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Your Attitude Counts When Learning English - 7 Stages Of Language Learning (part 2a)
Types of learners So, as you can see from the previous articles we all follow in the same patterns of learning. Predictable isn’t it? But adult learners everywhere, bring an assortment of experiences, needs, wishes, and fears to the learning process. We know that. Just a look around one of our classrooms will show us several different types of learners (with significant overlap of course) Auditory Learners Visual Learners will do best in a visual environment. (Today technology has taken visual aids in the classroom to the next level.) Kinesthetic learners are the type of learners that captivates new information by touching or manipulating objects. (These students respond well to Total Physical Response methodologies (TPR) All these types of learners will respond better to different stimuli. What’s more all of us have widely different attributions. DEFINITION Attributions: Your perceptions of the causes of your behavior and your actions. In this case we want to address attributions towards learning. What we do is to help you to adjust some of those mental sets to make you more successful in your assimilation of the language. We want to help you realize that you are in control of your learning. How do we do that? Well take a look at the following chart which will illustrate what I’m trying to say. We want our students to attribute their success or shortcomings to the factors in yellow. INTERNAL FACTORS EXTERNAL FACTORS NO CONTROL ABILITY LUCK CONTROL EFFORT TASK DIFFICULTY Students who learn English with us have real control over their learning will more likely fall into the yellow section of the grid. They attribute their success or failure to an Internal + Effort explanation. And students like you who plan to control their learning are more likely to persevere in spite of temporary setbacks. This is because confidence and enjoyment in your learning is not tied to your immediate success. Learning is innate, but the way you learn has itself to be taught. That’s what we do. To give an example, a smoker may attribute his smoking to the fact that his parents smoked heavily. Or he may attribute it to stress in his life. If he attributes it to stress then there is a chance he can find alternatives to coping with that stress (something that is inside his control). But if he attributes it to his parent’s smoking (which is outside his control) he may never quit. Likewise with language learning we encounter many attributions which are negative in terms of achieving student’s goals. We’ve all met students who believe that they are poor language learners. You’ll hear other students say they believe they are successful learners. And there are people who believe they can never learn anything properly. But I would like to share something else with you. The key factor is not your ability or what you believe about your ability right now. The key factor is knowing that you can control the important elements that direct your language learning. This gives you confidence. In the case of languages that’s an easy argument to make. Humans are hard wired for language learning. It’s built in. Left in a foreign country without instruction you would eventually learn to communicate just through associative listening. But we want to take this one step further. Our aim is to help you adjust any negative attributions towards learning you may have. Attribution retraining helps students to 1. concentrate on the tasks rather than becoming distracted by fear of failure 2. respond to frustration by retracing their steps to find mistakes or figuring out alternative ways of approaching a problem instead of giving up 3. attribute their failures to insufficient effort, lack of information, or reliance on ineffective strategies rather than to lack of ability (Brophy 1986). There are many ways to approach the issue of student attitudes. We try to help students become more successful learners though working in a supportive environment, through personal assessment and feedback, through use of physical or competitive tasks and layered activity learning. We also believe a social network of teachers and students is helpful when you encounter learning barriers. There are many methods but only one goal. Our mission is to create a positive feedback loop so students approach problems in a positive mindset. And again, in this area of learning theory, mental rehearsal forms a key part in creating an enjoyable learning pattern Kick back, relax – let your brain do the work Learning the guitar I was once told is all about relieving stress. Things that are automatic and rapid happen without thought and without any stress. Language learning is no different. Through the experience of our teachers we have found that EFL students make better, faster, progress in the long run if they are given sufficient time to absorb new input and are not pressured to complete work or meet performance expectations right away. Nurturing confident learning is the key. The effect of stress on learning has been termed “downshifting.” As students are put under more pressure the domain of higher thinking & the learning centres in the brain, (situated in the neocortex) begin function less efficiently, and sometimes shut down entirely leading to a “mental block.” So what better than to sit back, relax and listen to the sound of success? If you start to worry about it you really will be doing yourself no favors at all. A relaxed student is a successful student. We hope that every student will have fun as they a href="http://www.ulearn.ie/learn_english_dublin">learn english in Dublin. Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com ULearn English school Dublin can offer you a quality English course no matter what your level or age. Contact us today for a free level test and we will start you in an English class that suits you! ULearn has been helping students from around the world to learn English in Dublin for the last 25 years. We are offering some very special offers for students looking to learn English in 2011. You can now study for 15 hours per |
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