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UNC-Greensboro, Valparaiso University, Indiana State University, Colorado School of Mines, Al-Yamamah College
“Learning by Doing”
By
Anthony Prato, MA, TESOL
ESL Instructor,
INTERLINK Language Center
The University of North Carolina at
Greensboro
Special thanks to Mark Feder,
Director of Curriculum and Training,
for creating most of this presentation,
and inspiring the rest of it.
INTERLINK Language Center
Survey
• Can you find something on the Internet with
•
•
•
relative ease?
Can you use Microsoft Word?
Can you write and respond to an email?
Can you use any other computer programs
(Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Access, Adobe
Photoshop)?
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Questions to ponder…
• How many of these things did you learn in
school?
o Did you take a class on emailing?
o Did you attend a lecture on MS Word?
o Did you earn a “Masters in Google”?
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Discussion: What is the meaning
of this cartoon?
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The “moral” of the cartoon:
Knowledge =
Ability
But this begs the question…………………..
What does engender “ability”?
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The Answer:
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There are dozens of advocates
of this type of learning.
But in today’s “Communicative Language Teaching”
culture, many of these influential theorists are overlooked,
or only paid lip service.....
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Advocate #1: Carl Rogers
Tiger by Bud Blake
Rogers was a great proponent
of experiential learning
(which he labeled
significant learning), that is,
learning connected to reallife situations. In the field
of language learning,
experiential learning
indicates learning by using
language rather than by
studying grammar,
vocabulary or other
elements of language.
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The learning depicted in this picture illustrates Carl Roger’s four learning precepts.
Carl Rogers offers the following learning precepts:
1.
Significant learning takes place when the
subject matter is relevant to the personal
interests of the student
2.
Learning which is threatening to the self (e.g.,
new attitudes or perspectives) is more easily
assimilated when external threats are at a
minimum
3.
Learning proceeds faster when the threat to the
self is low
4.
Self-initiated learning is the most lasting and
pervasive.
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According to Rogers…
“Significant Learning” involves
the WHOLE person:
Cognitive elements
+ Feeling=
Reason
+Intuition=
Left side
+Right side =
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Advocate #2: Caleb Gattegno
ourworld.compuserve.com/ homepages/g_knott/
Roger’s principles are consistent with what we know
about student-centered learning—a phrase educators
use to embody these ideas. Student-centered learning
is epitomized by Gattegno’s phrase, “the
subordination of teaching to learning,” and his
dictum, “the student works on the language and the
teacher works on the student.”
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Gattegno’s Silent Way is so named because the teacher
remains silent and allows the student to initiate learning and
develop criteria of correctness. In antithesis to a deductive
approach in which the teacher provides explanations and
rules for students to memorize and apply, the Silent Way
demands that students work inductively by discovering
patterns and establishing hypotheses.
The Silent Way demands that
students work inductively,
discover patterns, and
establish hypotheses.
INTERLINK Language Center
In the Silent Way, the student’s mind is actively engaged in solving
problems and making discoveries (learning heuristically). Because
the student initiates and controls the learning, this approach caters to
individual needs. The student gets what he or she needs rather than
whatever the teacher happens to dish out.
Learning that is inductive,
heuristic, individualized, and
needs-based is affectively
oriented and places the focus
clearly on the learner (studentcentered) rather than the
teacher – and in Roger’s terms
is relevant to the learner.
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Assumptions 1 & 2
of the Silent Way
1. Various gestures,
especially those
employing the fingers, are
used to help students
correct their own
mistakes, rather than rely
on the teacher to make
the correction. Here
teaching is subordinated
to learning because good
learning demands that
any language student
carefully observe his or
her own speech.
2. Common
misconception: People
learn what they are
taught. In reality: We
only learn what we
mobilize ourselves to
learn, what we discover
for ourselves.
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Assumptions 3 & 4 of the Silent
Way
3. Imitation and
4. Main assumption of
memorization DO
the Silent Way: The
NOT equal learning!!!
nature of the mind is
If imitation=learning
fluidity. Education, in
then there wouldn’t be
the popular sense of
2 distinct words for
the term, makes the
these concepts.
learning process rigid.
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Advocate #3: John Holt
Holt provides this insight into experiential learning – learning by doing:
www.bbc.co.uk/cymru/arolwg2001/ 14-cerddorfa.shtml
“Not many years ago I began to play the
cello. Most people would say that what I am
doing is ‘learning to play’ the cello. But these
words carry into our minds the strange idea that
there exist two very different processes: (1)
learning to play the cello; and (2) playing the
cello. They imply that I will do the first until I
have completed it, at which point I will stop the
first process and begin the second. In short, I
will go on ‘learning to play’ until I have ‘learned
to play’ and then I will begin to play. Of course,
this is nonsense. There are not two processes,
but one. We learn to do something by doing
it. There is no other way.” (Instead of
Education, 1976, p. 13)
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Educators tell us, in effect, that we cannot be trusted
even to think, that for all our lives we must depend
on others to tell us the meaning of our world and
our lives, and that meaning we may make for
ourselves, out of our own experience, has no value.
Whoever takes that right away from us, as educators
do, attacks the very center of our being and does us
a most profound and lasting injury.
“Education” now seems to me the perhaps the most
authoritarian and dangerous of all the social
inventions on mankind.
-John Holt, “Instead of Education,” 1976
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Advocate #4: David Kolb
• 1) the learning process often begins with a person carrying
out a particular action and then seeing the effect of the
action in this situation
• 2) the second step is to understand these effects in the
particular instance so that if the same action was taken in
the same circumstances it would be possible to anticipate
what would follow from the action
• 3) the third step would be understanding the general
principle under which the particular instance falls.
• 4) when the general principle is understood, the last step is
its application through action in a new circumstance within
the range of generalization
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David Kolb’s Model for
Experiential Learning
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#11
Advocate #5: Stephen Krashen
advocates an experiential approach and distinguishes between
acquisition, which he views as a natural and powerful
developer of language skills, and conscious learning, which he
considers limited and far less significant.
The Acquisition-Learning Distinction
acquisition
learning
similar to child first language acquisition
“picking up” a language
subconscious
implicit knowledge
formal teaching does not help
formal knowledge of language
“knowing about” a language
conscious
explicit knowledge
formal teaching helps
From The Natural Approach, Stephen Krashen and Tracy Terrell, 1983
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In other words, learning experientially, learning by
doing, is the only practical way to master a foreign
language.
www.perkowitz.net/ photo/all.html
According to Krashen,
"Acquisition requires
meaningful interaction in the
target language -- natural
communication -- in which
speakers are concerned not with
the form of their utterances but
with the messages they are
conveying and understanding."
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The primary component of Krashen’s acquisition theory is the
comprehensible input hypothesis. The idea is that language –
that includes vocabulary and syntax – is acquired naturally
through appropriate language contact.
The Input Hypothesis - Major Points
1.
Relates to acquisition, not to learning.
2. We acquire by understanding language a bit beyond our current level of competence.
This is done with the help of context.
3.
Spoken fluency emerges gradually and is not taught directly.
4. When caretakers talk to acquirers so that the acquirers understand the message, input
automatically contains “I+1”, the grammatical structures the acquirer is “ready” to
acquire.
From The Natural Approach, Stephen Krashen and Tracy Terrell, 1983
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Another component of Krashen’s acquisition theory is what he terms the affective filter.
filter
input
Language
Acquisition
Device
acquired competence
The affective filter acts to prevent input from being used for language acquisition.
Acquirers with optimal attitudes are hypothesized to have a low affective filter.
Classrooms that encourage low filters are those that promote low anxiety among
students, that keep students off the defensive.
From The Natural Approach, Stephen Krashen and Tracy Terrell, 1983
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For Krashen, the role of the teacher is to provide students with extensive comprehensible
input and to supply affective support. Earl Stevick relates a story supporting this position
and affirming his own insistence that in order to learn, students must have a feeling of
“primacy in a world of meaningful action.”
“I happened to get [a job] teaching ESL. I had never heard of ESL before…my
approach was very casual and low pressure. My method usually consisted of
thinking up a topic to talk about, introducing it, and encouraging each student to
express her feelings.”
The teacher goes on to say that his students’ skills improved and he decided to take
up a career in ESL. Feeling guilty about the casual approach of his first class, and
attempting to become a truly professional ESL teacher, he adopted a “traditional
authoritarian style with the textbook dominant.” He concludes:
“I can look back on these four years and see a gradual decline in the performance of
my students…My present style of teaching bypasses the students’ feelings and basic
needs, and concentrates on method. I never see successes like those first [students].”
From Teaching Languages: A Way and Ways, 1980
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Experiential Learning aka Significant Learning aka
Task-Based Learning aka “Learning Through
Discovery” is learning that has real meaning and
relevance. This is NOT a new concept!
www.fau.edu/wise/publish.html
Teaching is the art of
assisting discovery.
Mark van Doren
I cannot teach
anybody anything, I
can only make them
think. Socrates
The teacher, if he is indeed wise, does not bid you to
enter the house of wisdom but leads you to the
threshold of your own mind. Kahlil Gilbran
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I hear and I forget.
I see and I believe.
I do and I understand.
Confucius
Don’t learn to do, but learn in doing. Samuel Butler
Skill to do comes of doing. Ralph Waldo Emerson
One must learn by doing the thing. Sophocles
You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to
run by running, to work by working; and just so, you learn
to love by loving. All those who think to learn in any other
way deceive themselves. Saint Francis de Sales
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The teacher is, in effect, teaching the student to be an independent, autonomous learner
capable of enhancing skills outside of the classroom. Being an autonomous learner is
especially important in a task as colossal as learning a language, because learning must
continue after the language course ends.
We now accept the fact that learning is a
lifelong process … and the most pressing
task is to teach people how to learn.
Peter F. Drucker
The object of teaching a
child is to enable him to get
along without a teacher.
Elbert Hubbard
The greatest sign of success for a
teacher ... is to be able to say, “The
children are now working as if I did
not exist.” Maria Montessori
A teacher is one who
makes himself
A master can tell you what he
progressively unnecessary.
expects of you. A teacher,
Thomas Carruthers
though, awakens your own
expectations. Patricia Neal
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Of all the qualities necessary for effective teaching, none is
as important as empathy and sincere caring for the student.
If methodology gets in the way of such caring, the result is
invariably disastrous.
“Students learn what they care about . . .," Stanford Ericksen has said, but
Goethe knew something else: "In all things we learn only from those we love."
Add to that Emerson's declaration: "the secret of education lies in respecting the
pupil." and we have a formula something like this: "Students learn what they
care about, from people they care about and who, they know, care about them .
. . Barbara Harrell Carson, 1996, Thirty Years of Stories
No man can be a good teacher unless he has feelings of warm affection toward
his pupils and a genuine desire to impart to them what he himself believes to be
of value. Bertrand Russell
Theories and goals of education don’t matter a whit if you don’t consider your
students to be human beings. Lou Ann Walker
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Continuing our musical interlude, consider the thesis of the piano method advocated by
Mark Almond in his video lesson Piano for Quitters. Almond suggests that many quit the
piano because of conventional teaching methods. Almond’s experiential method stimulates
interest and fosters autonomy by enabling learners to make music and experiment after the
first 5 minute lesson. The parallels between conventional piano instruction and language
instruction that begins with learning about grammar and memorization of vocabulary are
obvious. When the learner is deprived of meaningful language use and focuses on exercises,
autonomy and engagement are inhibited.
Almond says that the increased popularity
of the piano at the turn of the century
spawned many “mass-produced teaching
systems touted by large publishers” which
required the reading of musical notation.
The boredom and frustration engendered
by a method (now the norm) which stifles
creativity, discovery and enjoyment, is
responsible for millions of people quitting
piano after taking lessons as children.
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While it appears that the teacher does not teach the actual subject matter but
makes it possible for the student to learn it, there is something that the teacher
can legitimately be said to teach -- how to be a learner. A good teacher is one
who does not feed information but provides the student with the tools to learn,
not only for the matter at hand, but for the future.
www.cksc.com/
The teacher cannot
impart knowledge
but can provide a
key to how to learn.
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We now have some ideas about the nature of learning and teaching to serve as a foundation
for our curriculum. We have established that while language learning utilizes cognitive,
psycho-motor, and affective elements, teaching deals mainly with affective matters
impacting readiness to learn. To open the door to student learning, the curriculum should
aim for instruction that is student-centered, experiential, needs-based, inductive, heuristic,
individualized, and autonomy-oriented. Now let’s talk about how to implement this type of
learning in the classroom…
home.talkcity.com/librettoln/ kayrol/Books.htm
Student-centered
Experiential
Needs-based
Inductive
Heuristic
Individualized
Autonomy-focused
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Implementation
of Task-Based Learning
• Contrary to what you may think, Task-Based
•
Learning is not difficult to do, once you,
well… do it.
The essence of Task-Based Learning is its
“student-centered” approach. It does not
begin with the teacher laboring for hours at
home to create perfect lesson plans. Rather,
it begins with the students, their needs, and
a student-generated task that will help them
acquire the language they need to use.
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Case Study #1
Vocation Exploration
Students will interview a
professor or professional
in their intended area of study.
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The class:
• # of students: 12
• Level: Advanced
• Ages: 16+
• Nationalities: Varied. Latin
Americans, Koreans, Taiwanese,
Chinese, etc.
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Classic approach to this project:
• Teacher explains the project to the students,
and perhaps provides a handout. Students are
told to interview a professional and then give a
ten-minute presentation to the class, reporting
their findings. Teacher answers questions. But
there is no in-class work related to this project,
other than presentation day. Students are given
2 weeks to finish the project.
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Presentation Day:
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Now let’s approach this project in a way that Rogers,
Gattegno, Holt, Kolb, and Krashen might like…
An “experiential,” student-centered, Task-Based
approach that starts with the students’ interests…
Students are not “assigned” the project to begin with.
They brainstorm as groups on the first day of class.
Their task is to consider various projects that will help
them increase their language in areas that are
important to them. They decide that interviewing
someone with their career interests—some sort of
professional or professor—would be a great idea.
Stage 1
Assuming the students have chosen this project a
classroom discussion about interviews begins.
Students must interview each other, and report
back to class about what they learn. This leads
to a class discussion about interviews in general
“Who has been interviewed and when and why?
Has anyone ever seen an interview on TV?”
Final part of discussion is about how students
will interview their professor or professional.
They decide to send an email, rather than visit
their offices.
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Stage 2
Students brainstorm about the differences
between a “formal” email and an
“informal” email. They report back to
the class and create two lists on the
board: characteristics of a formal email,
and characteristics of an informal email.
The class discusses how and why emails
to professionals should be written.
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Stage 3
Students do research about the
professors/professionals they want to
interview. Based on the research,
students report back to class in groups,
explaining why they chose those
professors.
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Stage 4
Students work in pairs and write an email to
the professors/professionals they chose to
interview. Teacher can view each letter on
the overhead and solicit suggestions and
improvements AND/OR the students can
read their letters to one another and get
corrective feedback. Students send their
emails and wait for responses.
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Stage 5
While waiting for responses, students are provided a
real interview to study and use as a model.
Students listen to a 10-minute segment of an
interview on NPR’s “Fresh Air” program. Terry Gross
interviews Denzel Washington about his new movie,
The Great Debaters. Interview is divided into 3-4
sections, one per group or pair. Each group or pair
must analyze their section of the interview and make
a list of 10-15 new vocabulary words. Using context,
and teacher’s help, students define the words for
their section. Next, they teach other groups the
vocabulary words, until all groups have experienced
all words.
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Stage 6
After listening 2-3 more times, each group
must write 5 comprehension questions
and answers, and then quiz the other
groups. Groups rotate until all groups
have heard all questions and answers.
Students are welcome to listen to the
interview again during class to check for
facts.
Stage 7
Using the same interview segments from
last time, students role-play the interview
between Terry Gross and Denzel
Washington. To do this, they must use
correct intonation, and be as accurate as
possible. Interviews may be recorded.
Afterwards, they can listen to the
interview again and compare/contrast
their interview with the real one.
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Stage 8
Students listen again to the 10-minute
segment of the interview. They work in
pairs and focus on the questions that
Terry Gross asks, as well as the answers.
Groups compare and contrast their lists,
using the interview and the teacher for
clarification.
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Stage 9
Students classify the questions they hear.
They make categories based on the types
of questions asked. Then they report
back to the class about the categories.
On the board, students make a list of
types of questions. A class discussion
ensues: Why is it important to ask variety
of questions during an interview?
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Stage 10
Students are paired up and discuss who
they would likes to interview for practice—
any famous person, living or dead. (Bill
Gates, Barack Obama, Britney Spears). To
do this mock interview, students will
research the famous person and write a
script for an interview together. They will
use a variety of types of questions in a
practice 5 minute-interview.
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Stage 11
Based on the first mock interview, or based
on the NPR interview itself, students
create a “feedback form” that highlights
the strengths of a good interview
(interviewer asks a variety of questions;
interviewer thanks the interviewee; etc.).
Students use this form to judge one
another’s mock interviews.
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Stage 12
If mock interviews are videotaped students
must watch the videos outside of class
and then critique themselves, using the
“feedback form.” This critique can be
handed in to the teacher, or shared with
the class in groups or pairs.
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Stage 13
Students listen to another NPR interview.
They do the aforementioned vocabulary
activities, and/or they critique the
interview using their feedback forms.
They use what they notice to improve and
expand the feedback form.
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Stage 14
Students do more research at home about
the professional or professor they intend
to interview. Using this information, they
write a list of possible questions and
answers from the interview with the
professional they have chosen. They
review their scripts in pairs. Fellow
students use the “feedback form” to
assess the interviews.
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Project Conclusion
Students present their 10-minute ‘interview
reports’ to the class. Students use the
“feedback form” to judge their peers.
Teacher does so as well. Teacher and
students offer feedback—positive and
negative—after each presentation. After
all presentations, teacher and students
have a discussion about what they learned
from this process.
INTERLINK Language Center
Why was this project
successful?
The presentation at the end was the least
important part of the project. Actually doing
the interview and presenting the information,
while important, were NOT the goal. The
project simply served as a vehicle through
which a variety of skills could be practiced.
INTERLINK Language Center
Case Study #2
Shopping Spree
THE PROJECT: Students will do a variety of
activities, either beginning with or
culminating with one ore more trips to a
supermarket, store, or mall.
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The class:
• # of student: 12-20
• Level: False Beginners / Generation 1.5
• Ages: 12+
• Nationalities: Varied. Mexicans, Latin
Americans, Koreans, Taiwanese,
Chinese, etc.
INTERLINK Language Center
Classic approach to this project:
• Teacher explains the project to the
students, and perhaps provides a
handout. Students are told to write a
report about their favorite store, and then
give a three-minute presentation to the
class, reporting their findings. Teacher
answers questions. But there is no inclass work related to this project.
Students are given 1 week to finish the
project.
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Work with your partner(s):
Can you think of
any Task-Based activities
that will help the students
learn language by using it?
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Questions to Ponder:
1) Why do students (or people
in general) learn?
It is not because teachers teach that students learn. Consider
a baby as a “Scientist in the Crib”: Babies start life by
simply observing. They become aware of their
surroundings through observation, followed closely by
testing their hypotheses just as a scientist would. Once
the baby tests a hypothesis, once she figures something
out on her own, it is learned. She owns it. In short, If you
put your own understanding into something, then it is yours.
INTERLINK Language Center
2) What should the focus of
classroom activities be?
Activities in a class could either promote
this state of being or undermine it. A
teacher can be silent without being
mute. Simply, the teacher never models
and doesn't give answers that students
can find for themselves.
INTERLINK Language Center
3) How should mistakes be viewed by the
teacher and the learner?
Making mistakes is an essential part of learning.
Teachers should view mistakes by students as 'gifts
to the class', in Gattegno's words. This attitude
towards mistakes frees the students to make
bolder and more systematic explorations of how
the new language functions. As this process
gathers pace, the teacher's role becomes less that
of an initiator, and more of a source of instant
and precise feedback to students trying out the
language.
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4) Is “knowledge” the same as “knowhow”?
Knowledge never spontaneously becomes
know-how. This is obvious when one is
learning to ski or to play the piano. It is
skiing rather than learning the physics of
turns or the chemistry of snow which
makes one a skier. And this is just as true
when one is learning a language. The
only way to create a "know-how to speak
the language" is to speak the language.
FYI...
• If you would like a
copy of this
Presentation, please
email me at
[email protected]
• For more information
about INTERLINK
Language Center,
please go to
ESLUS.com
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For additional information on subjects treated in this
presentation, read more from these authors:
References/Links
Stephen Krashen summary of Krashen’s theories
Caleb Gattegno/Silent Way summary of information about Silent Way
Humanism in Language Learning full text online of book by Earl Stevick
Dissertation online thesis section on affect in language learning
Autonomy in Language Learning plenary by David Nunan
Second Language Teaching Methodologies ERIC database with many useful links
Learning Theories links to articles on virtually all learning theories
Theory Into Practice Database explorations in learning and instruction

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