Successful Teaching from Our Understanding of Language Learning Theory.

Teaching a language is no simple matter. It is so easy to focus on a single aspect of the language but in doing so, the whole idea of what teaching is about is lost. Whether focusing on learning vocabulary, learning according to different learning styles according to whether the learners learn mainly by using sight, hearing, sound touch or by creating associations from previous knowledge, there is only one way to steer through this muddled minefield and that is to focus on the one aspect that really matters the learner. Experts may sweep their hands in a dismissive gesture and say: “Ph! we know about that, that is simply “personalized learning””. However, by whatever names we use, teaching is about focusing on the learner. I do not mean simply placing the learner in a particular spot in a continuum of different learners and their general aptitudes, learning preferences or previously acquired knowledge. I mean focusing on the learner him or herself and what actually occurs at the specific time when they are being taught. Teaching is about understanding what is happening and constantly adjusting to the changes that inevitably occurring during the lesson and after the lesson.

In a class of twenty learners there are twenty different individuals. Each individual will have different approaches to the learning material, different learning preferences and different banks of knowledge to build from and to add to. This is common knowledge no more than stating the obvious. However, looking further into this issue is the only way forward for a number of the learners. If learners in the class are not taking any notice of a list of vocabulary on the board, for example, the teacher may engage the learners in all sorts of exciting games and different learning methods. If the learners are not “noticing” (to use the word in linguistic terms) nothing will be learned.

All subjects are reliant on language the use of symbols for communication. If teachers focussed on language learning theory in terms of the language learning characteristics of the individual learner many of those who have previously been left behind will be able to learn much more effectively. In order to learn or “acquire” language so that it becomes an integral part of the thinking of the learner the learner first has to “notice” the language or whatever is being communicated. The learner then needs to select what they need from this communication. Different learners will have different banks of language knowledge so what they need to take from a communication is an individual matter to reinforce what they may be only familiar with but have not fully acquired and to “notice” for the first time new material. Such “noticed” material becomes “intake” which the learner then needs to absorb in their thinking. They need to relate the learning material with their networks of knowledge that are already established in the cognitive activity of their thinking.