Learner-centred

Learner-Centered South Asian Language Instruction
SALRC Pedagogy Workshop
June 6, 2005


J. Scott Payne
Penn State University
[email protected]
Why Use Technology to Promote SLA?
Not for the sake of using it!
Provides access to rich, authentic, multimedia learning material.
Technology can transform tasks from a cognitive perspective.
Enhances communication inside and outside of the classroom.
Promotes collaboration
Provides additional practice
Brings together learners separated by geography.
“I don’t have time to do technology, my curriculum is already packed!”
Don’t add technology to your curriculum, use technology to transform how you teach!
Not Additive - Transformative!
Fundamental Questions About Language Teaching
What should we teach?
How should we teach it?
When should we teach it?
How do we measure language development?
What should the basis be for such decisions?
What should we teach?
lexical items
Listening, speaking, reading, and writing
grammar structures
cultural understanding
not to mention non-linguistic skills, domains, or perspectives
How should we teach it?
Language teaching methodologies
role of the instructor
responsibilities of learners
linguistic authority
When should we teach it?
Order of acquisition (e.g. Piennemann, 1998)
Focus on vocabulary first and worry about grammar later?
“Silent period”
Receptive to productive (Nunan, 1999)
Language first, culture later?
How do we measure language development?
course exams (grammar, listening comprehension, vocabulary, etc)
written work
oral exams
standardized tests
recording and analyzing the naturally-occurring language use of our students.
What should the basis be for such decisions?
teacher intuition
formal grammars
the needs of teachers (prepare students for reading belletristic texts).
the needs of students
how native-speakers actually use the language in authentic contexts
the language learners` L1
What is the best method for teaching language?
Grammar translation
Audio-lingual method (behaviorist)
Communicative approach
Natural approach
Proficiency-oriented
Methods that emphasize cognitive processing (e.g. Van Patten’s input processing)
Constructivist methodologies
Learner-Centered Language Instruction
What is meant by “learner-centered” instruction?
Strong view:
Learners have the right to help decide what they should learn
How they should learn
How they are evaluated
Weak view:
Learners taught about learning processes.
Encouraged to take greater responsibility for their own learning.
Choices about what is taught, how it is taught, when it is taught, and how learning is assessed revolve around the learner.
Learners must often learn how to learn.
Negotiated Curricula
Arguments for involving learners in content choices:
Adults learn best when content is personally relevant.
Learners react to experience as they perceive them, not as presented by the teacher.
Actively involving learners in the learning process - they do all the work.
Preparing learners for learner-centered instruction
Step 1: Make instructional goals clear to learners.
Step 2: Allow learners to create their own goals.
Action meetings
Step 3: Encourage learners to use their L2 outside the classroom.
Listen to authentic materials
Participate in forums
Step 4: Raise awareness of learning processes.
Discuss learning strategies with students
Design tasks that train the use of good strategies (e.g. semantic-mapping listening activity)
Preparing Learners for Learner-Centered Instruction
Step 5: Help learners identify their preferred styles and strategies.
Discuss how task design impact cognitive processing and can either enhance or encumber learning.
Step 6: Encourage learner choice.
Different options/formats of an activity
Step 7: Allow learners to generate their own tasks.
Provide them with the objectives and let them design the task.
Preparing Learners for Learner-Centered Instruction
Step 8: Encourage learners to become teachers.
Develop video materials used for teaching in subsequent courses.
Write quizzes for each other
Grammar workshops
Rotating small-group discussion leader
Step 9: Encourage learners to become researchers.
Learners record the hypotheses they formulate about the L2, investigate them, discuss them with classmates.
Data-driven learning (Wednesday)
Document and analyze their own language over time - speech portfolio (Thursday).
Task-Based Language Teaching
What is a task?
Real world task - things people need to do to function in the target culture.
Pedagogical task - promote language proficiency development.
Task versus Exercise: a task has a non-linguistic outcome, and exercise has a linguistic outcome.
Principles of Task Design
Authenticity: language data which have not been created for teaching language, but are naturally-occurring.
Form-Function: teaching language in ways that make form-function relationships transparent and use inductive and deductive reasoning.
Task dependency: sequencing tasks in a logical way so that a series of task create a “pedagogical ladder.”
Thematic units
Multi-stage activities
Project-based learning
Project-Based Learning
Goal is the creation of an artifact, not language learning per se.
Language is the vehicle, not the goal.
Examples:
Cultural website (e.g. city tour, theme or topic)
Video projects (more on Thurs.-Fri.)
If you are doing a lot of work, you are doing something wrong!
Repurposing eCommerce Websites for Language Instruction
Migros online supermarket - http://www.le-shop.ch/
Household furnishings - http://www.ikea.com/
Clothing - http://www1.landsend.de/
Jobs
http://www.yahoo.jobpilot.de/gateway/yahoo/index.phtml
http://jobdumping.de/
Restaurants, Hotels, Tourist information
Exercise in Pedagogical Website Deconstruction
See worksheet
Four Questions:
Who designed this website?
What were the objectives for this design – its intended pedagogical use?
How could this website be integrated into a learner-centered classroom?
Which of Nunan’s Nine steps does this website support?
Learner-Centered Unit Design
Begin preparing a learner-centered instructional unit that either repurposes websites for pedagogical purposes or integrates existing pedagogical websites.