Purva Srivastava

2/12/2010

Module 6 PROVIDING LEARNERS WITH LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGIES Language learning theories that promote learners autonomy:
1. The Communicative Approach 2. Task Based Learning 3. The Silent Way 4. Total physical Response The Communicative Approach This approach focuses mainly on the importance of various language functions and forms which need to be used appropriately in a variety of contexts and for a variety of purposes. The approach is based on the premise that for the development of the students knowledge and skill, its essential to give them plentiful exposure to language in use and plenty of opportunities to use it. Thus the activities used involve students in real or realistic communication, where the accuracy of the language they use is less important than successful completion of the communicative task they are performing. The most important thing is that the students should have a desire and purpose to communicate i.e. They should be given activities which simulate the real life situations and they should be able to perform these communicative tasks focussing more on the content of what they are saying or writing rather than on a particular language form. Instead they are encouraged to use a variety of language rather than sticking to a particular language structure. The role of the teacher during the discussion phase is limited to monitoring the students communication but he/she doesnt intervene to stop the activity. In fact the language material that he/she selects for any given topic dont highlight any specific language structure but gives freedom to the students to use whatever language they can. Thus facilitating replicating a real communication.

How this approach promotes learners autonomy: The role of a Teacher in communicative classrooms is more of a facilitator or a monitor. The teacher sets the exercise or the activity and then steps back and the learners take the control of the activity. In other words, since all the activities are based on simulating the real life situations, the students may be given a model of the dialogue in a role play but they then have to recreate the dialogue by using language items of their own choice. The teacher can only monitor their discussion but cant intervene. The students are active most of the time going around the classroom talking to other students. The students are expected and encouraged to interact with other students through pair-work, group work or in writing often right from the start of the session. The teacher also cant say what language the students will use as it is entirely left to the students to perform the task using any language they want.

Since this approach involves and emphasises simulating the real life, the activities involve the students to communicate in situation that they come across in their day-to-day life. Role-plays and simulations have become very popular in this approach. A typical communicative approach

role-play , for e.g., will involve the teacher and a student acting out a dialogue in which a customer has to return a faulty object that she had purchased to a department store. The shop assistant asks what the problem is and then promises to get a refund for the customer or to replace it. In groups then the students try to recreate the dialogue using language items of their own choice. Simulation and information gaps activities that involve students to simulate a television programme, for e.g., or an information gap wherein both the students get the same map but students A doesnt have bank written on it and thus has to find out where it is by communicating and asking the right questions from students B. Thus again the students are actively involved in recreating dialogues in situations that theyd come across in real life.

Task Based Learning Task based learning mainly relies on students being presented with a task that they have to perform or a problem that they have to solve. In this teaching method students are believed to be learning not by being presented with a language structure and then practicing it, but by producing the language while carrying out the main task. The tasks mainly involve a dialogue in which a conclusion is reached or a problem is solved. And the dialogues are again based on their real life scenarios. Therefore the language studies during the lesson is not pre-determined by the teacher before the lesson, it is chosen by the students themselves while carrying out the task. The lesson follows three stages, the Pre-task part, the Task cycle and the language focus. In the beginning of the lesson the teacher introduces the topic without concentrating on the language. He or she might ask some questions in order to check the students familiarity with the topic. During the task stage, the students concentrate on carrying out the task or solve a problem. The teacher acts as an observer and does not actively participate in this part of the lesson. The next part of the lesson is planning and reporting wherein the students plan a report that theyll make in front of the whole class based on how they performed te activity. And then the students report the activity to the whole class. The next part of the lesson is language analysis. Its in this part that the language and its structures used are looked at and the error correction takes place. The teacher chooses which structures are to be highlighted and presented to the students. The teacher may also decide to practice some of the language structures used in the activity using practice exercises. How it promotes learners autonomy: The task based learning method offers an autonomous learning style from the start. This method offers the students the freedom to use and share their knowledge. This freedom allows the students to produce the language they choose during the task part of the lesson. Thus students are left on their own while they are performing the task. The teacher gives clear instructions about the task and then the learners have to carry out the task with whatever language input they have. The teacher doesnt intervene and let the students be on their own. The students are free to use any language or grammar items. This allows them to use all the language they know and are learning rather than restrict to one language structure. Also since the tasks are likely to be familiar with the students day to day life, they are more active and involved. A typical task based learning approach lesson will include, for e.g. the teacher showing some regalia like a bus time-table and asking them certain questions about it. Then the teacher distribute separate cards to student A and student B. Each card has an information gap exercise. So student A has the train time table to go to a certain place and the student B needs to go to the same place but doesnt have any information about the train time-table. He is then supposed to ask questions from student A in order to get information regarding the fare, time and facilities provided on the train. Similarly, student B has the bus time table o go to some place where student a needs to go. They then perform the same dialogue asking and answering for the purpose of getting information.

As already mentioned, the teacher encourages the students to perform the task on their own with no help from his/her side. After the students carry out the task, they are then expected to plan a report regarding how they found the task and what expressions tetchiest ask for time, fare and facilities available on board. Then each pair assigns a reporter, and reports to the class while the other students compare their notes with that of the speakers. At this stage too, the students work on their own with the teacher offering help only with the language the students may need to report the task to the class but he/she doesnt correct the expressions used to ask for information. After each pair has reported as required, the teacher then analysis the language aspects used to ask for information. Thus from the start till the end of the task and its reporting, the students are on their own, participating and taking responsibility for the task.

The Silent way The name of this approach itself suggests that the teacher must remain silent for mot of the time and that the students participate actively in the lesson. Silence is in fact regarded as the best instrument for learning in any classroom according to this technique. The teacher tries to speak as less as possible and the whole responsibility to carry out the activities is on the students shoulder. In fact the very skill of learning is regarded as a problem solving a discovering technique in which the learners act and participates rather than just listening passively to the teacher. Use of certain physical objects facilitate learning in the classroom. These physical objects create memorable images that facilitate students recall. How it promotes learners autonomy: Since there is very less speaking done by the teacher, the very premise of this approach means that the learners take the front seat and direct the lesson. In fact this method enables a very high degree of interaction not only between the students but also between the teacher and the student. The whole lesson is built upon students cooperation and help for each other. It also help increase the self-esteem of the students as they learn almost all by themselves. There are several objects that the teacher may use in the classroom. For e.g. A set of coloured wooden rods can be used to represent situations. Each rod will highlight a specific and a different colour and each colour will in turn stand for a special character. For e.g. A white rod could be used by the teacher to represent himself. A black rod could be used to represent certain number of people and a green rod can be made to represent certain number of cars. The students understand the meaning of the colours and what they signify after the teacher points out to the colour and then what it stands for. After the students understand the meaning of each colour, the teacher then presents a certain everyday situation and may also feature some grammatical aspects of the language which the students need to figure out themselves.

5 learning strategies that promote learning: 1. Memory strategy 2. Cognitive-knowledge 3. Compensation 4. Meta cognitive 5. Affective 6. Social strategy

1. Memory Strategy This strategy primarily involves using visuals such as pictures, charts etc and realia to facilitate learning in the classroom. The obvious reason for using viuals is that it immediately involver the students and helps create long lasting visual images for the students that they can recall much after they have picked up the concept. E.g. The teacher wishes to introduce certain vocabulary related to accommodation like apartment/flat, townhouse, en suite, refuse, mod cons, fully furnished, one/two three bedrooms, studio apartment etc. Even before the students have elicited all the target vocabulary, they have seen the pictures, and have related them to their day to day life as they may see them almost everyday. The learners then discuss with each other and find words for each picture. Thus the students actively participate in eliciting the target vocabulary. They try to give names to the pictures from whatever prior knowledge they may have. This helps them to be active in the lesson rather than passively listening to the teacher. It also helps the teacher as the focus of the lesson then shifts to the students who work with their partners to come up with the words. The role of the teacher is to then monitor and elicit the right language items from the students.

2. Cognitive This strategy involves the students reading for pleasure and yet taking in information. It works well in the case of those learners who find reading boring. In most of the cases, the students dont like to read when its done in the form of a task i.e. They are told that theyd be doing reading that day and given an article and certain questions that need to be answered based on the article. Instead if the students interest is generated by just the discussion of the topic which should be stimulating enough for the learners. It may also involve giving certain tasks to the students to read something at home and then asking them answer a few questions that checks their understanding whatever they have read. E.g. The teacher tells the students to select whichever book they like from the library. They are then given a few days time to read it and after that the students are expected to share with the class the tilt of the book, why they chose that book and why thy recommend the other students to read it. I this way they are reading and comprehending a book with a purpose and also are trying to convince the other students to read it thus taking the responsibility to analyse the reading material all by themselves.

3. Compensation This method works well especially in the case of any new vocabulary that the learners come across almost everyday in the lesson. A number of times, it becomes difficult for the teacher to clarify the meaning of each and every word and it is also not possible for the learners to take in so much of vocabulary input. Thus the students become active and try and guess the meaning of the new words by looking at the context. E.g. The students have been given an article to read which has a number of words related to money like pay off rent, accumulate debt, contribute to phone bill, strapped for cash, etc. Since none of these words hinder the students understanding of the article, the teacher asks the students to not give much importance to these words and that they will do them after some time. Then after the main questions about the article have been answered, the students are given sentences with the difficult words from the text in the form of fill ins. The students then work with partners, read the sentence with fill in, look for the context within the article and guess the meaning. They then fill in the blank with the target vocabulary and then the teacher gives feedback. Thus it compensates for the students not knowing the meaning as they try o find it out from the context given.

4. Meta Cognitive This learning strategy involves the teacher underlining or circling the mistakes made by the students and the students then deciding what the error is and rectifying it. This strategy enables the students to actively participate and correct their own errors. E.g. As the teacher monitors any discussion of the students in the classroom, he, she notes down all the errors made by them and then after the discussion is over and the feedback on the discussion is given to the students, the teacher puts up the mistakes made by the students on the board. He/she either underline the mistake, encircle it or just right the mistake with a symbol, e.g. WO(word order). The students then are supposed to work individually or in pairs/groups and correct their mistakes.

5.Affective This strategy involves the teacher to create an environment suitable for language learning. The teacher is supposed to let the students relax, make sure their is enough air in the classroom, the temperature of the room is o.k. Its also based on the premise that if the students get an ideal background, especially related to the topic that they will discuss in the class, it will help them take in the language input better and faster and will also set the mood for the activity thus involving the students and stimulating their interest. E.g. The students are going to conduct a role-play in a restaurant. One students needs to take the order and the others need to decide what they want to order .In order to stimulate the interest of the students, the teacher dims the light in the room a little and may be provide a soft music playing in the background to simulate the real life situation. The background in this case enable a total immersion of the students in the task and they take the role play seriously.

Three tasks conducted inside/outside the classroom that promote learners autonomy: 1. Role play The students are given a situation in the classroom relating to any topic that they have discussed in the class. E.g. The students have just discussed vocabulary related to accommodation. The students are then given a set of advertisement from the accommodation section of the newspaper and model a role play on any one of the advertisements. They are supposed to imagine themselves to be the landlord and the others to be people looking for a house to rent. The teacher just sets the role play in this manner and the students the figure out what questions to ask as people who are looking for house and how to answer these questions from the point of view of the landlord. The role of the teacher is just to monitor the discussion and note down any errors that the students make. He/she cant interrupt the students until absolutely necessary. The student thus perform the task on their own using the vocabulary that has been pre taught to them.

2. Treasure Hunt The students are told that they will go on a treasure hunt. They are also told what they may win if they reach the treasure first. Then the students are given a map which starts from point A and they need to reach point B following certain directions. They may seek assistance on their way to point B by asking for clues or they may be given clues on the map itself. But they are forbidden to ask for the point B straightaway. The students then work on their own or with their partner .and figure out the directions themselves. They are also supposed to think of the language input that they will use in the whole process. This activity stimulate the interest of the learners as it has a prize involved. And other than having the map and some clues on it, the students are left entirely on their own to reach the required destination.

3. Summary of a text

As a task for promoting learners autonomy outside the classroom, the students are asked to read any book/newspaper article of their choice. They are then supposed to share with the class a few points related to the article/book e.g. Why did they chose the book, will they recommend it to the class to read and why and also two things that they may have learnt from it. The students may also be asked to summarise the article or a short story that they have read making it interesting in some way. So they can bring realia that they can relate to the article or they make certain charts of pictures corresponding to the story which will stimulate the interest of the other students too.