have personal needs that must be taken into consideration 

Creating a positive learning climate requires the involvement of learners. To involve learners:

- Allow participants to provide input regarding schedules, activities and other events
- Ask questions and solicit feedback 
- Brainstorm and encourage discussions 
- Plan hands-on work, group and individual projects, and classroom activities
 
A positive learning climate is created through the use of a variety of learning methods including:

- Audiovisual aids 
- Illustrated lectures 
- Demonstrations 
- Brainstorming 
- Small group activities 
- Group discussions 
- Role plays and case studies 
- Guest speakers 

The effective trainer helps to create the positive learning climate by using a variety of techniques for providing positive feedback. To provide positive feedback:

- Give verbal praise either in front of other participants or in private 
- Use positive responses during questioning 
- Recognize appropriate skills while coaching 
- Let the participants know how they are progressing toward achieving learning objectives 

Be sure to treat the participants as individuals. To do this you can:

- Use participant names as often as possible 
- Involve all participants as often as possible 
- Treat participants with respect 
- Allow participants to share information with others 

To maintain the self-esteem of your learners, you can:

- Reinforce those practices and beliefs embodied in the course content 
- Provide corrective feedback in an appropriate manner 
- Provide training that adds to their sense of competence and self-esteem 
- Recognize participants' own career accomplishments 

Creating a positive learning climate requires planning and work on the part of the trainer. Using these suggestions you can help build a positive learning climate that will make your training more fun and effective.

In my opinion, this is an important and useful article for people that want to be teachers. If you want to create a positive learning environment, it can help you a lot. In my case, I want to be an English teacher, so this article could help me because it gives me many tips about how to create a positive atmosphere. There are many that called my attention. For instance, being sure to treat the participants as individuals was a really good advice. In conclusion, if I became a teacher, I would use many of these advices because I know that they will work.

WELCOME

WELCOME TO MY BLOG

I want to welcome my classmates and teacher to my block. First of all, I want to say that I created this blog because I think I could write about what I am learning in class. Besides, I could also write about my likes and dislikes of the class. However, the most important reason is that I would like to put in order my thoughts about my learning progress. Furthermore, I want to share articles and news that can help us. To conclude, I think that this blog could be really useful for being a good teacher.