Summary_PLLT_chapter 5_part 2

 

 

Principles of language learning and teaching - Chapter 5

 

 

 table 5.2 Summary of possible SLA style advantage

Styles	SLA advantages?
Left-brain processing	Analyzing linguistic systems, rules, structures, definitions Perceiving the logic of language systems
Right-brain processing	Integrating diverse linguistic input Comprehending and producing metaphors
Field Independence	Expressing and comprehending key ideas concisely Remembering lexical and syntactic details
Field Sensitivity	Getting the overall gist of oral and written input "Reading between the lines" of oral and written input
Ambiguity tolerance	Transcending linguistic complexity perceived as difficult Maintaining attention to a difficult conversation or text
Ambiguity intolerance	Ascertaining order and system within complexity Questioning/clarifying misunderstood information
Reflectivity	Taking time to mentally sort through linguistic complexity Speaking out only when certain of linguistic systems
Impulsivity	Taking linguistic risks in the face of possible error Taking initiative in conversations

 

Reflectivity and Impulsivity

 Relectivity

• learners tend to make slower and more calculated decisions
• systematic
• tend to make fewer errors in reading than impulsive children
• in L2 learning context, slower but accurate

 Impulsivity

• be comfortable making quick or gambling decisions
• intuitive
• usually faster reader, eventually master the “psycholinguistic guessing game” (reading)

 * fast-accurate learners or good guessers = better language learners as measured by TOEFL

 > How might a teacher go about helping students to develop both speed and accuracy?

 

Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic Styles

Visual– tend to prefer reading and studying charts, drawings and other graphic information

 Auditory- tend to prefer listening to lectures and audiotapes

 Kinesthetic- tend to prefer demonstrations and physical activity involving bodily movement

• most successful learners utilize both visual and auditory input

• important when examining individual differences in SLA

 >What are some methodological techniques that can be used to ensure that students are exposed to all three modalities?

>How have you been either helped or hindered by an appeal to visual, auditory, and/or kinesthetic modalities?

 

Measurement of learning style

• Among many options, ‘self-check questionnaire’ is the most common method
• Scales of points of agreement and disagreement

 e.g )

https://www.kirtland.edu/static/online-learning-self-assessment/

http://www.educationplanner.org/students/self-assessments/learning-styles-quiz.shtml

 1. What kind of book would you like to read for fun?

A book with lots of pictures in it

A book with lots of words in it

A book with word searches or crossword puzzles

 

2. When you are not sure how to spell a word, what are you most likely to do?

Write it down to see if it looks right

Spell it out loud to see if it sounds right

Trace the letters in the air (finger spelling) 

• Self-check questionnaire is problematic, in that external, objective measures are not available
•  “Although the learner might have some strong style tendencies, they are not set in stone and are influenced by the sociocultural context”
• important for teachers to check students’ preferences, strengths and weaknesses, propensities and abilities in order to tailor an effective methodological approach.

 Autonomy and Awareness

 Autonomy

• students take control and responsibility for their own learning
• teacher centered --> learner centered
• emphasize the value of learners’ autonomy

•  discovery learning, problem-posing, group work, cooperative learning and selecting certain goals for individual pursuit, initiate oral production, practice language through small group tasks
• knowledge (language) can be used in ‘real world’

* but ‘glocalization’ in non-western cultures

 Awareness

• learners be aware of their own processes of learning
• develop metacognitive awareness - language programs are offering

 *Optimal level

• Too much awareness => overattention to monitoring for correctness or explicit focus on grammar => smother a learner’s yearning to simply ‘use’ language
• strategic awareness => conscious application of appropriate strategies

 

Self Regulation

• the autonomous process of developing awareness, setting goals, monitoring performance etc.
• learners with self-awareness can take appropriate action

 Strategically self-regulated learners do the following:

1. Actively participate in their own autonomous learning process
2. Control various aspects of their learning for accomplishing specific goals
3. Regulate their cognitive and affective states
4. Form positive beliefs about themselves
5. Use strategies to move from conscious knowledge to automatic procedural knowledge
6. Select appropriate strategies for widely differing purposes and contexts
7. Make the connection between strategy use and learning outcomes

 Strategies

• Specific actions we take to solve a given problem

• Vary considerably within each individual

 Examples of general categories of strategy : 

• Learning vs. communication
• Metacognitive
• Memory
• Direct vs. Indirect
• Cognitive
• Affective
• Socio-affective
• Sociocultural interactive
• Input (comprehension) vs. Output (production)
• Skill-oriented (relating to the four skills)
• Avoidance
• compensatory
• self-regulated

*3 broad categories by Oxford (meta-strategies) 

– Cognitive, affective, sociocultural-interactive strategies

1.  Cognitive strategies

• help learners “construct, transform, and apply L2 knowledge”

1. Affective strategies

• help learners to employ beneficial emotional energy, form positive attitudes towards the learning process and generate and maintain motivation

1.  Sociocultural-Interactive strategies

• help learners generate and maintain interactive communication within cultural context

 

table 5. 3,4,5

Strategies		examples and tactics
cognitive strategies	Planning	Previewing, reviewing, setting schedules, deciding to attend to a specific aspect of language input, planning for and rehearsing linguistic components necessary to carry out an upcoming language task, deciding to postpone speaking
	Organizing	Deciding to attend to specific aspects of language input or situational details that will cue the relation of language input, reordering, classifying, labeling items in the language
	Monitoring	Correcting one’s speech for accuracy in pronunciation, grammar,vocabulary, imitating a language model, including silent rehearsal, and self-cheking
	Evaluating	Checking outcomes of one’s own language learning against an internal measure of completeness and accuracy
	Using senses	Creating visualizations and pictures to remember, noticing phonological sounds, acting out a word or sentence
	Activating knowledge	Using the first language for comparison/contrast to remember words and forms, applying rules by deduction, using translation to remember a new word
	Contextualization	Placing a word or phrase in a meaningful language sequence, relating new information to other concepts in memory
	Going beyond the data	Guessing meanings of new items, predicting words or forms from the context
Affective strategies	Activating supportive emotions	Encouraging oneself, making positive statements, making lists of one’s abilities, rewarding oneself for accomplishments, noticing what one has accomplished to build self-confidence, writing a language learning diary
	Minimizing negative emotions	Using relaxation to lower fear or anxiety, using positive self-talk to lower self-doubt, generating interesting charts, images, or dialogues to lower boredom, making a list of “to do” items to avoid feeling overwhelmed
	Generating motivation	Learning about the culture of a language, setting personal goals and monitoring their accomplishment, listing specific accomplishments, turning attention away from tests and toward what one can do with the language
	Building positive attitudes	Using relaxation to lower fear or anxiety, generating interesting activities to lower boredom, empathizing with others to develop cultural understanding
Sociocultural-interactive strategies	interacting to learn	Cooperating with one or more peers to obtain feedback, pool information, or model a language activity
	overcoming knowledge gaps	Asking a teacher or other native speaker for repetition, paraphrasing, explanation, and/or examples, questioning for clarification, using memorized chunks of language to initiate or maintain communication
	guessing intelligently	Using linguistic clues in lexicon, grammar, or phonology to predict, using discourse markers to comprehend
	generating conversation	Initiating conversation with known discourse gambits, maintaining conversation with affirmations, verbal and nonverbal attention signals, asking questions
	Activating sociocultural schemata	Asking questions about culture, customs etc., reading about culture (customs, history, music, art)

  

Compensatory Strategies

• designed to make up for gaps in one’s ability

e.g.) Avoidance, Circumlocution, Approximation, Word coinage, Nonverbal signals, Prefabricated patterns, Code switching, Appeal to authority, Keeping the floor