KEY: green = request for help; purple = dilemmas/questions/considerations; blue = hyperlink to websites

ROUNDUP

The discussion started with an observation made by Wendy about the development of her daughters L2 linguistic skills and an attempt to motivate her that led to identifying that:-

-   verb stems DO need to be identified, so YL don't get confused with the endings;

-   using picture cues needs to be encouraged to identify unknown vocabulary, so 'intelligent' guessing is a MUST;

-   authentic materials seem to work much better if the learners gets to choose;

•  learner autonomy also needs to be encouraged

Eight peer members responded identifying the following:-

•  promote the use of higher thinking skills that transcend the content of a topic

•  some publications were identified as usefully defining learning strategies eg. Fisher and Oxford

•  questioning whether some strategies should be taught before others ie is there an order?

•  keeping a balance between conscious and unconscious strategies

•  identifying Bloom's taxonomy as useful to identify thinking skills

•  identifying that de Bono's strategies could be useful

•  identifying that 'Brain Gym' can be useful by ' … movements open the brain to whole brain learning while stimulating it…'

•  questioning whether explicit consciously teaching learning strategies to 8-11 year olds was needed as they '… are very good at learning subconsciously and holistically. They should be able to profit from that…'

•  identifying some learning strategies

•  Teachers identifying and incorporating learning strategies in their lesson plans

•  using mind mapping as a learning strategy

with a final query that perhaps by presenting a ' … bowl of goodies for YLs to dip into…' (learning strategies) they could choose by trial and error which suits them best.

Wendy (Hong Kong) started this discussion by presenting a case study of her daughter (15 years old) whose productive skills of speaking and writing are ahead of her receptive skills of listening and reading in her L2,

Spanish. Using a magazine, cosmopolitan, written in Spanish, Wendy attempted to encourage her daughter to read captions and short articles which appealed. The rationale was to create intrinsic motivation and help her daughter see a way to 'learn to learn' for herself by selecting materials that was selected by herself and appealed to her.

The exercise became diagnostic when Wendy realized that despite the teacher's determination to get her daughter to rote learn the verb table, her daughter did not recognize the 'stem' of the verb and so found decoding 'authentic' language very difficult. The importance of recognizing the 'stem' was identified and the reading exercise developed into a 'consciousness-awareness' task, as her daughter started to find other verbs she knew if she ignore the endings. Her daughter also wanted to buy the English version to check her own understanding.

In short, the lesson learnt was that:-

•  verb stems DO need to be identified, so YL don't get confused with the endings;

•  using picture cues needs to be encouraged to identify unknown vocabulary, so 'intelligent' guessing is a MUST;

•  authentic materials seem to work much better if the learners gets to choose;

•  learner autonomy also needs to be encouraged

Debbie asked ' …I was wondering if anyone had any practical tips on developing Learning strategies in younger learners say 8 to 11 year olds? …'

Gordon (USA) made a related link to encouraging teenagers

' … we must look for the underlying higher thinking skills in the project which
transcend the content area itself . Trends and fads will not carry interest
over time, but making our teens think will. I have seen incredible
discussions emerge from previously reticent teens when their natural
intellectual curiosity is challenged…'

Wendy (Hong Kong) added some publications which focused on

learner training and learning strategies.

Fisher, R (1995) Teaching Children to Learn. England:Stanley Thornes

Oxford, R.L. (1990) Language Learning Strategies. What every teacher should know.Massachusetts:Heinle & Heinle

Another one which I haven't really delved into in too much detail but which looks promising is:-

Fisher, R (1990) Teaching Children to Think. England:Nelson Thornes

I think it depends on what your focus is for the learning aim (I know, I know a slippery slope trying to be too specific) and then introduce some of the ideas from these books. The ideas range from Fisher's:-

- questioning

- planning

- discussing

- cognitive mapping

- divergent thinking

- co-operative learning

- coaching

•  reviewing

•   

to Oxford's:-

direct strategies which include:-

- memory strategies eg creating mental images

- cognitive strategies eg practicing

- compensation strategies eg guessing intelligently

to indirect strategies which include:-

- metacognitive strategies eg evaluating your learning

- affective strategies eg encouraging yourself

•  social strategies eg asking questions

• 

So I think something for everybody! Fisher goes into some detail on the concept of multiple intelligence so I think maybe you'll find his book, which focuses on YL, more accessible, especially as it deals with different learning styles at length.

Beatriz (Argentina) added ' … using Rebecca Oxford's classification , I think perhaps it could be useful with less talented learners to start out by building on their confidence and self-esteem with compensation and affective strategies. Then, once their self-confidence has been more or less firmly built, add other sets of strategies, for example metacognitive.

I also think it's probably important to keep a balance between conscious and unconscious use/teaching of strategies . For example alternating; at times integrating strategy training with more usual activities without telling Ss a word about strategies; at other times commenting on why it could help to do things that way (or whether it helped at all); and the occasional specific strategy training activity. It's probably hard to divide it into discrete items anyway, but I think they might be too young to do much conscious strategy training…'

Wendy (Hong Kong) identified a taxonomy

Bloom's taxonomy is useful to identify an order of skills which rank from:-

- knowledge - observation and recall of information

- comprehension - understanding information, grasping its meaning

- application - using learned material in a new context, applying rules, methods or theories learned

- analysis - seeing patterns, recognising hidden meanings and identifying and organizing parts of a whole

- synthesis - generalizing from known facts, putting together ideas or knowledge from several areas to create new ideas, drawing conclusions, seeing abstract relationships

•  evaluation - comparing and discriminating between ideas, assessing the value of theroies, ideas, presentations or plans; verifying the value of evidence, determining the objectivity or subjectivitiy of information and value of evidence, using reasoned arguments to make choices

Gordon (USA) added ' … I find many of de Bono's ideas very suitable for the YL classroom. In my teacher training seminars, we spend a lot of time trying to modify these ideas to fit the needs of the language classroom. Similarly, Blooms taxonomy, when not taken dogmatically is a good tool to use to give
activities appropriate depth…'

Helen (Israel) gave additional information with ' …We work - in all our English and Maths programs - with our version of
Brain Gym which we call Brain Jogs as Brain Gym is registered
Trademark. You can see a short explanation of that on our maths website:
www.mathjogs.com < http://www.mathjogs.com >

There are many types of Brain Gym - with different goals: some for waking the child up, some for better balance, some for coordinating both parts of the brain for improving learning capacity etc. Our brain jogs are based on the latter. They involve crossing the midway point in the body movement which crosses the movement through the corpus callossum which is the link in the brain between the left and right hemispheres. The types are movement are for example, the left hand crosses over onto the right knee and then the right hand crosses over onto the left knee and so on. Such movements open the brain to whole brain learning while stimulating it .

In our classes we add to this certain EFL (or maths) exercises while doing this. It's fun, energizing and prepared the brain for learning at the beginning of the lesson, while actually teaching something. In addition, if we look at this from a Suggestopedia point of view, the brain is distracted by our physical activity, so the language enters peripherally; and what enters peripherally goes straight to long-term memory. So, the Brain Jogs have the double function of language teaching and enhancing learning ability.

Have you read Deborah Sunbeck's book "Infinity Walk"? It is wonderful and preparing the mind to learn…'

Beatriz (Argentina) explained her rationale ' … Beatriz questioned whether YL might be too young for conscious strategy training. I wonder how young, is too young?

I think this needs elaborating perhaps . No conscious training doesn't necessarily mean no training . I'm in favour of strategy training. I think it helps learners learn more efficiently and eventually become more independent. But I do think YLs of 8-11 (the age Debbie was considering) could be spared some conscious work. Children are very good at learning subconsciously and holistically. They should be able to profit from that.

Studies on strategy training tend to focus on adults or undergraduates (perhaps you know of studies with children). Children have a very different approach to learning and I think we as teachers need to respect that. Children of 8 are only beginning to cope with what Piaget calls concrete operations, and I think they might benefit more from the subconscious strategy training that, according to Nunan (1999), potentially underlies all tasks. As teachers I think we can identify those underlying, implicit, strategies and help learners by selecting and sequencing those we think would be most helpful for each particular learner/group, while at the same time exposing learners to as wide a range as possible.

Vann and Abraham (1990) point out that very often the problem [with older learners?] is not so much lack of strategies as not knowing how and when to apply them, for which metacognitive strategies are useful. I'm not sure a child who can't yet think formally, again in Piaget's terms, would be able to profit from metacognitive strategies. I see language learning as a life-long process, with the early years as a foundation, and I strongly believe the best we can do in terms of strategy training is to offer implicit, subconscious practice and exposure opportunities. This also ties in with studies on attention; for example Best (1986).

I think strategy training is a vast and complex area, and I personally need to seriously reflect on it before applying it into the classroom…'

Wendy (Hong Kong) added ' …It would be wonderful if we could come up with some of the YL learning strategies that we use. Maybe it would be useful to firstly focus on what Rebecca Oxford (1990:17) terms as

DIRECT STRATEGIES

which includes memory strategies

- creating mental linkages

- applying images and sounds

- reviewing well

- employing action

- cognitive strategies

- practicing

- receiving and sending messages

- analyzing and reasoning

- creating structure for input and output

- compensation strategies

- guessing intelligently

- overcoming limitations in speaking and writing

Reference:

Oxford. R.L. (1990) Language Learning Strategies. What Every Teacher Should Know. Massachusetts:Heinle & Heinle Publishers

Let's leave the INDIRECT STRATEGIES (metacognitive, affective and social) for the time being.

By focusing on the above perhaps we can help each other by identifying tasks to help our YL 'notice' or at a subconscious level (age factors seem to determine which you do) introduce these strategies.

Debbie suggested ' … I am torn on this one between feeling that at the age of 8 to 11 leave the students to begin to develop their own strategies versus overt teaching. I have known plenty of students who just grow up into adulthood with very poor learning strategies which affect them for the rest of their lives. Why not offer a bowl of goodies for YLs to dip into?

Debbie identifies a list of learning strategies:-

In no particular order:

Mind mapping

Using a dictionary

Classifying

Learning to spell

Ways of learning vocabulary

Self Correction

Setting goals and objectives

Giving feedback

Self assessment

Staying in the mood for learning

Sally (Korea) wrote:- ' … I'm trying to write 4 one-year courses from beginners up and really want to include many non-linguistic aims... for the higher levels I want to include some of Robert Fisher's ideas from "Teaching Children to Learn" -- (getting children to question and encouraging divergent thinking) Has anyone out there incorporated Fisher into their courses? If you have I'd love to get some advice …'

Wendy replied with '…As to your question about Robert Fisher's strategies, I have found them very useful to help me focus on what learning strategies I believe I am teaching in my lessons. I always have a column in my plans for learning strategies and I make an 'attempt' to identify a strategy in most parts of my plan and tasks eg.

using picture and word cues = cognitive mapping

'what do you think' questions = divergent thinking because the answers are personal and necessitate more than a yes/no answer

pairwork/groupwork = co-operative learning

pairing more able/less able = coaching

self-assessment task = reviewing

etc.

As I write my linguistic aims I try also to focus on what is the 'real life use' for a YL for that particular part of language, if I struggle to find one (even though it is prescribed and in the syllabus) I skip it. A useful list of non-linguistic aims is Nunan's adaptation of Raths criteria (1988:152) and to be honest I think an attempt should be made to include as many as possible.

•  Permit learners to make informed choices and reflect on consequences of their choice

•  Assign active rather than passive roles to students

•  Ask students to engage in inquiry into ideas, applications of intellectual processes, or current problems

•  Involve learners with realia

•  Completion may be accomplished at different levels of ability

•  Ask students to apply existing skills or knowledge to a new setting

•  Require students to examine topics or issues typically ignored

•  Involve risk of success or failure

•  Require students to rewrite, rehearse, polish initial efforts

•  Involves students in application and mastery of meaningful rules, standards, or disciplines

•  Gives students a chance to share planning, carrying out of a plan, or results of an activity with others

•  Relevant to expressed purposes of students

So in answer to your question about what ratio between linguistic and non-linguistic, my gut feeling is that the non-linguistic are far more useful and can be carried across to other parts of your life, whereas a linguistic one could be frozen in a limited range of contexts - so being the devil's advocate I'd say 25:75, biased on the non-linguistic!

Another book by Fisher is 'Teaching Children to Think'. I haven't gone into it in any great detail but it defines 'thinking' and then goes on to examine 'creative and critical thinking' as well as problem solving. There is also a chapter in teaching for thinking which could be helpful

References

Fisher, R (1990) Teaching Children to Think. UK:Basil Blackwell Ltd (reprinted 2001 by Nelson Thornes Ltd)

Fisher, R (1995) Teaching Children to Learn. England:Stanley Thornes

Nunan, D (1988) Syllabus Design . Oxford: Oxford University Press

Gai l (France) suggesting Tony Buzan's mind mapping resource for YL found on :-

http://www.thorsons.com/mind/default.asp

Chris (UK) suggesting another mind mapping resource:-

See also Mindgenius software at http://www.ygnius.com enabling you to easily create mindmaps on your computer

Gordon (USA) adding another mind mapping resource:-

Have you also tried inspiration software? They have a 30 day demo for free.
There is inspiration and kidspiration. I liked working with it.

The link is www.inspiration.com

Dennise endorsing the mind mapping sites by ' … I love using both Kidspiration and Inspiration. Kidspiration is geared more for younger students. It has many more graphics and is easier for younger students to navigate. With both, you can make templates so that all students can have the same "map" to begin with, or you can use some ready-made templates.

I would recommend these programs highly