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Ona Nizm
Joined: 02 Feb 2007
Posts: 32
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 Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2007 10:38 am Post subject: Learner Autonomy in China |
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I would appreciate any insights you can offer on learner autonomy in the EFL classroom in China at any level - secondary, tertiary etc - and your general thoughts on the autonomous potential of Chinese learners together with associated pedagogical discussions on active learning, learner-centred teaching and so on.
I am doing research in this area myself and would appreciate your viewpoints.
Thanks. |
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vikdk
Joined: 25 Jun 2003
Posts: 1676
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| Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 3:35 am Post subject: |
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Here�s an article you might find interesting -
http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Zhenhui-TeachingStyles.html?
a piece which relates to problems normal Chinese students, who are conditioned into learning through normal authoritarian type teaching practice (copying/following the master/master text) � may encounter when expected to follow more dynamic self learning based method.
My actual experience in China has led me to believe that mainstream Chinese education, at every level, doesn't really encourage student centered learning - at least nothing much over being expected to memorise verbatim chunks out of textbooks.
The final result - students who can recite wonderfully - but have a far more difficult time when it comes to basic problem solving.
I'd write more - but then again corresponding with some one called Ona Nizm - does make one feel a bit of a wwankker  |
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Ona Nizm
Joined: 02 Feb 2007
Posts: 32
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| Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 6:32 am Post subject: |
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[quote="vikdk"]Here�s an article you might find interesting -
[url]http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Zhenhui-TeachingStyles.html?[/url]
a piece which relates to problems normal Chinese students, who are conditioned into learning through normal authoritarian type teaching practice (copying/following the master/master text) � may encounter when expected to follow more dynamic self learning based method.
My actual experience in China has led me to believe that mainstream Chinese education, at every level, doesn't really encourage student centered learning - at least nothing much over being expected to memorise verbatim chunks out of textbooks.
The final result - students who can recite wonderfully - but have a far more difficult time when it comes to basic problem solving.
[b][b]I'd write more - but then again corresponding with some one called Ona Nizm - does make one feel a bit of a wwankker :lol[/b][/b]:[/quote]
Thanks Vikdk - and you win the prize for spotting my handle. I've been using it for quite some time now on other posts and no one has commented - maybe in these oh so PC days, people think I might hail from the ME or something and don't wish to offend! 
I would really like to see some discussion on this topic. There is a wealth of research out there on learner autonomy in China, particularly strong are the HK uni's and poly's. A good summary of the main areas is a book by Phil Benson called, "Teaching and Researching Autonomy in Language Learning", widely available in Chinese bookshops.
Paradoxically, perhaps, and initially at least, the greater onus lies with the teacher in how he/she views his/her role and the roles of the learners in the classroom. I do a lot of work on learner training and emphasise the need for active learning and many Ss begin to see the utility behind it i.e. in building an active lexicon as opposed to a passive one. I have my students write weekly learning logs where they reflect on their learning and we do a lot of consciousness-raising as regards the learning process itself: learning styles and strategies inventories, SWOTs and so on.
My Ss are 16-18 years old and have shown, to a greater or lesser degree, an awareness and the ability to take more responsibility for their own learning.
This whole debate about the resistance to learner-centred practices due to Confucian cultural influences is contentious but highly fascinating.
Of course, my Ss are aiming to go to Western universities in the upcoming years and are beginning to understand the need to take control of their learning. They are more astute than sometimes we give them credit for.
All in all, I would say that Chinese learners are 'more' autonomously-inclined than the Japanese. But then again this might (surely does) reflect the fact that I was far less experienced a teacher when I taught in Japan.
I'd like to hear more Vikdk and from anyone else.
I am quite happy to post my findings when my research is complete. |
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Steppenwolf
Joined: 30 Jul 2006
Posts: 1769
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| Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 8:04 am Post subject: |
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| Ona Nizm wrote: |
I would really like to see some discussion on this topic. There is a wealth of research out there on learner autonomy in China, particularly strong are the HK uni's and poly's.
I do a lot of work on learner training and emphasise the need for active learning and many Ss begin to see the utility behind it i.e. in building an active lexicon as opposed to a passive one. I have my students write weekly learning logs where they reflect on their learning and we do a lot of consciousness-raising as regards the learning process itself: learning styles and strategies inventories, SWOTs and so on.
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That strikes a chord with me...I have always held my students should be able to learn on their own, i.e. find new vocables without their teacher identifying them for the students. Even so-called "oral English" classes are turned into rote-learning events to increase students' vocabulary - to the detriment of their practical skills.
I haven't seen much evidence of autonomy in my students; in fact I sometimes encounter resistance to the idea that students should work more independently.
Since English literature is available only to very few students our regular middle-school, high-school or college students never or seldom scan texts without translating them into their Chinese vernacular. Many textbooks are bilingual anyway so students don't acquire any autonomy at all.
I taught in HK before and found students there - Chinese ones that I taught beside western ones! - to be better capable of working autonomously. One reason why this is so - apart from the obvious, that is, that HK was a British colony where the elites sent and still send their progeny to an English-medium school - might be that in HK students return home after school rather than spend the night in the dorm of a boarding-school.
Their own parents - or, very often, their Filippina maid - supervise them at doing homework whereas in mainland boarding-schools this task is delegated to a regular teacher who may or may not care what students are doing in the evening "self-study" classes!
To sound off more positively, I will tell once more the tale of a middle-school student I regularly coach; this guy had a fabulous command of English at age 12 and could make an impromptu speech on Beethoven and Mozart or mantis and spiders because he was self-motivated and his parents encouraged him to cultivate hobbies.
Most students don't develop special interests like those. How then can they be "autonomous" since they depend on teachers to inform them what subjects they should be interested in? |
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Ona Nizm
Joined: 02 Feb 2007
Posts: 32
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| Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 8:56 am Post subject: |
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Steppenwolf, some good points, in particular the difference between HK and mainland students viz. their cultural/colonial heritage. In fact, one of the reasons I embarked on this project was because the vast majority of studies into LA have been done in HK and, to a lesser extent, Taiwan and Singapore.
Your comment about motivation is revealing and, i think, is really at the crux of the matter. It's a chicken and egg thing, isn't it? In one paper, Yu writes: "[The] relationship between motivation and autonomy in language learning has been a very controverial issue, the controversy being on whether it is autonomy that enhances motivation or it is motivation that produces autonomy," (Yu, 2006).
My students obviously must need to pass exams to progress overseas but they are beginning to see that they need to go the extra mile in order to successfully compete once in a Western academic discourse community. Obviously, this touches on whether extrinsic motivation alone can still engender autonomous action or potential!
Another question: is the Ministry of Education just paying lip-service to current (Western) pedagogical trends when they say that learnr autonomy must be enhanced in language learning in China? (College English Curriculum Requirements 2004).
One thing to look at is the relative ages of Chinese English teachers in China. Are the younger ones (and at my school some of them barely look older than their students) in any way adapting to new trends and attempting to broaden their teaching scope? I don't see much evidence of this myself, and I am not trying to disparage these teachers but eveyday I see Junior 3 students outside the corridors rote memorising chunks of text. Sometimes I think I have been transported to the Wailing Wall (if you see what I mean). And most of the time, the only thing I can hear coming out of the Chinese teachers' mouths is Chinese. I'm not spying on them - they use microphones in their classes - hardly conducive to learning-centred practices. (BTW, classses here are relatively small 20-25. Some of my classes are such a size - I never use the proffered mics.)
I still maintain that teacher enlightenment precedes learner enfranchisement. Reflecting on one's own teaching as well as the styles of one's learners is the necessary foundation for changing classroom dynamics. Or am I living in cloud whatever land? (Nice compensation strategy there!)
I'm pasting in note-form some reflections and considerations I gave at a conference recently. Any comments would be greatly appreciated.
� It is possible that learners entering the programme have had little or no experience of the teaching methods espoused and/or practised by teachers
� Teachers should guard against making blanket assumptions about their learners and take nothing for granted. They should insure that their own cultural identities do not gloss over tacit perceptions that underlie learning processes and procedures of the learner group
� Most reported models of The Chinese Learner are deficit models: �The overall picture that emerges out of the literature � provides a stereotyped, negative and static view of Southeast Asian students� learning. These students are described as having the following features: respectful of the lecturer�s authority; preoccupied with fulfilling the expectations of the lecturers; uncritical of information presented in the textbook and by the lecturers; seldom asking questions or volunteering to contribute to tutorial discussions; and unaware of the conventions regarding acknowledging quotes and referencing sources and therefore unwittingly guilty of plagiarism,� (Volet and Renshaw, 1996: 205-6)
� Teacher expectations should be realistic and pragmatic, particularly since we are, to all intents and purposes, working within an EFL environment
� Learner expectations are not necessarily static
� Teachers should �develop a reflective stance� (Cortazzi and Jin, 1999: 217) towards classroom interaction to facilitate greater awareness of their own and learners� culture of learning
� The available evidence suggests that Chinese learners show an �amazing adapability� in reorienting to Western task requirements (Biggs and Watkins, 1996: 279). Therefore, task requirements must be made explicit
� Our overriding aim, as educators, is to provide a facilitative environment in which learners can become independent and autonomous thinkers. In order to promote the adoption of appropriate learning strategies amongst our students, we need to initiate:
1. awareness: learners are made aware of pedagogical goals, contents and
strategies;
2. involvement: learners are actively involved in the learning;
3. intervention: learners are encouraged to modify and adapt their goals, learning
styles and strategies;
4. creation: learners set up their own goals and plans for self-directed learning;
5. transcendence: learners move beyond the classroom setting for independent
learning
� �Approaches and materials need to be adapted to include appropriate local cultural elements to enable students to make the necessary transitions,� (Jordan, 1997: 97). We are seeking for our students to become deep active processors but due to the percieved incongruity of particular teaching styles we must evenly navigate the course from the outset by providing a range of learning options and activities in class. This can include a mixture of teacher-led and student-led activities, focusing on form, task-based cycles, plenary sessions, work-shops, pair and group work, self-accessing opportunities, and tasks that develop understanding of how to use the language as opposed to just learning about the language
� Study skills training should be an essential componant of any course. We should be careful not to have a narrow view of what it means to possess communicative competence. In particular, and where appropriate, discourse and grammatical competencies should be developed
� Personal Development Profiles (learning logs, SWOT analyses) should be an integral part of the course where learners reflect on their own learning styles and preferences alongside intercultural considerations
� If we are truly serious about student-centred and autonomous learning, then we must incorporate into our course classroom negotiation and self-management strategies. The very proposition of negotiation is a signal to enfranchisement: �A pedagogy that does not directly call upon students� capacities to make decisions conveys to them that either they are not allowed to or that they are incapable of doing so,� (Breen and Littlejohn, 2000: 21). McDeritt (2004) calls negotiation a win-win situation which can successfully tackle issues that arise when two seemingly disparate cultures interact within the classroom. Agreeing with Nunan (1988) who suggests teachers should make explicit their educational principles from the beginning (1988: 95), McDeritt also places importance on seeking a classroom interculture, one in which �compatible elements� from the teacher�s and the learner�s culture are taken, (McDeritt, 2004: 6). The idea being that, mirroring Vygotsky, �no effective teaching can take place unless account is taken of the cultural context and social interaction within that context,� (my emphasis) (ibid.) Only by means of negotiation can these relations be successfully realised.
� Furthermore, consideration of learner characteristics such as personality, motivation, attitude, aptitude, and preferred learning styles (Skehan, 1989) can only really be incorporated into a methodology through investigation that comes from and through the learners themselves, that is by negotiation. This, indeed, takes precedence over methodological concerns: �Learner-centred teaching has far more to do with openness to learner variabilty and to learner input than with any one set of teaching procedures,� (Tudor, 1996: 240). Negotiation is, in fact, the interface between objective and subjective needs analysis.
� Is the so-called Chinese Paradox really a paradox at all? �Classrooms everywhere � require the qualities of diligence, conformity to task requirements, at least some reference to attributions to effort and strategy, respect for authority, submitting to group rules and the like� It is no wonder that [Chinese] students do so well in them,� (McCasland and Good, cited in Biggs and Watkins, 1996: 277). |
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vikdk
Joined: 25 Jun 2003
Posts: 1676
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| Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 9:01 am Post subject: |
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This is funny -
| Quote: |
| had a fabulous command of English at age 12 and could make an impromptu speech on Beethoven and Mozart or mantis and spiders because he was self-motivated and his parents encouraged him to cultivate hobbies. |
when read together with -
| Quote: |
| How then can they be "autonomous" since they depend on teachers to inform them what subjects they should be interested in? |
Since the parents of the 12 y.o. wunderkind obviously informed their precious little Johnny on what kind of subjects he could be interested in, it looks like the point Steppenwolf is trying to make is that their seems to be a conflict of interests on what is important for a child to learn - and how they should learn it. With this in mind, the major difference between modern western pedagogical method and the more trad method found in Chinese classroom could be summed up as -
In the West the teacher suggests a problem could be solved in such a manner, but experiment and find out for yourself (with the teacher acting as the figure for final guidance - showing the "correct" way).
While in China it seems the norm is that the teacher commands over what should be learnt, and this is how you should learn it (the teacher acting as the figure of authority who must be followed).
This latter method was also commonly employed in the west - only to be replaced by more enlightened reform minded practice during the post-war period. But I�ve encountered similar the types students, as those found in China, in Europe. During the nineties I worked in integration projects involving Bosnian/Croatian teenagers and their transition into Danish middle and higher-education levels. These teens had also been originally taught in textbook dominated classrooms � a hand-down from the old communist Yugoslavia - a classroom where the teacher was the authorative master and where rote learning was a common method. It took some time for these students to adapt to an educational system where they also took a good deal of responsibility for ensuring they learnt and weren�t just spoon fed with information they had to memorise. So I suspect that the type of schooling we find here has a lot to do with the authoritarian nature of the society that dishes it out - after all even though Yugoslavia wasn't too hard-line (in fact super soft-line by commie standards) � it was never considered a great idea that the mainstream population were ever taught to think too freely 
Last edited by vikdk on Sun Apr 22, 2007 9:20 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Ona Nizm
Joined: 02 Feb 2007
Posts: 32
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| Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 9:20 am Post subject: |
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The point you raise about cultural learning models is a good one. I have a question though. Should we really be looking at so-called Western and Eastern models as dichotomies i.e. putative. Is it possible that independant learning practices can be successfully instigated in China by a realignment of these distinctions?
I say this because for the first time in a long time I taught for one semester at a British university last year. Boy, were my perceptions about Western learning blown away! Many of the students were even more resistant to "active" learning than many I have known in Asia.
By dint of the locus of my research (autonomous potential in China), you might well ask if I am not engaging in cultural-specificity, betraying my own Western background. Why not investigate levels of autonomy in Greek or Polish EFL domains or even in the general educational systems in English speaking countries? There is a need for studies of this kind to be undertaken. I hope they are. My reasons for engaging in research in China on this subject, stems not from an a priori belief that Chinese learners are less able or willing to be agents of their own learning but rather that stereotypical portraits of learners (Chinese, Greek, Polish) does not help us as educators to assist learners in whatever way we can, for they are distortions of reality. As Littlewood points out: �[we should] abstract from the stereotypes the key dimensions which underlie our perceptions of them and view all learners, wherever they may be, as located differentially along these dimensions,� (Littlewood, 1999: 90-91). And to do this, to inform our learner-centred pedagogy, as I hve suggested above, we must attempt to realign the putative distinction between Western and Eastern educational paradigms, to which, in a word, this current investigation is directed.
BTW - how many Western kids have the option of not taking up viola at age ten? I certainly didn't! My mother told me I was going to learn it and there was no discussion on the issue.
Still can't play for toffee. |
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Rooster
Joined: 30 May 2005
Posts: 363
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| Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 9:49 am Post subject: |
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I agree with Step.
The "students" are robots. I told a group of younger people about how I was directed to give several presentations to my class while in school.
They were shocked that my educational system actually had me speak in public while being "trained".
I love China, but, they need this -- Hut, 2,3,4.
Let the people's minds free.
Last edited by Rooster on Sun Apr 22, 2007 10:28 am; edited 1 time in total |
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vikdk
Joined: 25 Jun 2003
Posts: 1676
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| Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 10:24 am Post subject: |
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The point you raise about cultural learning models is a good one. I have a question though. Should we really be looking at so-called Western and Eastern models as dichotomies i.e. putative. Is it possible that independant learning practices can be successfully instigated in China by a realignment of these distinctions?
I say this because for the first time in a long time I taught for one semester at a British university last year. Boy, were my perceptions about Western learning blown away! Many of the students were even more resistant to "active" learning than many I have known in Asia. |
One of the biggest problems in these forums is giving Chinese education some special independent status � always trying to explain it through a mysterious, never suitably explained, phenomena - the Chinese mindset. But here the basic student � seems no different to the basic student anywhere else � the brilliant, the challenged the extrovert the introvert etc etc. But then just to think of the Chinese student in this manner would surely be doing them a huge disservice, since their behavior patterns are so influenced by that massive factor - social conditioning. A factor that of course can be linked to "forces" that have something to do with cultural past - but is far more influenced with the constraining realities found in the social present of the local environment.
For example - the Communist past of Yugoslavia created a school system and teaching method that was very similar to present day China - in certain respects the Bosnian\Croat teens behaved, at first, in a very similar way as Chinese teenagers when confronted with student centered learning (see my last post). But here the similarity stops because the new social situation they found in their new homeland of Denmark was very different from the social situation a Chinese students finds in China - they weren't overwhelmed by an educational system that demands regime of 24/7 cramming of fact into over-pressed brains for latter regurgitation in an examination system that seems to be the - meaning of life - for a huge proportion of the population under the age of 25. No the students I met in Denmark were given both time and considerable help to attune to the new educational demands � and they were also shown that there was an acceptable alternative life if they decided not to choose higher education.
I have no doubt that Chinese students - also have no difficulty to become autonomous learners � but since education isn�t a pure science � it isn�t possible to construct a scientific formula from which we create a reaction of prefect learning � then any thinking teacher in their quest to find suggestion on improving to Chinese teaching practice should look at those situations that seem mirror the Chinese situation � regardless whether these situations involve Chinese students or not. In the situation I described, I have pointed to the fact that students when encouraged and guided can change their learning method � but, I believe, the weight of mainstream Chinese educational demand, and reliance of the average Chinese student on this system, doesn't really help the cause of any FT�s trying to make that change here.
As for those UK students - well sure they're just the same as those Chinese students - they also are overwhelmed by other duties. Finding birds and blokes - going for a pint - shopping - the hectic �I have no time to think about it� stereotypic version of the social present as experienced by the average British student. I suppose if we reflected on my Bosnian/Croat story � we could suggest a civil war in the UK � and life in a refugee center to buck-up their ideas |
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Steppenwolf
Joined: 30 Jul 2006
Posts: 1769
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| Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 5:21 am Post subject: |
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| vikdk wrote: |
This is funny -
| Quote: |
| had a fabulous command of English at age 12 and could make an impromptu speech on Beethoven and Mozart or mantis and spiders because he was self-motivated and his parents encouraged him to cultivate hobbies. |
when read together with -
| Quote: |
| How then can they be "autonomous" since they depend on teachers to inform them what subjects they should be interested in? |
Since the parents of the 12 y.o. wunderkind obviously informed their precious little Johnny on what kind of subjects he could be interested in, it looks like the point Steppenwolf is trying to make is that their seems to be a conflict of interests on what is important for a child to learn - and how they should learn it. With this in mind, the major difference between modern western pedagogical method and the more trad method found in Chinese classroom could be summed up as -
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Well, Vikdk, could you for a moment lay off your boring habit of twisting statements made by me? I can see that you are again guessing, but you are guessing wrongly and for the wrong purpose!
That boy is simply a gifted learner that would be a very good student in any western class; he has the bad fortune of having to study in China.
He has, however, very enlightened parents who don't tell him what to do, or what to be interested in. You are wrong in claiming his parents suggested he take an interest in music or entology!
His interest in spiders and insects developed during biology classes; his parents are illiterate in the matter. As for music, his mother loves western classical music, and the son often heard such music on the home stereo set.
His parents only facilitate his hobbies. He has the good luck of studying at a public school where he is NOT required to sit in the evening self-study classes. Instead he goes home and studies at home - AUTONOMOUSLY!
Most of our students need supervision during their self-study (homework) time. Not this boy!
His mother is an English teacher but she is fully aware of the limitations of her own English; her own son told her on occasion to switch to English in my presence...
Have you ever seen a Chinese child aged 12 years who told his mother to speak English with him???
I deem this extraordinary!
The father is a businessman. |
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Steppenwolf
Joined: 30 Jul 2006
Posts: 1769
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| Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 4:04 pm Post subject: |
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| Ona Nizm wrote: |
BTW - how many Western kids have the option of not taking up viola at age ten? I certainly didn't! My mother told me I was going to learn it and there was no discussion on the issue.
Still can't play for toffee. |
I was one of the kids that had NO option of taking up the viola - I never learnt to play any musical instrument...
But I developed a great interest in sports and outdoors activities and this has remained one of my passions to this day. It requires a lot of spare time that in a country such as China would collide with the priorities of the school system!
I had to do my homework autonomously whereas Chinese kids in general get pushed and supervised. In fact, their parents would regard any down time as a total waste, including playing.
As we all know, Chinese kids spend more time studying than adults spend time working in paid jobs!
There is no balance between recreational activities and learning. It springs from an insane outlook, really!
But then again, every people have the education system they deserve... The Chinese parents won't ask for a more child-friendly one!
Education may serve different purposes: in the West, it is a pursuit in the interest of furthering insights after relevant enquiries have been made. In the West the INDIVIDUAL asks questions out of curiosity; sometimes this leads to new discoveries. It certainly leads to progress in the long term.
But in China education serves different purposes: higher education simply means tickets to lifetime employment in the public administration of the community. It doesn't stimulate young minds to question traditions and ideological hand-me-downs; it merely wants to amass a body of "facts".
It's the parents that control their kids' intellectual tendencies; kids seldom get asked what they would love most to study. Personal interests hardly matter as they might compromise a child's career or future.
Then again, perhaps we should bear in mind that China is in a social transformation: the vast majroity of its citizens have a very low education themselves so they may have somewhat distorted views of what an academic degree is all about. Maybe in two or three generations they will make more educated decisions and be more experimental.
At this juncture, Chinese parents seem to perceive a once-in-alifetime opportunity to get out of grinding poverty through higher education: they invest a huge percentage of their incomes on their child's (single child!) schooling; this is an historic first! They do it for traditional reasons - in the hope their only child will land a government job and support his ageing parents.
So it's the older generation that's giving directions to the youngest generation; it has a retarding effect. Will that continue over the next five generations?
I hope not! |
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Ona Nizm
Joined: 02 Feb 2007
Posts: 32
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| Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 6:02 pm Post subject: |
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Regretably, sadly, this post seems to (already) be going the way of so many others. V and S thank you for your comments - this is no shouting match - I thought that there was a community out there to discuss educational issues but I can see that once more you two are / will be at it for some while and take this post away from what I intended - an honest discourse on something I have great interest in.
How handsome it is.
No blame here. But really fellas. |
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vikdk
Joined: 25 Jun 2003
Posts: 1676
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| Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 4:26 am Post subject: |
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Poor Ona Nizm your thread seems to have died a death that could be said to mirror many a noble attempt that�s tried to create a Chinese based student centered learning environment - suffocated by a lack of interest. After all most of this community is more interested in earning a bit of cash to further their traveling - so what did you expect.
And as for the shouting - well a bit of passion, and personal competition within the argument often generates the motivation to carry on the discussion - make yourself heard, and campaign for that you think right. If you don't believe me, then just think of your hero the great Bukowski � and reflect of how empty our world would be without his screams from the balcony!!!
And a wee tip for you to get the thread going again - instead of vaguely relating to your experiences of the so-called autonomous learner (your British and Chinese practice), why not give more detailed accounts of how you organised these environments, and the hows and the whys relating to student reaction (is this more movie magic stuff). This, and more simplified language, (I know from other forums you can write more like a regular person rather than an amusing parody of an academic)) should encourage others to participate rather than just the Vik/step windbag duo |
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InTime
Joined: 06 Dec 2005
Posts: 1676
Location: CHINA-at-large
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| Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 6:22 am Post subject: |
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Check out BELOW from Journal of Imagination in Language Learning
http://www.njcu.edu/cill/journal-index.html
Autonomous Learning through Cinema:One Learner 's Memories
Who am I in English? Developmenting a Language Ego
Whole Brain Learning and Relaxation Techniques
Check out the on-line book Learning Revolution, which sold 10 million in China.
http://www.thelearningweb.net/page011.html
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RolePlay/Whole-Brain learning---these are my particular autonomy-inducing interests.
Our Shanghai theatre group just finished up a month of intensive rehearsals, and we just gave 6 performances this past weekend of the classic USA play "Our Town." We are not paid...all intrinsically motivated...and...our Director brought us all to new levels of performance/Being.
BELOW is from the 1st page of the Promoting Change thread on the JOB-Related page.
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One difficulty with English conversation
centers/corners is that the unstructured dynamic
frequently loses focus. The members and conversation
partners often experience the awkward feeling of a
first date--trying to think of things to say, having
uncomfortable periods of silence, wishing they were
somewhere else.
DVD movies will be an essential element for this project.
All members will share the experience of viewing the film, so conversation will have a common focus. In addition, we can offer:
*a wide range of movie reviews for each movie--promoting vocabulary development/critical thinking/active discussions
(available at www.imdb.com)
*movie scripts (available at www.script-o-rama.com)
Over the years, L2 teachers have developed a wide range of communicative techniques based upon the creative use of movie segments, such as:
VIEWING COMPREHENSION (with sound off)
DIALOGUE BUILDING (with sound off)
AURAL ONLY PREDICTION (with sound only)
PREDICTIVE VIEWING--What will happen?
REVERSE PREDICTION--What happened before the sequence seen?
JIGSAW VIEWING (Only half the viewers see the sequence, and they relate it to those who haven't. Replay it to compare.)
Such approaches can create an enhanced learning environment, in harmony with Krashen's principles:
*A RICH VARIETY OF COMPREHENSIBLE INPUT
*A LOW-ANXIETY SITUATION
*REAL MESSAGES OF REAL INTEREST
A short (1 to 3 minutes) close-captioned movie segment offers the learner a synergistic schemata of opportunities for comprehensible INPUT. The visual images themselves are comprehensible and are stored
in the students' memories as EXPERIENCES, rather than as a language lesson that must be "studied/learned" because the teacher will test the students for their ability to "remember" the lesson.
A schematic tapestry of English words becomes associated with the movie's images and emotions. Plot, character, emotion--these are the 'hooks' by which the language becomes comprehensible input and stored intake. This dynamic is quite different from the artificial approaches typically used--vocabulary lists, linear progressions in grammar complexity etc.)
To use another metaphor, the memories of the movie segment can be seen as gravitational schemata which can attract and retain words associated with the images. As the learner thinks of a scene, an
ever-expanding constellation of words and sentences can become linked in the memory with a pleasant (LOW-ANXIETY) experience, rich with REAL MESSAGES OF REAL INTEREST. As the learner thinks of one character,
a tremendous variety of adjectives and actions can become part of the schemata.
This is in harmony with the episode hypothesis, which states that "text (i.e. discourse in any form) will be easier to produce, understand, and recall to the extent that it is motivated and structured episodically...these ideas lead to the supposition that perhaps second language teaching would be more successful if it incorporated principles of good story
writing along with the benefits of sound linguistic analysis." (Oller)
In addition to discussion of the movies, Members and Dialogue Partners will also be active in role play based upon the movie segments. In Why Drama Works: A Psycholinguistic, Susan Stern at UCLA brings together
a wide range of research relating to the power of role play for creating an enjoyable and effective second language environment:
*MOTIVATION "The purposefulness of dramatic activity
can provide a strong instrumental motivation for
language learning...Moulding emphasized that drama
provides the context for a meaningful exchange in
which participants see a reason to communicate, and
focuses on 'how to do things' with the language rather
than on merely 'how to describe things.' Malley and
Duff explained that language teaching has tended to
kill motivation by divorcing the intellectual aspects
of language (vocabulary + structures) from its body
and emotions, limiting instruction to the former.
Dramatic techniques restore the body and emotions to
language learning, thereby restoring emotion."
*SELF-ESTEEM "An analogy between acting and martial
arts suggested by Via explains one way in which drama
helps self-confidence. Just as a yell accompanies the
strike in order to build the confidence and increase
the energy of the attacker, so a strong and clear
voice (necessary when performing) gives the language
learner confidence. Drama also raises self-esteem by
demonstrating to L2 learners that they are indeed
capable of expressing themselves in realistic
communicative settings."
*SENSITIVITY TO REJECTION "L2 learners who are afraid
of what others may think of their less-than-perfect
comand of the language will be inhibited in using it.
This is especially true of adults. Several educators
have found that drama creates a
non-threateningsituation which can reduce and even
eliminate sensitivity to rejection."
*EMPATHY 'Guiora explains that emphathic capacity is
dependent upon the ability to partially and
temporarily suspend the functions that maintain one's
separateness from others (usually called ego
boundaries)...Guiora et al. hypothesize that ability
to approximate native-like pronunciation in a second
language is related to the flexibility or permeability
of one's ego boundaries.
*SPONTANEITY "Mann explains that persons in the
spontaneous state completely forget the existence of
the audience or cease to be completely about its
reactions...'In varying degrees the person in such a
state acts as though inspired. He draws on resources
which neither he nor his friends may have thought he had
at his disposal.' If this state can be induced in L2
learners via drama, the usual gap between thought and
statement which ceases to exist in the native
language might cease to exist in the second language
as well."
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james s
Joined: 07 Feb 2007
Posts: 676
Location: Raincity
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