Ch. 4 Response

Human learning is a very interesting topic whether you are a teacher or not. For me, thinking about the various theories regarding learning, then applying them specifically to second language acquisition versus general classroom learning is interesting. First of all, this chapter states that, "You must have a comprehensive knowledge of the entry behavior of a person, of objectives you wish to reach , of possible methods that follow from your understanding of the first two factors, and of an evaluation procedure (Brown, 87)." From that one can apply various techniques or theories to accomplish the learning task. Pavlov believed that the learning process was made up of stimuli and reflexive responses. One would condition the learner to respond to a stimuli. Skinner introduced the concept of a reinforcer. A reinforcer followed a response to indicate to the learner the behavior was good and to get the reinforcer again the learner would probably demonstrate the behavior again. On a different level, Ausubel believed that learning occurred when new events connected to preexisting events. They would build upon each other. This leads into rote learning and meaningful learning. Rote learning is storing items that are not related to preexisting events. Usually they do not get stored for a great length of time. Meaningful learning occurs when new events interact with preexisting events and build upon each other. The book states that, "Any learning situation can be meaningful if (1) learners have a meaningful learning set - that is, a disposition to relate the new learning task to what they already know - and (2) the learning task itself is potentially meaningful to the learners - that is, relatable to the learners' structure of knowledge (92)."

The chapter goes on to discuss the relationship between languages and learning, but the parts mentioned above are of particular interest to me. As teachers, we have these learning theories that we can manipulate to fit particular situations. I really like the idea of reinforcing good "behavior', in this case, language learning. As a teacher that will work with ELLs, I think that it is important to reinforce the progress made each day, but not in the form of something tangible per se. It would be more beneficial (and idealistic), I think, to show how grasping the language step-by-step improves everyday life. For example, if an ELL does not know how to become involved in a game on the playground due to a communication barrier, work with words that would apply to this situation: "May I join?", "What are the rules?", etc. Now, the child is equipped with tools to join the game and that in itself is a reward, therefore, reinforced the desire to learn new words/phrases and use them.  

How a teacher teaches these language skills is so important. Too often, rote learning is observed in classrooms. If any learning situation can become meaningful, and we know that meaningful learning will more likely than not be stored in the long term memory then why not make learning situations meaningful? Using the example above, I would not have the child simply memorize the vocabulary words or how to ask a question. I would expand the question formation to other aspects that the child is interested in. For example, children have to ask questions all the time: "may I use the bathroom?", "may I have borrow your crayon?", etc. It meets a need they have. in many language textbooks they have example that don't usually fall into everyday conversations among kids. If the examples are more useful, it seems they would be more meaningful. Once they understand the question formation to ask questions they use frequently then it can be connected to asking questions about other things that might not be asked as much. Lessons need to build on one another, too. It's not difficult to create a themed unit. For example, in the regular classroom with a high population of ELLs, a teacher can use a themed unit on leaves for example. Each subject: science, reading, writing, social studies, and math can have leaves as a theme easily. Then they are exposed to the same words frequently and there are connections made among the subjects. I think that rote learning is necessary for phone numbers and whatnot, but not for learning a language.