TASK 1: (b) ACADEMIC WRITING

Learning a language other than the first language is one of the most complex

accomplishments humans achieve. Research has long established that children

learning their first language take at least eight years in an immersion situation to

master many of the more complex grammatical constructions of their language and

there are no shortcuts in mastering a language. In Malaysia, English has been the

second language (L2) for the country, seeing it as an important language that

needed to be learned, an effective learning theory of building L2 speakers need to be

implemented. One of learning theories that helps in teaching the students in

understanding English is Cognitivism theory. This theory works at all field including

language and here in Malaysia, English language.

Cognitivism is a learning theory that focuses on how information is received,

organized, stored and retrieved by the mind. Cognitivism emphasises retention and

recall through the quality teaching practices. A cognitive theory of learning sees

second language acquisition as a conscious and reasoned thinking process that

involves the deliberate use of learning strategies. This language learning theory

contrasts with the behaviourism learning theory which sees language learning as an

unconscious and automatic process. Cognitive theories stress the acquisition of

knowledge and internal mental structures that concerned not so much with what the

learners do but with what they know and how they come to acquire it. Knowledge

acquisition is described as a mental activity that entails internal coding and

structuring by the learner. The learner is viewed as a very active participant in the

learning process.
 In the classroom, relevant activities include review and revision, list of

vocabulary, question-answers, analysis and discussion of language and topics are

consider as the application of cognitivism theory. During the SBE (School Based

Experience), an English teacher teaches her students about playground in her class

of standard four students. She applies the cognitivism theory in her lesson. The

information that being shared, passed on and extended to another level of

knowledge is the process occurred by using this theory as cognitive itself related to

brain activities and the memory.

Memory plays an important role in the learning process to organise the

information in a meaningful manner. Teachers are responsible for assisting learners

in organizing the information by using organisers, analogies and revision which also

can help the learners to relate new information to prior knowledge that are stored in

the memory. Revision is another important element in this theory because learners

or students tend to forget the knowledge that they have gained if they did not do any

revision. Forgetting is the inability to retrieve information from memory because of

interference, memory loss or missing or inadequate cues needed to access

information. Example from the SBE, the respective teacher revises all the knowledge

that they get and learn at the end of the lesson by repeating the main points and

information of the activities which helps the student to remember the lesson.
 During the SBE, the teacher has plan a lesson related to English and she has

been using this theory, cognitivism in her class. The lesson is divided into five phase

which each phase consist of different activities to be done by the students. The main

element that the teacher wants to teach the students is related to the students’

common environment or situation which is the playground. The lesson’s activities are

coincided with Gagne’s three principles of learning which are providing instruction on

the set of component, ensuring that each task is mastered and sequencing the task

to ensure the optimal transfer to the final task. It can be proven when in each activity,

the teacher gives a brief explanation about the activity and whenever there is a

student who does not understand about the procedures of the activity, she briefly

explains it again to the classroom. There is time frame for each activity during that

lesson and she will make sure that the activity is completed by each student in their

respective groups. Within the time given, the teacher assists the students until they

mastered the activity and connecting the knowledge that they learn to the prior

knowledge stored in the memory. Last principle that she uses is planning sequenced

task for the students as by the end of the lesson, the knowledge gained by the

students in each activity builds a new prior knowledge and in this case, prior

knowledge about the playground such, situations that can occur at the playground,

things that they can and cannot do and the consequences of the attitudes showed at

the playground to themselves and also the community.

verbally enhances recall and recognition. This is called dual coding which assumes

that people process information through both images and language. The teacher

uses both visuals to attract the students’ attention and verbal to explain something

briefly for the students to understand better. A large body of research indicates that

visual cues help leaners to better retrieve and remember information. The research

outcomes on visual learning make complete sense when considering that the brain is

mainly an image processor not a word processor. In fact, the part of the brain used

to process words is quite small in comparison to the part that processes visual

images. Here the teacher use pictures of equipment that can be found at the

playground and she relates the existed equipment to the action that can be done

using the equipment such the picture of swing that used for swinging. Indirectly, the

students accept the information given by the teacher through visual easily as they

can relate it to their own experience at the playground. In this process of learning,

students’ cognitive is developed as they tries to relate the prior knowledge to the

extra knowledge of language used in describing something because the teacher

actually focusing on teaching English lesson to the students.

Learning is contextual is one of the cognitivism principles. Learners learn in

relationship to what else they know, what they believe, the prejudices and

fears. One needs knowledge to learn as it is impossible to assimilate new

knowledge without having some structure developed from previous knowledge to

build on. The more we know, the more we can learn. Therefore any effort to teach

must be connected to the state of the students must provide a path into the subject

for the learner based on that learner's previous knowledge. Teacher should plan a

lesson plan that connects lesson to the students’ own experiences which close to the
students’ lives. The teacher that teaches students at SK Pengkalan Raja relates the

lesson to the students’ life as she creates a situation where most of the students

have been through it like the experience on going to the playground. In the lesson,

the students are required to construct sentences to complete the task and the task

force the students to dig back the memories that they have regarding the place. The

sentences then corrected by the teacher if and only if there are mistake in those

sentences. Students through this actually learn language by the construction of new

words that they learn from the teacher and also the rules of making a sentence.

In teaching and learning under the cognitivism theory, teachers should create an

environment with lots of tools for developing an understanding of the topic such

realia to promote the students’ memory and knowledge. Teachers should monitor

students’ progress and ask lots of questions for confirmations of students’

understanding on a lesson. Teachers also should provide use visual and verbal

teaching methods like the use of flashcards and images which trigger the brain to

understand better in a short time period. Using todays’ technology, it can provide

pictures, videos and charts to enhance learning for example computer video clip and

topic-related images from the web. In this theory of learning, students should think

deeply and answer questions about the topic to develop their understanding further.

Failure can be a good thing as it helps the student recognize that they need to learn

more to achieve mastery of the topic. Cognitivist theory is a great theory to follow

when teaching as it is required by the students to learn effectively. Cognitivism is a

theory that relates with the process of gaining knowledge, remembering knowledge,

building new knowledge from the prior knowledge and anything that involves

thinking. Learning requires the students or the learners to think and when it comes to

thinking, it involves cognitive that related to cognitivism.