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The one where learning is a complex process!!

While I was preparing for the second session of teaching classes, I was so much worried about what will happen in class, 'cause I didn't have all the resources and those that were available for me, were like singing an old song. Learning from the viewpoint of different schools of thought in methodology was sth we had to cover for Ma entrance exam, nothing new there. Of course Nunan's focus on task-based orientation toward better learning is what I'm really interested in 'cause no one's tried this methodology completely yet, at least in Guilan.
During the class time I confronted with new issues like differences between learning and acquisition, classroom learning versus naturalistic learning and two different points of view presented by Krashen and Ellis regarding these issues.
The first one relates to the concepts of declarative vs. procedural knowledge. Acquisition is a subconscious process which moves from knowledge of "how" to knowledge of "that". (Pro. to dec. process) while learning is a conscious process – by process it's not meant just getting information but comprehension, attention and recalling the material as well – that is encouraged by some instructions given by teacher. In this sense Krashen is in favor of acquiring material to have a longer impact on mind; 'cause getting information from environment and naturally makes the learner choose the best topics that are for her own learning sake and there is no pressure on he/she to produce as soon as possible (producing language when the learner is developmentally and mentally is ready for), as against in classroom learning. He also believes that no instruction can change the natural order of acquisition, learner learns whenever he/she wants; the concept is related to the low affective hypothesis too in a way that learners should not feel too much anxiety in expressing themselves – of course a little amount of it would be beneficial for better learning and creating competitive motivation. Krashen also states that if comprehensible input is given to the learner – the modified and simplified input to increase understanding – then the amount of learning will enhance.
Then we turn to Ellis viewpoint about classroom and naturalistic learning. He distinguishes them from sociolinguistic, psycholinguistic and educational aspects.
Sociolinguistically these two types of learning differ in terms of participant – in CL they are all students and aware of the fact that they're here to learn while in NL they have other roles in society as father, sister, etc. - ; location – in CL the place is of course the classroom environment where everything is ready to help students to get knowledge while in NL the location is the big big world with all its distractions - ; topic – In CL selected topics are about and for learning language while in NL various topics are presented from them learner peripherally get knowledge – and purpose – in CL the intention is exclusively learning but in NL learner (or maybe it's better to call him just the person) has different purposes of interaction, mostly survival ones.
Psycholinguistically the difference is in formal and informal learning; respectively instructed learning through presentation of grammatical rules and international learning through providing opportunities to communicate. Though these 2 types may overlap in both CL and NL but the former fits more in CL. From educational viewpoint CL & NL are different in case of formal training – deliberate attempt to teach, suitable for CL – and apprenticeship – learning by doing, suitable for NL – which here the superiority is with CL. We also became aware of one important question regarding teaching in the modern term. There are three orientations toward available methods;
• It's better to imitate and apply them to classroom situation without further investigation.
• It's better to teach L2 similar to the principles of L1.
• Researches must be done in case of classroom needs and problematic areas by teachers themselves – an insider who is aware of the problems.
The idea of the third viewpoint is interesting to me. How teachers can do this? I mean, even if they do researches and find the shortages of existed methods in application how can they find cures for such illnesses while the Methodists themselves couldn't find?? Although it's true that modern teachers as learners among the learners – the concept that I love more than the teacher title – must be more active, passionate, informant and ready but how can they create such an environment within the bigger and more restricted area of educational system, esp. like ours when majority of colleagues prefer going on traditionally up to eternity??? Are we just studying ideals or we're the ones who're responsible for finding solutions???

useful links

useful links for Teachers of ESL/EFL:

1. Interesting things for ESL Teachers: The site provides its visitors with helpful materials, tips, techniques and tool for teaching ESL. http://www.manythings.org/tesl/

2. TESL-EJ: This electronic journal presents teachers with some articles, more about communicative approach to teaching ESL as well as using new media for teaching some aspects of the language. http://www.tesl-ej.org/wordpress/

3. About.com:English as 2nd language: The web site introduces and discusses most important aspects of teaching English through sending you an E-mail weekly that contains a lesson, its directions, introductions and lesson plan, esp. for new teachers. http://esl.about.com/c/ec/34.htm

4. TEFL Boot Camp: Although the site may illustrate teaching overseas, but in general it is a good source to help teachers develop their teaching skills by explaining teaching methods, show how to start, how to do a demo lesson and how to enrich skills of teaching different aspects of English. http://teflbootcamp.com/

5. Lanternfish: The site includes materials for ESL/EFL teachers of children level(worksheets, songs, lesson plans,etc.) as well as ESL articles and ESL for adults. http://bogglesworldesl.com/

6. TEFLAsia: A good website for teachers to be in touch with each other and also getting some answers- if not solutions- for those international problems happening in almost all EFL classes. http://www.teflasia.com/

useful links for Students of ESL/EFL:

1. Activities for ESL students: As the name suggests, the web site includes quizzes, tests, exercises and puzzles to help students learn English. it also contains different bilingual quizzes, like Persian - English. http://a4esl.org/

2. Interesting things for ESL students: It is a fun study site for beginners to learn more easily the word games, puzzles, slang, proverbs and much more. http://www.manythings.org/

3. English page.com: The site provides advanced students with free online English lessons and ESL/EFL resources as well as different types of online dictionaries. www.englishpage.com/

4. How-To-Learn-Any-Language.com: The site provides techniques and discussions about how to teach yourself languages. http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/default.asp

useful links for My Classmates:

1. Internet TESL Journal: This monthly web journal publishes articles, research papers, lesson plans, and teaching materials. It includes links to other useful sites. http://iteslj.org/links/

2. Asian EFL journal: The Asian EFL Journal is published monthly and presents information, theories, research, methods and materials related to language acquisition and language learning. An academic Second Language Acquisition Research Journal. http://www.asian-efl-journal.com/index.php

3. TESOL: it is a very interesting web site that has many different parts presenting articles, research findings, resources and offering numerous online professional development events. http://www.exchanges.state.gov/forum.com

4. Active learning online: The site focuses exclusively on the principles and features of AL, but it can be a brief and to the point web to introduce us with basis of AL which is increasingly widespread around the world. http://www.acu.edu/cte/activelearning/focus.htm

5. ELT Journal: the web site presents many articles of the same journal chronologically and their abstracts for free.Of course for getting full text you have to be a member or purchase them. http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/

6. Dave's ESL Cafe: The Internet meeting place for ESL+EFL students + teachers from around the world. www.eslcafe.com/

7. The Owl AT Purdue: this page provides resources for ESL instructors and students; with a simple language, it tries to define and to make examples to illustrate different aspects of language. It is a more theoretical rather than practical website. owl.english.purdue.edu/

8. TEFL.net: courses, jobs, lesson plans, worksheets, blogs, forums, help desk, articles, admin for TEFL teachers. http://www.tefl.net/

9. Fullspate: Fullspate provides EFL materials for teachers and students of English. The EFL materials include: ESL/EFL articles, EFL worksheets, self-study Grammar course and new advanced grammar lessons. http://www.fullspate.net/

10. EC-CALL Journal: A web site for practice, participation in National and International Language Teaching Conferences, and some papers reflecting the implications of the use of Communication and Information Technologies in the EFL classroom. http://convena.upb.edu.co/cdelenguas/EC_CALL/

11. Language Learning&Technology: It is a refereed journal for second and foreign language educators which works on special issues on technology and learning pronunciation. http://llt.msu.edu/

12. Center for the imagination in language learning: In my opinion this web would be a very interesting site because it introduces new insights toward LL/T that we've never encounter in all the books written for the course. http://www.njcu.edu/cill/index.html

13. Iranian EFL Journal: The site is devoted to discussions on English as an International language research and development esp. as it relates to Iran and its teaching and learning procedures of English. http://www.iranian-efl-journal.com/

14. Q&A!: This is a trusted online research website from which you can get useful how to's, powerful writing tips,search strategies,brain-teasing quizzes and more. http://www.questia.com/Index.jsp

The one where everything starts!

This is the first time in my whole life that I'm trying to write a diary.I have no idea how should it be, but I'm going to figure it out gradually. Honestly, at first I thought this would be an absurd task to do; 'what does it have to do with our academic career?' I thought; but after the class I found it out that it would be beneficial in a case that we can review the materials we've covered and for later investigations we can refer to them easily. Moreover we can be informed of our class-mate's experiences in dealing with materials; are they, too, disappointed at this first step by the enormous amount of assignments or not? It's not just about the materials, but also about the Professor. She is such an unpredictable teacher that one can easily predict her/his unsatisfying outcome of the class. But I should be optimistic, right? In fact that was one of the schools of linguistics that I covered. I should wait for class to observe actual responses getting from the Professor to measure and evaluate my progress. To follow structural point of view I have to segregate my feelings and emotions from the overtly observable reactions. But is it all? Is the life a linear route to walk on? What about my active and actual thoughts and understanding of the materials? That is where generative school of linguistics manifests itself. In behaviorism – the psychological correspondence of structuralism – you see what happens and then you come to conclusions. But as cognitive psychology states the mental processes should play the central role in the process of learning. This view is subdivided into two different trends:
Information processing: which deals with taking in information, process it and act upon it. The theorists in this field construct models and, separated from emotions or feeling, make comparisons with brain and other complex systems in terms of rules and patterns.
constructivism: the movement is considered the sequel of cognitive psychology thoughts and ideas with reference to learners as one of the central aspects of learning process and see tem as a whole person, with their own emotional and logical preferences and the kind of unique reality and meaning that every person bring with him/herself into the classroom. So the teachers should treat a class of 10 capacities of students as 10 separate classes with an integrated technique of teaching or methods which are specialized – in fact, personalized – for every individual, because each one is a new experience and a new world in itself. But during the session, I found out that it's an idealistic view towards learner and the learning process. But the possible solution which was given was that teacher can take account of the majority of class capacity and encourage learners to choose among the choices given by her/him. One aspect that was somehow ambiguous for me was the concept of "learning how to learn", which was demonstrated by Dr. Hassaskhak that it refers to not feed learners with solutions, but pave the way to find them on their own by means of thinking. We also came to the conclusion that whatever represented as some techniques or methods should not be applied in classes – as Widowson says – but be used as a tentative method to find the strength and weaknesses of it, and that using some haphazard methods for different classes without having the methodological basis behind it, is fulfilling the duty of teaching not enriching the art of it.