LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

REFLECTION

What I learnt was constructivism. According to constructivism learning

occurs through taking action to solve problems. Students involve in
learning process actively. They experience something and come to
conclusions about it. Actually, this begins at early ages. Children observe
their environment and behave like they see. This is what constructivism
explains. We also talked about learning process according to
constructivism. People hear something new, put it in their mind and
categorize it related to their prior knowledge. This is Piaget’s view. In
terms of Piaget, mind develops through the processes of ‘assimilation’ and
‘accommodation’. In assimilation process, for example, a child sees an
elephant and he/she thinks it’s a dog like he/she already knows. Because
they both have four legs. In the accommodation process, the child
modifies his/her prior knowledge to adapt new information. Also we
mentioned about Bruner. He ignores child development and concentrates
on education. It’s all about learning how to learn and how an information’s
been internalized.

What I had difficulty in figuring out was nothing. Everything was clear
enough for me.

I suppose I need to focus more on Bruner’s modes of thinking in order to

make it more useful for my teaching.

I believe I may use ‘ Words are meaningless unless you support them with
behaviours.’ in my teaching. I think personally, it doesn’t make any sense
if student doesn’t involve in learning process actively. Only giving
explanations for situations or talking about the subject without using any
visual materials or something else doesn’t make information meaningful
for them. Teacher must be able to make words more concrete and useful
trough activities or homeworks which students can use the giving
information or I can say, things that students can touch and experience
them. Also teacher can prepare them an act-out project related to subject
that students can involve as a group work.