Aspects of Modern Language Teaching in Europe

Wolf Gewehr

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2002
• ISBN:
  9781134691005
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

From the teaching of grammar to the teaching of literature; from classroom teaching to independent learning; from role-playing to CAL - few books on teaching languages cover such a wide field. In this book teaching experience and research from practitioners in four European countries throw new light on old problems faced every day, while others reveal innovative teaching methods and new insights into how teachers and learners interact. Sections include:
*language learning strategies and computer-assisted language learning
*facilitating individual progress through autonomous learning
*how to bring a foreign country alive in the classroom
*de-mythologising grammar teaching
*how different types of dictionaries can make valuable contributions to language teaching
*teaching and using idiomatic phrases.

Part I
FOCUS ON LANGUAGE LEARNER AUTONOMY

Today, educators, educational researchers, developmental psychologists and cognitive scientists are engaged in the design of school programmes and conducting investigations on learning strategies, study skills and abilities to learn. In Part I, two chapters pay particular attention to how conditions that foster them might be built into the materials, methodologies and environments for learning and schooling.

From the chapters in Part I, we can deduce that there is good reason to try to improve the characteristics of individual students as learners and to improve instructional techniques. In summary, the chapters share a special concern with the empowering of learners which also means a concern with empowering teachers to present alternative teaching strategies aimed at the individualization of instruction, caring for differentiation in the classroom through the enhancement of learning strategies that enable students to become independent and responsible learners.

The first two chapters complement each other and are concerned with the higher goals of learning; namely, learning how to learn and autonomy. Based on his experience, Manuel Jiménez Raya’s chapter is an attempt to present a comprehensive conceptualization of learning how to learn; namely, as a complex of factors comprising learning strategies, reflection, metacognition, attitudes and the planning of learning. It is generally agreed that success in acquiring new knowledge or in using knowledge to solve problems must depend on the appropriate use of very fundamental mental abilities or processes. It is also agreed that the development of learning expertise is a complex and lifelong process which has received relatively little attention from research in second language learning and teaching.

The author maintains that, ideally, any training programme should include practice in specific task-appropriate strategies, direct instruction in the orchestration, overseeing and monitoring of these skills, and information concerning the significance of those activities, an issue also accepted by Lamb (chapter 2). Jiménez Raya also presents some clear methodological considerations, within which we can highlight a reflective approach based on the learner’s own approaches to learning.

Lamb describes in detail an interesting and successful approach to the treatment of differentiation in a British secondary school. He examines the reasons for a focus on learning rather than teaching in the language classroom, drawing on theory, research, practical experience and national education policy in Britain. The implications of such a shift and an example of how it may relate to practice are then examined by means of a detailed study describing the approach in the classroom: classroom management and organization, materials and objectives.

Grießhaber and Stracke-Elbina(chapters 3 and 4) deal with the use of computers in the classroom and describe ways in which computer-assisted learning can be made more effective. Although new technologies do not solve basic problems of method or approach, they are a rich motivational resource.

Although they will never take the place of the teacher, they are valuable aids in the classroom because they are more conducive to a learner-centred approach. Students become actively engaged in productive processes, becoming ‘tuned-in’ both to themselves and to others. This is largely due to the fact that the computer offers an enriched type of input, both in quality and quantity. Classroom interaction is thus facilitated both individually and in groups.

1
TRAINING LANGUAGE LEARNERS TO LEARN

Manuel Jiménez Raya

Introduction

Over the past decade, cognitive strategy instruction has emerged as an important issue in educational psychology and second language acquisition research and methodology. However, this does not mean that it has been incorporated into the language curriculum on a large scale. In my opinion, this is largely due to the fact that cognitive instruction is not easy to implement and, what is more, the results are only perceptible in the long run, because cognitive instruction consists of showing learners procedures that take some time to master. Nevertheless, they are essential because they reflect the processes used by people who are successful in learning a foreign language.

Popular beliefs about the innate nature of learning capabilities are also another factor contributing to this apparent reluctance to apply insights from cognitive psychology or cognitive (information-processing) accounts of second language acquisition and instruction. In fact, when language teachers are asked about the factors determining academic success, language learning strategies (if mentioned at all) receive considerably lower priority in comparison to other learning factors. This is due to a number of things, among which I would highlight a lack of information regarding what cognitive instruction, or learning how to learn, entails, and also a lack of information regarding methodological considerations about how to incorporate it into language learning instruction. The contribution of a cognitive perspective to foreign language instruction is its added focus on the thinking process, and the relationship between mental processes and performance, all of which help learners to become increasingly empowered. At this point, it is important to remember that learning depends entirely upon the mental activities of the learner. What the teacher does is relevant insofar as it affects the student’s mental actions.

Learning how to learn

Learning how to learn represents a substantial shift away from rigid study methods towards more experiential and reflective activities which try to involve learners in their own learning and developing process. By implementing learner training, teachers give learners the opportunity to reflect and gather their thoughts with regard to the language learning process, something which normally results in improvements in learning efficiency and in higher degrees of motivation for learning.

Different terms are currently used to refer to the same phenomenon, the most common ones being ‘cognitive instruction’, ‘learner training’ and ‘strategy instruction’. Personally, I prefer the first two terms because they are more comprehensive. Strategy instruction is a more restrictive term that can mislead teachers by conveying only a partial understanding of learning how to learn or process competence. The first two terms can help teachers and researchers to understand that learning how to learn is a complex phenomenon that entails different constructs and aspects, most of which are subject to modification by instruction. Strategy instruction¹ can at first sight give the impression of being something that is only concerned with one facet of the development of learning expertise, namely strategies. As is well known, there is more to learning how to learn than just developing learning strategies. Strategies, of course, occupy a central role in any current model of good thinking (Baron, 1985; Sternberg, 1985), but there are other aspects that are also central to the models previously mentioned, such as metacognition (knowledge about and regulation of cognition), motivation and positive attitudes towards learning, all of which operate in close interaction in the development of learning expertise.

We can now define learning how to learn as the procedure by which learners obtain insights about the learning process and about themselves, effective learning strategies, and develop positive attitudes towards language and language learning. This process is generally acknowledged to lead to improved cognitive activity and a greater degree of control on the part of the learner (O’Malley and Chamot, 1990; Oxford, 1990a; Pressleyet al., 1990). No educational objective is more important for students than learning how to learn, and how to function as independent, autonomous learners. Besides providing the information and knowledge students will need in their professional lives, it is just as important for the school to give learners the opportunity to go on learning once the schooling period has finished.

It is now necessary to clarify what is normally understood by all the aspects and elements involved in the definition of learning how to learn, because, if we succeed in the task, it will facilitate its incorporation into the teaching practice of most language teachers on a large scale and thus learners will become more successful. We are convinced that success in language learning depends to a large extent on a successful orchestration of cognitive capacities.

In some respects, learning is no different from other skills. In other words, it is possible to develop expertise in learning by paying attention to the technical know-how by developing skills and knowledge.

Jiménez Raya (1993) has identified the following components in the development of learning expertise:

1. Reflective awareness, as the form of obtaining knowledge about oneself and others as learners and the learning process. It is also the means for evaluating the effectiveness of individual learning strategies.
2. The planning of learning (Dickinson, 1986).
3. Learning strategies or the steps, thoughts and operations involved in facilitating the acquisition, storage and retrieval of knowledge.
4. Metacognition, or knowledge about cognition.
5. Attitudes or some aspects of an individual’s response to an object or class of objects (Lett, 1979, quoted in van Els, 1984:116).

According to recent models of thinking, the important features of thinking include strategies for accomplishing learning goals, knowledge about those strategies and about one’s own thinking processes, knowledge about the world in general, motivational beliefs, and overall cognitive style. A good thinker carries out a series of processes directed at the identification of a goal and the choice of the means necessary to accomplish that goal from different possibilities grounded in an impartial analysis of evidence.

Reflection in learning how to learn

There is a general consensus among contemporary educationalists that recognition should be given to the perspectives of teachers and learners, the ones who are principally and directly engaged in classroom interaction. What both parties do is directed by what they think (Wittrock, 1986, 1987). It is important, therefore, to clarify their thoughts and beliefs, and because they are normally the only witnesses to their own beliefs, attitudes and conceptions, it is essential that it is done in their own terms. It is generally believed that we learn by interpreting new materials in terms of previous knowledge. We will learn more effectively when the contents of our learning (in this case strategies, attitudes, metacognitive knowledge) are guided by and in consonance with our own personal constructs.

It is reflectivity that allows the teacher the possibility of incorporating insights such as the ones mentioned above. We can thus maintain that reflection is the basis for decision making, planning and action in learning. Through the use of reflection it is possible to bring to the forefront relevant aspects of the learning process, thus making students aware of effective and ineffective habits and strategies. Reflection about learning processes thus contributes to making the implicit explicit. It also helps to develop a deeper understanding of the different aspects and factors involved in the process of learning a foreign language.

Learners usually have their own ideas about how ‘best’ to tackle learning as well as about the role of the teacher and their own role among others. These ideas can often make learning more difficult rather than facilitating it. Through constructive reflection, learners can recapture a given experience, examine their own understanding of it and contrast it with others. In this sense, learning to learn does not mean merely following the teacher’s instructions, but rather exploring and discovering new perspectives and possibilities, using one’s own conceptions as a starting point.

This approach to learner training is based on a strong belief that the only effective learning is that which is self-discovered. Awareness is essential in any activity we undertake, but it is even more relevant in learner training, because of the enormous complexity in the development of learning potential. A certain amount of training is implicit in any activity undertaken in the classroom. In fact, each activity is selected because we are convinced that that is the way learning takes place.

Learning strategies are present whenever we attempt to learn anything, but unfortunately not all learners gain insights about these strategies and capture them. For this reason, awareness is essential to the learner, who should be made aware that good performance depends on appropriate strategies rather than luck or special ability. However, the teacher’s role should not be solely limited to awareness-raising. On the contrary, he/she should guide the students towards models of good thinking and the acquisition of qualities shown by successful learners, always within the context of the learners’ own strategies. It is only when learners consciously reflect on their ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part I: Focus on language learner autonomy
• Part II: Focus on the classroom
• Part III: Aspects of grammar in the classroom
• Part IV: Vocabulary training