8/3/2019 03 Reflection on Language

1/17

REFLECTION ONREFLECTION ONLANGUAGELANGUAGE

REFLECTION ONREFLECTION ONLANGUAGELANGUAGE

WHAT?WHAT?WHY?WHY?

HOW?HOW?

Caroline Moore

March, 2006

8/3/2019 03 Reflection on Language

2/17

WHAT DO WE MEAN BY

REFLECTION ON LANGUAGE? ...this is a stage for students toconduct reflective observation oflanguage, which means that

students themselves must try tomake sense of how languageworks. By doing so, students moveto a stage of abstractconceptualisation, in which they

make generalisations aboutlanguage. The teacher should seekto promote and guide reflection,and redirect it when necessary.[Planes y programas. Ingls, p.18]

8/3/2019 03 Reflection on Language

3/17

IN OTHER WORDS... ...this is a stage for students toconduct reflective observation oflanguage, which means that

students themselves must try tomake sense of how languageworks. By doing so, students moveto a stage of abstractconceptualisation, in which they

make generalisations aboutlanguage. The teacher should seekto promote and guide reflection,and redirect it when necessary.[Planes y programas. Ingls, p.18]

8/3/2019 03 Reflection on Language

4/17

WHY ENCOURAGE

REFLECTION ON LANGUAGE? IT FITS WITH A

CONSTRUCTIVE APPROACH TO

LEARNING

IT IS PART OF EXPERIENTIALLEARNING

8/3/2019 03 Reflection on Language

5/17

The Experiential Learning

Cycle CONCRETE

EXPERIENCE

ACTIVE REFLECTIVEEXPERIMENTATION OBSERVATION

ABSTRACTCONCEPTUALISATION

[Kolb 1984]

8/3/2019 03 Reflection on Language

6/17

HUMANS HAVE A NATURALTENDENCY AND ABILITY TO MAKESENSE OF LANGUAGE AND TO

SYSTEMATISE IT

SUCCESFUL LEARNERS AREACTIVELY INVOLVED IN LOOKING

FOR REGULARITIES IN LANGUAGEDATA AND IN DRAWINGCONCLUSIONS FROM THOSEREGULARITIES.

8/3/2019 03 Reflection on Language

7/17

AWARENESS-RAISING EMPOWERSLEARNERS TO TAKE A MORE ACTIVEAND CONSCIOUS PART IN THEIRLEARNING.

AWARENESS RAISING DEVELOPS

A HEALTHY SPIRIT OF ENQUIRYWHICH IS A POSITIVE SKILL FORLIFE.

8/3/2019 03 Reflection on Language

8/17

HOW DO WE FACILITATE

REFLECTION ON LANGUAGE? ...this is a stage for students toconduct reflective observation oflanguage, which means that

students themselves must try tomake sense of how languageworks. By doing so, students moveto a stage of abstractconceptualisation, in which they

make generalisations aboutlanguage. The teacher should seekto promote and guide reflection,and redirect it when necessary.[Planes y programas. Ingls, p.18]

8/3/2019 03 Reflection on Language

9/17

ISOLATE A SPECIFIC LINGUISTICFEATURE FOR FOCUSEDATTENTION.

PROVIDE SUFFICIENT DATA WHICHILLUSTRATES THE TARGETEDFEATURE

ENCOURAGE LEARNERS TO UTILIZEINTELLECTUAL EFFORT TOUNDERSTAND THE TARGET

FEATURE.

8/3/2019 03 Reflection on Language

10/17

REFLECTION WITHIN THE

EXPERIENTIAL CYCLECONCRETEEXPERIENCE

ACTIVE REFLECTIVE

EXPERIMENTATION OBSERVATION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPTUALISATION NOTICE

DRAWCONCLUSIONS

RE-ORGANISE

VIEW OF LANGUAGE

8/3/2019 03 Reflection on Language

11/17

TECHNIQUES FOR

ENCOURAGING REFLECTION

IDENTIFY / CONSOLIDATE

Learners search a set of data to identify aspecific pattern or use of a languageform.

CLASSIFYlearners work with a set of data and sort

it according to similarities anddifferences

8/3/2019 03 Reflection on Language

12/17

HYPOTHESIS BUILDINGLearners make generalisations about

language and then check these against

more language data.

CROSS LANGUAGE COMPARISON

Learners identify similarities anddifferences between L1 and L2.

8/3/2019 03 Reflection on Language

13/17

RECONSTRUCT / DECONSTRUCTLearners recall and reconstruct elements

of a text to highlight and reveal

significant features.

REFERENCE SEARCH

Learners use reference books -dictionaries, grammars, study guidesetc. to find out about language.

8/3/2019 03 Reflection on Language

14/17

WHAT AREAS CAN WE

WORK WITH?

GRAMMAR

Forms and Use

PRONUNCIATIONSounds, Reduced forms, Stress,

Intonation

FUNCTIONS

Exponents and their

Forms and Use

VOCABULARY

Meaning, Spelling, Collocation

REFLECT ON...

8/3/2019 03 Reflection on Language

15/17

WHAT MAKES A GOOD

TRAINING SESSION? ACCESSIBLEThe theory is digestible

PRACTICAL

Hands on and task based. The contenttakes into account the level of thelearners and is appropriate for thereality of the educational context.

ENGAGINGThe content is both interesting and

challenging.

8/3/2019 03 Reflection on Language

16/17

Some Suggestions... Set problems, activities andtasks that raise relevantpoints.

Encourage participants to fullyengage with the tasks.

Elicit as much as possible.

8/3/2019 03 Reflection on Language

17/17

Provide appropriate examples.

Make participants aware ofwhat they have been learning

Encourage self-evaluation