Learner-Centered Learning Chapter Two

LEARNER-CENTERED APPROACHES WORK

           After demonstrating the effectiveness of Learner-Centered Approach in the first edition of the book, in this second edition there have been many disciplines in which this approach was put in practice. The lately research was done based on three areas:

Deep and Surface Learning

To be involved in this area the researcher did a study in which students read an extract and they had to remember information about the reading passage. The fact is that if students can convey the meaning of the text, it is called deep learning. The opposite occurs with surface learning, it is when students can just remember basic information of the reading. Considering that Learner-Centered Approach has to focus on deep learning.

Faculty Orientations to Teaching

The results from the studies made by Trigwell (2010) said that “teachers report they have the student as the focus of their activities, where it matters more to them what the student is doing and learning than what the teacher is covering, when the teacher is the one who encourages self-directed learning”. The aim of this procedure is to adopt a deep approach.

Independent, Self-Directed, and Self-Regulated Learners

It refers to the moment in which students transform their mental abilities into academic skills. These features are also called as: autonomous learners, independent learners.

Conclusions by students.

Beside all have said, it is relevant to know what students say about Learner-Centered Approach.  Well, students when they experiment new approaches they feel frustrated but after some experience they get used to it and find new approaches easy and beneficial. 

If you are interested in using this approach in one of your lessons you can find some tips in the following link:

Implementing learning centered approaches in your teaching 

Bibliography:
Weimer, M. (2013). Learner-Centered Teaching Five Key Changes to Practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass A Wiley Imprint.

ELT, C. U. (Director). (2012). Jack C. Richards on Learner Centered Teaching [Motion Picture].

Phyllis Blumberg, P. (2014). University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. Retrieved April 30, 2015, from University of the Sciences in Philadelphia: https://www.usciences.edu/teaching/Learner-Centered/implementing%20lct.pdf

Learner-.Centered Approach

           

                      LEARNER-CENTERED TEACHING

Reading the book Learner-Centered Teaching by Maryellen Weimer I could learn a new approach to implement in my future classes.

Here I describe a little bit about the Learner-Centered Approach. 

The aim of this approach is that the main focus is on learning. The activities and the work that students do is the most important part here.  However, being focused on learning can be understood literally so it can be confused:

-       Teaching engages students in the hard work.

-       Teaching motivates and gives control over learning process.

-       Teaching encourages collaboration.

-       Teaching promotes students reflection

-       Teaching includes explicit learning skills.

There are some theories which are behind Learner-Centered Teaching which influence this approach.

Attribution Theory and Self-efficacy

It is the way how people attribute events in terms of success or failure. This theory also can explore hoe the cause is tempered, or controlled.  Besides that Self-Efficacy has to do with student’s beliefs in their capacities. In this case Learner-centered will encourage students to work on their beliefs and challenge them to do things.

Radical and Critical Pedagogy

This theory also takes part in Learner-centered approach because it has the belief that education is a vehicle for social changes. Stage, Muller, Kinzie, and Simmons (1998, p. 57) state that “Learning is directed toward social change and transforming world, and ‘true’ learning empowers students to challenge oppression in their lives.”

Feminist Theory

This theory influences Learner-centered approach in the way of avoiding hierarchy in classroom. Uses students own experiences rather than having them from textbooks.

            Constructivism

This theory emphasizes that students need to build their own learning instead of receiving the contents by someone else. It does not meant that learners have to discover and that it is all thing. It involves discovering, processing and the help of the teacher to avoid misunderstandings. It is constructivism. 

. All of the approaches said above were taking into account in the development of Learner-centered approach. Those provided some facts to build up this new approach with some sort of distinctions which have been proved during researching projects. 

For further reading  check the link:

UScience

Bibliography

Weimer, M. (2013). Learner-Centered Teaching Five Key Changes to Practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass A Wiley Imprint.

Philadelphia, U. o. (2014). USciences University of Science. Retrieved April 28, 2015, from USciences University of Science: http://www.usciences.edu/teaching/Learner-Centered/ 

Unit 8

                    SPEAKING

Speaking is an oral productive skill.  I learned that it involves using speech to communicate with other people. There are many features involved at the moment of speaking are: the use of appropriate register, answer questions, intonation, connected speech, paraphrase, and hesitating.

In speaking also is important to have oral fluency and avoid hesitations because it helps to become a good speaker.

Speaking includes gestures, facial expressions, raising and falling intonation to communicate feelings. Into this there is a strategy called turn-taking which is the way speakers use body movements, intonation, use of language to express that someone wants to join a conversation.

For developing this skill teachers can apply some activities for example to teach vocabulary to children we tend to do using songs in which the new words are repeated many times. The song is memorized. It is usually called learn by heart.  

For improving fluency the teacher can include group work projects, debates, discussion, presentations. These activities are mainly for students who are in intermediate levels.

Here I share some resources to take a look for more information about speaking. 

ESL Gold

There is an article of researching project about how to improve speaking skill. 

Imrpoving Speaking Skills through Instruction in Oral Class Participation

References.

Tsou, W. (2015). Imrpoving Speaking Skills through Instruction in Oral Class Participation. Retrieved April 28, 2015, from Imrpoving Speaking Skills through Instruction in Oral Class Participation: http://www.brandeis.edu/departments/roms/pdfs/strategies-speakingskills.pdf

Gold, E. (2014). ESL Gol Great Resources for Teaching and Learning English. Retrieved April 28, 2015, from ESL Gol Great Resources for Teaching and Learning English: http://www.eslgold.com/speaking.html

Unit 7

              

             LISTENING

“I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.”

Ernest Hemingway

         As listening is a receptive skill, it develops understanding of sound received by the ear. When a person listens to an extract he/she needs to get the meaning of what is being listened. Besides that listening involves recognizing speed of speech, accent, language that is joined to form connected sounds “connected speech”.  There are many features in listening that have to be understood by a listener: linking for constructed forms. In this field sometimes listeners fail because they are not use to listen this type of connected language, so that can make difficult the development of this skill.  As well as reading, listening can be intensive and extensive. It also contains subskills: listening for global understanding, specific information, to infer attitude and more.

Applying listening in classroom can be difficult however if we as teachers prepare a well-structured lesson it would be easy and enjoyable for learners. For instance: a nice topic for using listening can be “Greetings”, in this a teacher can pre-teach key words, use authentic material, and foster motivation and confidence in class.

Listening materials can be taken from the internet. I share some links to check some listening sources. 

English as a Second Language
Agenda Web_Listening exercises


References: 

Web, A. (n.d.). Agenda Web. Retrieved April 28, 2015, from Agenda Web: http://www.agendaweb.org/listening/elem_interm.html

Ron C. Lee, P. (1994). ESL - English as a Second Language . Retrieved April 28, 2015, from ESL - English as a Second Language : http://www.rong-chang.com/

Unit 6

           

          WRITING

As well as speaking writing takes part of productive skills. To produce written language there are many features to know for example: the knowledge of vocabulary, how to use words, sentences and linking them to establish communication.

Writing is closely related to accuracy but it goes further. It content is a message which needs to be communicated.  The majority of writings are graded based on rubrics. There are many websites in where you can find many types pf rubrics depending on the genre on the writing. Likewise, there are rubrics to grade there are techniques which help a lot.  For instance, organizing ideas, planning, organizing, talking notes, proof-reading, editing, brainstorming, drafting are part of the writing process.  This process will depend on many factors like: writer’s needs, age, preferences and more.  

The writing process for some students is difficult buy engaging students to develop writing skill is a hard process because some learners do not like to read. A very good idea to activate writing is looking for topics which are interesting for students. One example can be encouraging students to create 5 questions to conduct a survey about social nets and report the results in a written way.  Another one might be, asks students to develop a brief summary of one movie they like. The summary must include: introduction, body, and conclusion. The length has to be 4 paragraphs maximum.

To take a look for more strategies or ideas to develop wrting check the following sources. 

http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/writing-skills-practice

http://www.infoplease.com/homework/writingskills1.html

References 

Council, B. (2005). British Council Learn English Teens . Retrieved April 25, 2015, from British Council Learn English Teens: http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/writing-skills-practice

Pearson. (2000). Infoplease. Retrieved April 25, 2015, from Infoplease: http://www.infoplease.com/homework/writingskills1.html

Unit 5

               READING

As reading is a receptive skill it means that the function is to respond to text rather than produce language. Reading includes the understanding of coherence and cohesion. Reading is not just taking a book and start reading in is a complete process which sometimes we do not realize that we are developing it. There are some techniques for reading: scanning, skimming, reading for detail, and more. This subskills or techniques are applied in different moments and in types of reading. There are two types of reading: extensive reading and intensive reading. 

Extensive reading takes place when someone reads for pleasure. It refers to look for topics which are interesting for the reader. The aim is to read fluently to get a general understanding rom the text. On the other hand, intensive reading is developed for checking the meaning and comprehension. The objective of this reading is language study.

As teacher I can use extensive reading by asking students to look for a book they like and make them read using one of the subskills mentioned above. At the end I will asks students to summarize the book with short presentation.

There is a big variety of websites which can help teachers and students developing reading skill. 

References

Council, B. (January 2005). British Council Learn English Teens. Retrieved April 21, 2015 from  British Council Learn English Teens: http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/reading-skills-practice

NCLRC (January 2005). Strategies for Developing Reading Skills . Retrieved April 21, 2015 from  NCLRC The Esential of Language Teaching: 

http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/reading/stratread.htm

Unit 4

               FUNCTIONS

During the study of this unit I concluded that functions refer to the use of language for a specific purpose. It is the reason why we stablish communication among people. Some functions of English language are the following: inviting, apologizing, greeting, agreeing, advising, and clarifying, and so on.  In addition, there are many linguists who stablished language functions in different ways. Michael Halliday (1975) proposed the seven language functions in childhood which are: regulatory, instrumental, personal, interactional, representational, heuristic, imaginative. (Christodoulou, 2009).

When we refer to a function we use language items which are called exponents. These exponents can show different functions it only depends on the context. Furthermore, these are distinguishing in levels of formality. It goes from informal (socially casual) to formal (important situations). The level of formality is chosen according to the situation. 
Functions also refers to appropriacy when we choose the level of formality we are going to use in some situations. For example: it can be appropriate to say: "Good morning dear audience" in a lecture setting. It is unsuitable to say to the same audiece: "Hi, everyone" 

A very good example for making students realize how to use language in different situations is to encourage them to create a conversation which can be formal and informal just changing some items. 

References

Christodoulou, N. (June 09, 2009). Francis Gilbert. Retrieved April 21, 2015, from Francis Gilbert : http://www.francisgilbert.co.uk/2009/06/hallidays-functions-of-language-in-the-child-language-acquisition-debate-by-nick-christodoulou/

Wyban, a. (Dirección). (2014). Functions of Language [Youtube file]. 

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVUSMFggeww

Unit 3

                PHONOLOGY

Personally, I have taken some modules of phonology before so the term phonology refers to the sound features used in language to consolidate meaning and of course communication. This unit is just a feedback because the majority of terminology is already known. I know that a phoneme /ð/ is the smallest unit of sound and from this the other word stress, sentence stress and intonation go further. One important thing is that just one phoneme can change the meaning of a word. Each language has its own phonemic chart but there is an IPA International Phonetic Alphabet created in 188 by Paul Passy. (Ager, 1988)

Based on the phonemic chart of English language phonemes are classified in vowels, diphthongs, consonants which are voiced and unvoiced sounds. If we join vowels and consonants we form a syllable.  Phonolgy is a big field to study and it is applied in teaching when we design a lesson in which the focus will be speaking in terms of accurate pronunciation and intonation.

Here I share the IPA and phonemic chart of English language and a video of the pronunciation of each symbol. 

English language phonetic chart

References

Ager, S. (1988). Omniglot. Recuperado April 20, 2015, from Omniglot: http://www.omniglot.com/writing/ipa.htm

bbclearningenglish (Dirección). (2009). Improve Your Pronunciation with BBC Learning English [Youtube file]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdRmGvmeY1U&list=PL3B9945D36E1FF870

Unit 2

             LEXIS

The term lexis in other words is vocabulary. Lexis makes reference to individual words or set of words with its specific meaning. In this unit I could learn that words can have different meanings and those are classified in denotation, figurative meaning, meaning in context and meaning based on form.  This last type of meaning refers to any word which can be changed by adding small units or words and then the meaning is different. For example affixation, compound nouns, collocations, idioms, chunks. Besides them, we can talk about words that can relate to one another. These are: false friends, homophones, homonymous, and varieties of English.

Some hints to learn vocabulary are:

Learners need to be exposed to the new item learned many times in order to consolidate meaning and use.

Teach vocabulary with explicit and implicit vocabulary. (Brummitt-Yale 2008).

Teachers need to be sure if the new words have any false friend to avoid misunderstanding.

Teachers usually teach key words which students pick them up and use them.

All this small fields cover lexis, but this can be applied in a lesson through  we can develop a lesson using brainstorming technique, then applying new lexicon in context, lastly using them in practical exercises.

References

Brummitt-Yale, J. (2008). K12 Reader. Retrieved April 20, 2015 http://www.k12reader.com/effective-strategies-for-teaching-vocabulary/
Cambridge University Press ELT (Address). (2007). Playway teacher training films: Consolidation of vocabulary and intelligence-building activities
 [Video file] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpJY32kbN1g

Unit 1

GRAMMAR

TKT preparation textbook is a useful tool which helps students to be prepared to take this examination. The textbook has three modules to be studied. The first one is divided into three parts which are also divided into eight small units. The first unit talks about grammar.

In general, grammar refers to how we combine, organize, and change parts of the words, words and groups of words for building meaning. We use grammar unconsciously. We apply language in terms of forms and uses.

I consider that grammar cannot be isolated. Teaching parts of speech in context, for instance, use nouns and adjectives together in a single class. It could be applying fruit names as nouns and colors as adjectives in a single lesson.  Related to grammatical uses it explains the use of grammatical structures to convey meaning.  

The relevant thing here is that students need to do exercises which have both sides focus on form and use, so then they can develop accuracy in both. 

I include some links to check for more information about this topic. 

References

BridgeTEFL (Adress). (2007). TEFL Online Tutorial: Teaching Grammar in Context [Video file].https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnw3l21pWIc

Mart, Ç. T. (2013, January). Teaching Grammar in Context Why and How? Retrieved April 20, 2015, from http://ojs.academypublisher.com/index.php/tpls/article/viewFile/tpls0301124129/6205