Theoretical Background & Researches on Learning Strategies

• We believe that theory is vital for teachers because it provides insight into why students respond to instruction in certain ways.

• Allwright: “Why don’t learners learn what teachers teach?”

• While learning theory may not allow us to predict or explain all the variations in learners, it can provide a framework for understanding commonalities among students and possible reasons for individual variations.

• Different instructional approaches are based on explicit or implicit believes about human learning-how languages are learnt.

• Many systems of classroom management/ teaching approaches are based on the behavioural theory that emphasizes the pairing of appropriate stimuli and rewards to desired responses.

Behaviouristic Theory of Learning

• For decades, behaviouristic & Skinnerian learning theory had a great impact on foreign and second language teaching methodology. It was believed that

• -human behaviour could be predicted and controlled;

• -children came into this world with a tabula rasa, a clean slate bearing no preconceived notions about the world/ about language;

• -they are then shaped by their environment, slowly conditioned through various schedules of reinforcement;

• -Languages – a form of behaviour• -Language learning – a process of habit

formation

• Learning model:• Stimulus – response – reinforcement• -repetitions – habit formation & learning

• Reinforcement or reward is• -very important in the early stages of learning• -should be given frequently.

• Each step in the learning process should be as small as possible so that correct behaviour is reinforced with rewards.

• Mistakes are corrected immediately. e.g Audio-lingual method- popular in the 50’s & 60’s.

• It was claimed that a carefully designed programme of step-by-step reinforcement could teach virtually any subject matter effectively and successfully.

• Language teaching, often in the form of language stimuli, provide the first input. Learners were expected to adapt to this ‘input’.

• As a result, most researchers concentrated on approaches or methods of teaching or instruction, which would bring about effective language acquisition.

Paradigm Shift

• Since the early seventies, the focus of foreign and second language studies has shifted from methods of teaching to

• -the learning process• -learner characteristics• -their influence on second language

acquisition.

• Gardner and Lambert’s (1972) seminal research on attitude and motivation pointed tot the importance of affective factors.

• Schumann (1976) have found that social factors could determine the extent to which a non-native group may remain ‘socially distant’ from the culture of the target group.

• Since then, other personal characteristics of the learner, such as intelligence, aptitude, personality, motivation and attitude, learning styles and age, as well as the structure of the native and target languages, and interaction opportunities with native speakers have all been found to affect second language learning (Lighbown & Spada, 1993)

• Beside these factors, cognitive science has offered some answers to how learners learn a second language and the learning process.

• Approaches that call for higher level thinking and student autonomy, such as the LHTL model, are based on cognitive learning theory.

Learning Theories Supporting the Use & Development of Learning Strategies

• -Cognitive Learning models which focus on learners’ mental processes.

• -Social Cognitive models which investigate the roles of interaction between individuals and group processes in learning.

Cognitive models of learning

• Thus far, linguistic theories have assumed that language is learned separately from cognitive skills. However, O’Malley & Chamot (1990:16), who are responsible for advancing a cognitive-based theory in second language acquisition (SLA), have concluded that: “SLA cannot be understood without addressing the interaction between language and cognition”

• They have reviewed Anderson’s Information Processing Theory of cognition and memory as well as those of other theorists and showed how these theories could be used for explaining SLA.

• They also concluded that cognitive theory could extend to describe learning strategies as complex cognitive skill provides ‘a mechanism for describing how language learning ability can be improved’.

• Anderson (1983, 1985 in O’Malley & Chamot, 1990:20) distinguishes between linguistic information stored as

• “what we know about”, or static information in memory known as ‘declarative knowledge’ and

• “what we know how to do” or dynamic information in memory known as ‘procedural knowledge’.

• The two types of knowledge have different roles in language learning:

• Declarative knowledge consists of internalised second language (L2) rules and memorized chunks of language. It is stored in the form of schemata, framework or as meaningful information or facts about language forms and functions.

• Procedural knowledge, on the other hand, consists of the strategies and procedures employed by the learner to process L2 data for acquisition and for use.

• It serves as an information processor, which aids “learning to learn” and helps learners to acquire bodies of information or knowledge in their environment.

• Whereas declarative knowledge or factual information may be acquired quickly, procedural knowledge, such as language acquisition, is acquired gradually and only with extensive opportunities for practice.

• Therefore, to attain procedural knowledge or complex cognitive skills, learners need to develop their skills in thinking and learn how to use strategies specific to learning.

• Learners use learning strategies when they are involved in mental activities such as “analyzing data to form abstractions, concepts, generalizations and theories about the language they are learning”.

• Hence, it is logical to assume that learning cannot take place without procedural knowledge which plays a vital role in the learning process. By employing and deploying learning strategies or procedural knowledge, learners will ultimately ‘learn how to learn’.

• Cognitivism- emphasises on the learners & their learning process (how they organise their knowledge). Learning in an active mental process.

Social-cognitive models of learning

• Learning does not take place in a vacuum.• Factors other than the learner’s thoughts, or

cognitions, can affect learning.• Social-cognitive models focus not only on the

individual learner, but also on the social nature of learning and other factors.

• Such models offer explanations for:• -why strategies work:• -how strategies can be taught.

Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory

• Learning is based on complex, reciprocal interactions among behaviour, environment, and personal factors.

• The theory emphasizes on the role of personal motivation-when a learner experiences success at a valued task, he or she develops a sense of self-efficacy-a belief that one has the capability to succeed at that kind of task.

• Self-efficacy can, in turn, affect whether the student is willing to try a task, as well as the student’s persistence at the task, thoughts during the task, and eventual performance (Bandura, 1997)

• Using appropriate strategies can help build self-efficacy by

• -creating success experiences and• -by giving students the tools for future successes.

• Research by (Chamot, Barnhardt, El-Dinary, Carbonaro & Robbins, 1993) found that foreign language students with high self-efficacy report using more learning strategies than do foreign language students with low self-efficacy.

• During strategies instruction, it is critical that teachers ensure that students see how each strategy helps them experience success.

• This success will, in turn, develop their feelings of self-efficacy.

Teaching Model – teach learners how to analyse problems, how to think for themselves and how to employ and deploy learning strategies to learn.

Learner-centredDiscovery learningInductive and deductive learningerrors-as integral part of learningLanguage awareness Consciousness-raisingStrategy training

Humanistic Psychology in Language Learning

• Besides, cognitive learning theory, Carl Rogers’ humanistic psychology has a significant impact on our understanding of language learning, particularly in pedagogical context.

• In his classic work “Client-Centred Therapy” (1951 in Brown, 1994:84-86), Rogers analyzed human behaviour including the learning process.

• The learner he studied is a “whole person” who is a physical and cognitive, but primarily emotional being.

He focused on the development of an individual’s self-concept and of his or her personal sense of reality, which causes a person to act. Given a non-threatening environment, he believed that human beings are able to adapt and grow in the direction that enhances their existence.

The focus of humanistic psychology is away from ‘teaching’ and toward ‘learning’. Hence, the goal of education is “the facilitation of change and learning”. According to Rogers, teachers should only be facilitators of learning.

Learning how to learn is more important than being ‘taught’ something from the “superior vantage point of a teacher who unilaterally decides what shall be taught” (ibid:86)

Paolo Freire (1970 in Brown, 1994:86), an educational theorist in the Rogers tradition, also argued that students should not be ‘spoon-fed’.

They should instead be allowed to ‘negotiate learning outcomes, to cooperate with teacher and other learners in a process of discovery, to engage in critical thinking, and to relate everything they do in school to their reality outside the classroom.”

Our present system of education, in prescribing learning goals and dictating teaching content, actually denies our students both ‘freedom and dignity’ and prevents them from taking responsibility for their own learning.

Humanistic teaching model:-students attitude must be positive-teacher’s role-create conducive, non-threatening environment and

develop ‘students’ self-esteem-materials-take into account students’ affective domain-Students-set own goals and follow own pace-Experiential learning/ learning by doing-personal involvement/stimulation of feelings and thinking/self-

initiation/self-evaluation