LIZZA BELLE MENDIETA BENDAA HNFPMTFL1037564 Group: TEFL 2013-06 JUNE 29,2014
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INDEX
Introduction.... page 3 Case #1.... page 3 Type of Activities and Skills Involved......... page 4 Objective of the Activities..... page 4 Contents Students Should Master.. page 4
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Introduction
Learning is a very intrinsic concept. It is not just a mere act of a teacher being in front of a student it goes further than that. We would like to think that all students learn in similar ways, thus research has proven the opposite. In order to be able to aid learners and develop an effective strategy for the language learning process, an evaluation of the learners perception must be assessed. Following you will encounter nineteen cases of students self-reports in which aspects of their learning will be addressed as to determine what areas need to be tended to.
Students Self Reports
Case 1. I think one problem for me and perhaps everyone else learning a language is you have to be stimulated to learn.
The student in this case reflects lack of motivation. A variety of researches have been conducted and they have proven that motivation is strongly linked to the achievement in language learning. Studies by Ellis (1994) concluded that motivation was the single most powerful influence on the choice of learning strategies Lack of motivation is what this student has. Various studies have found that motivation is very strongly to achievement in language learning (e.g. Gardner and Lamber, 1972; Garner, 1980). this comes from different sides, influenced by a number of external factors outside the classroom such us the attitude of society, family and peers or by a number of internal factors inside the classroom this is the kind of motivation students bring to class and is activated by the teachers methods, activities, etc. H. Douglas Brown says motivation is something that can, like self- esteem, be global, situational, or task-oriented.
Considering the research carried out by Oxford and Nyikos (1989) this statement is false. The study showed that motivation was the single most powerful influence on the choice of learning strategies (as quoted in Ellis 1994:
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542) resulting in more strategies being used in a variety of different formal, functional, general and conversational situations by highly motivated learners than by un- motivated learners. The type of motivation manifested by the learner also had correlation with the type of strategies used so that students having mainly instrumental motivation to obtain good grades would use more analytic strategies than students with integrative motivation. Being motivated will inevitably affect the use of learning strategies since there is more interest involved on the students part to understand and improve both as a learner and in learning. The learners attitudes also have certain reciprocity with motivation in that one can lead to the other. Learners with positive attitudes towards the TL language and native-speakers would tend to feel a stronger incentive to find out about and speak the language and thus employ strategies in accordance to what they want to use the language for.
2. I'm only interested in grammar. I don't like pair and group work activities. It's just a waste of time.
This learner could be seen as field independent, under the category of Not so socially aware. Also he could be Analytic. I can say that this learner appears to be Authority- orientated learning style. He likes to be told what to do and how to do it. This learner seems to lack Social strategies. The student is field independent, it is to say that she/he is more autonomous learner; she/he is centred in a formal, grammatical system and is more successful in formal instruction environments (Ellis 1995). There is a marked learning style in this student because s/he is focus on form. A student who does not like pair or group work activities relies on internal frame reference when processing information. He has an analytic learner style.
3. Reading short novels helped me get real daily life in English. The learner is really interested in learning a new language under the category of using Cognitive strategy. Field dependent seems to be his cognitive style. He/she is not influenced by the existing structure and wants to discover real language used in English spoken countries. Also this learner follows the Out-of-class learning strategy. According to Reid (1987), visual learning style is defined as the ability of learning mainly from seeing words in books, on the board, charts, drawing, photos etc. It is normal for this student to find a lot of meaning reading novels. However, s/he is kind of analytic learner as mention by Willing, because his/her capacity of making connections and inferences throughout reading short novels and taking personal satisfaction in her/his English learning progress.
The students in Pickards study read mainly novels, newspapers and magazines out of class. Students either read magazines or other current affairs publications cover to cover, or chose three or four articles to read in depth per week.
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The vast majority of students in the study read for pleasure and used dictionaries sparingly. Most of the students reported that they became interested in reading newspapers during their later years at school, after leaving school and especially after completing a study year in the USA. This suggests that reading for pleasure is linked to an attempt to become integrated in the culture of the target language. Such an approach tells us that the students are taking a holistic or field dependent path.
The students also read novels for pleasure as they felt it improved their passive vocabulary. The choice of author suggests that, whether consciously or unconsciously, the students were opting for texts that would provide them with enough comprehensible input. This is borne out by the comment from a student about not reading Passage to India properly at school. Most people would agree that a work by E.M. Forster is a lot more challenging than anything by Jeffrey Archer.
It is clear that reading for pleasure is directly linked to the age and maturity of a student. Nobody is likely to try and keep up with current affairs in a foreign language if they do not already do it in their own. The students strategies depend on their ages and maturity and as the students got older, they showed more initiative by choosing to read for pleasure as well as reading magazines. They used good reader strategies such as guessing vocabulary from context, not relying too much on dictionaries, and showing initiative in finding reading material.
4. ...there are some words that appear again and again in the reading passage. I generally take them down and try to remember them. This student is typically problem-oriented. He employs learning strategies when he faces some problems and he can explain how they tried and learned something. Another strategy is the memory strategy; techniques that help learners store and, when necessary, retrieve the stored information. The student sees words and tries to remember them, what is a clear use of memory strategy, not only because s/he tries to memorize them but because the words are taken down kind of grouping to create a mental link proper of the mentioned strategy.
5. I want to learn English because I want to know more about the English-speaking world. The learner is clearly Field dependent; he/she wants to learn material with social content best. He/she follows the cognitive strategy because he/she wants to analyze the new language. Intrinsic motivation is another influence he/she uses to be engaged in the learning process. He/she displays Integrative motivation and has the desire to identify
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with and integrate into the target language culture.The learner shows a desire of learning the second language, this king of motivation could be graded as extrinsic motivation according to Gardner (1972); It could also be identified as integrative motivation because the learner reflects a sincere and personal interest in the people and culture represented by the other group in this case English speaking culture.
6. In that class we laughed and joked in English. We made friends. They didn't care about the mistakes I made. The learner is clearly affected by the Affective strategy. Self-reinforcement and positive self-talk can be part of it. Also she/he says they laugh and joke in class, it means their anxiety is low enough to practice the new language and they dont care about their mistakes. This learner follows the Social and Affective strategies. There is an expression of personal control in the learning process. Therefore, he/she is motivated from internal and external sources.Oxford(1990 and Ellis1986) present a typology where different types of strategies are well presented and in this student report it is evident that social, affective and communicative strategies are used. The learner manifest that in that talk laugh and joy was the main ingredient what low down anxiety and creates a affective environment. She/he made friends and that empathising with others is part of a social strategy and finally, the way they didnt care about mistakes aloud a communication strategy because what is important is the communicative goal.
7. I felt I was losing my English. I found I could only use simple words.
The learner seems to lack some Cognitive strategies. The type of motivation I can say is Intrinsic since he/she realizes that something done is not satisfactory to his/her interests and the leaner needs to be adapted to reality. Field independence in that the learner is aware of his/her level which could be a sign of a fairly autonomous learner.There are several factors which affect 2LA and the use of learning strategies can influence the process of acquiring the target language. The cognitive style is the manner in which the learner perceives, monitors, conceptualises and recalls linguistic information (Funiber, 2013 pg. 11) in some cases students are able to realise and auto evaluate their own learning process and furthermore, (Funiber quoting Wilkins et al. 1971), it is a characteristic self-consistent mode of functioning which individuals show in their perceptual and intellectual abilities.
8. I don't believe anyone can learn English just from studying here in our country. That's why I say we have to live the language... the best way to learn English is to go somewhere where I don't know anyone who speaks any language but English. The kinaesthetic language learning style which is characterised by learning by hands on, and auditory style are basically ways in which the learner learns throughout total immersion this open the door to apply communication strategies which allow a good achievement of 2L focusing on the main goal of communication proposed by their interlocutors.
9. If I have a good level of written and spoken English when I finish C.O.U., I may be offered a good job in the future. What motivates this students is the eventual desire of getting a good job. Gardner and Lambert (1972, 1973), present series of motivation types among them there is the extrinsic type, this is based on the outside social types of motivations an individual has. Moreover, Gardner instrumental motivation relies on the advantages that learning a foreign language can give the learner; when the learner mentions the her/his interest in getting a good job, instrumental motivation takes great importance.
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Skehan 1989, considers this motivation is less effective because it is not set in the personality of the learner but on external pressures.
10. I don't like exams at all. Written exams are OK but when I have to do oral exams in English I get really nervous. According Funiber 2013:60 there are moments in which a learner can react, to a particular situation or in a specific situational context; this is part of personality factors. In this case the student has a reaction of anxiety getting nervous because of oral exams and this type of anxiety is called situation specific anxiety, in this case it is manifested while taking exams.
11. English pronunciation is so difficult for me. I try to imitate the tapes and the teacher, but I always get it wrong.
12. I have two pen friends in England and I often write letters to them in English. It's fun.
13. I don't know what the whole thing is about. What's the use of learning English? I don't think I will ever use English in my future life.
14. Antonio is very good at English. He remembers things quickly and he doesn't mind speaking English in front of the other students. Antonio has probably high language proficiency, not precisely for being talkative or extroverted learner but because he is a good learner it could be for his good study methods, personality or both. The fact he can remember things easily make him adopt an active participation in class. As Ellis (1985) states good learning characteristics reflects the social, cognitive and affective factors that have been seen to be important in SLA.
15. I always fear I'm going to say things wrong and so I speak very little in class.
16. I enjoy doing projects but I'm not sure whether I'm really learning much with them.
17. In the last exam I got a "B+, now I want to be given an "A", and I'm going to work for it. When there is an external motivation to succeed in learning as in the case showed above, behaviour is affected and self-control in ones actions arise and the individual makes and effort in order to get the purpose. This theory is called Attribution and it states that when an individual has a high internal locus of control s/he thinks things ara achievable and just with a bit of effort s/he can obtain them. (Weiner 1980).
18. Whenever we do listening exercises in the English class, I always try to concentrate on the most important words and then I do a lot of guessing. It sometimes works!
19. I always try to imitate the teacher's pronunciation and I even write in Spanish how the word sounds in English.
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Important: you have to write your personal details and the subject name on the cover (see the next page). The assignment that does not fulfil these conditions will not be corrected. You have to include the assignment index below the cover.