Theoretical Background

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Theoretical Background Researches on Learning
Strategies
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• We believe that theory is vital for teachers
  because it provides insight into why students
  respond to instruction in certain ways.
• Allwright Why dont 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.

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• 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.

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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

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• -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

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• 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.

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• 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 50s 60s.
• It was claimed that a carefully designed
  programme of step-by-step reinforcement could
  teach virtually any subject matter effectively
  and successfully.

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• 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.

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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.

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• Gardner and Lamberts (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.

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• 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)

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• 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.

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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.

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Cognitive models of learning

• Thus far, linguistic theories have assumed that
  language is learned separately from cognitive
  skills. However, OMalley Chamot (199016), 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

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• They have reviewed Andersons 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.

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• Anderson (1983, 1985 in OMalley Chamot,
  199020) 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.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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

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Social-cognitive models of learning

• Learning does not take place in a vacuum.
• Factors other than the learners 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.

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Banduras 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.

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• Self-efficacy can, in turn, affect whether the
  student is willing to try a task, as well as the
  students 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.

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• 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.

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• Teaching Model teach learners how to analyse
  problems, how to think for themselves and how to
  employ and deploy learning strategies to learn.
• Learner-centred
• Discovery learning
• Inductive and deductive learning
• errors-as integral part of learning
• Language awareness
• Consciousness-raising
• Strategy training

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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, 199484-86), 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.

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• He focused on the development of an individuals
  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.

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• 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 (ibid86)
• Paolo Freire (1970 in Brown, 199486), 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.

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• 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
• -teachers 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