Marmara Elt/EFL Resources

Metacognitive,Cognitive and Sociaffective Learning Strategies by Michael O’Malley and Anna Chomot

The research of the mid-1970s led to some very careful defining of specific learning strategies.In some of the most comprehensive research of this kind,Michael O’Malley and Anna Chomot studied the use of strategies by learners of English as a second language in USA.Typically,strategies were divided into three main categories as a metacognitive,cognitive and sociaffective strategies.Metacognitive is a term used in information-processing theory to indicate a “executive” function,strategies that involve planning for learning,thinking about the learning process as it is taking place,monitoring of one’s production or comprehension,and evaluating learning after an activity is completed. Cognitive strategies are more limited to specific learning tasks and involve more direct manipulation of the learning material itself.Sociaffective strategies have to do with social-mediating activity and interacting with others.

Metacognitive Strategies :

• Advance Organizers: Making a general but comprehensive preview of the organizing concept or principle in an anticipated learning activity.
• Directed Attention: Deciding in advance to attend in general to a learning task and to ignore irrelevant distractors.
• Selective Attention: Deciding in advance to attend to specific aspects of language input or situational details that will cue the retention of language input.
• Self-Management: Understanding the conditions that help on learn and arranging for the presence of those conditions.
• Functional Planning: Planning for and rehearsing linguistic components necessary to carry out an upcoming language task.
• Self-Monitoring: Correcting one’s speech for accuracy in pronunciation,grammar,vocabulary,or for appropriateness related to the setting or the the people who are present.
• Delayed Production: Consciously deciding to postpone speaking in order to learn initially through listening comprehension.

Self-Evaluation: Checking the outcomes of one’s own language learning against an internal measure of completeness and accuracy. Read the rest of this entry »

Fostering Learner Autonomy in EFL Classrooms by Cem BALÇIKANLI
[G.U. Gazi Faculty of Education, Department of Foreign Languages, Ankara]
Abstract
This study aims to foster learner autonomy through the activities to be exploited at Preparatory
School, Gazi University. In order to attain this goal, two classes were selected randomly, each of which
consists of twenty learners studying English from various faculties at Gazi University, as experimental
and control group. Prior to the implementation phase, Learner Autonomy Questionnaire, made up of
three parts, was administered to both groups so as to reveal possible levels of autonomy they possessed.
Whereas the experimental group was instructed in the autonomy implementation, the control group
continued their education without any modification. After the 12-week implementation process, the
same questionnaire was administered to both groups once again. The results from both groups were
gathered and analyzed by the use of student and paired sample t-test to demonstrate whether any
change would exist between the groups. At the end of this process, the statistical results were analyzed
and interpreted. The results displayed that the learners in the experimental group scored higher than
those in the control group, and showed a strong tendency towards autonomy than the control group did
with a few exceptions. In the light of these results, syllabuses of the preparatory schools should be
redesigned in accordance with the principles of learner autonomy, the course books to be followed at
preparatory schools should be assessed whether they encourage autonomy or not, some in-service
training should be fulfilled and finally self-access rooms should be developed in order that the learners
may have the opportunity to study there on their own far more effectively.

FULL ARTICLE IS HERE..

Useful Techniques for Teaching Language and Culture

The following are some useful techniques for presenting culture in the classroom:

Genuine Materials

Using authentic sources from the native speech community helps to engage students in authentic cultural experiences. Sources can include films, news broadcasts, and television shows; Web sites; and photographs, magazines,newspapers, restaurant menus, travel brochures, and other printed materials.Teachers can adapt their use of authentic materials to suit the age and language proficiency level of the students.

Films

Film and television offer students a chance to observe behaviors which are hidden in texts. Film is often one of the more current and comprehensive ways to encapsulate the look, feel, and rhythm of a culture and now they are available in CD/DVD. Film also connects students with language and cultural issues simultaneously (Stephens, 2001), such as depicting conversational timing or turntaking in conversation. At least one study showed that students achieved significant gains in overall cultural knowledge after watching videos from the target culture in the classroom (Herron, Cole, Corrie, & Dubreil, 1999).

Role Play

The role-play must take place after an exposure to authentic conversation. For example, after learning about ways of addressing different groups of people in the target culture, such as people of the same age and older people, students could role play a situation in which an inappropriate greeting is used. Other students observe the role play and try to identify the reason for the miscommunication.Then they role play the same situation using a culturally proper form of address. Read the rest of this entry »

GoAnimate.com: blogging by evasimkesyan

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It’s free and fun!

I want to write. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a novelist. Dreams from past, forgotten long ago.

I still want to write.

What about starting a blog?

Actually there are people who write about theories. I’m not one of them.

There are great educators writing magnificent materials for classrooms. I just create handouts and exercises for my own classes.

So what can I write?

What’s the reason for me to keep a blog?

By the way, I don’t want to be online. It’s like you are so approachable. The thought of being watched is a bit scary.

But wait a second, what’s wrong with it?

If I write, people will read me. I’ll have a target reader. Good…

It’s something like being a student again.

I’ll have writing tasks.

I’ll have a reason.

Wow, that’ll be great.

I think I can reach my students too. They can blog too. Oh God, they will have real readers too. May be I should think about it.

If I blog and if I have readers, most probably, I’ll read their blogs too.

So I’ll read more.

They will be ELT people maybe.

Yes, that’ll be an opportunity to learn, to share, to collaborate.

Yes, yes, yes,

I want to start a blog.

I should start a blog.

I must start it ASAP.

I think the ones who haven’t started yet, should consider it seriously. It’s great, it’s addictive, it’s challenging.

I think we, the ones who have started blogging and tweeting should at least try to encourage the others once or twice.

They should also join us.

The more, the merrier.

Finally, I’d like to thank you for this opportunity. Being a guest writer is a great feeling. I’m really happy to be a part of your PLN.

Eva Büyüksimkeşyan

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Eva BüyüksimkeÅŸyan is an EFL teacher in Ä°stanbul,Turkey.She has been teaching English for 20 years. She loves teaching because it allows her to improve myself.She is married and has two kids. They are twins.She loves reading. She says :”If I weren’t a teacher, I’d do something related with comparative literature. Literature makes you grow up, realise and take action… I love music, any kind…as long as it’s good.”

You can follow her web2.0 experiences at her education blog: A Journey in TEFL

The role of input in the child’s acquisition of  language is undeniably crucial.Whatever one’s position on the innateness of language,the speech that young children hear is primarily the speech heard in the home,and much of that speech is parental speech or the speech of older siblings.Linguists once claimed that most adult speech is basically semigrammatical,that children are exposed to a chaotic sample of language,and only their innate capacities can account for their successful acquistion of language.McNeill,for example,wrote: “The speech of adults from which discovers the locally appropriate manifestation of the linguistic universals is a completely random sample,in no way contrived to instruct the child on grammar” (1966:73).However,Labov’s (1970) studies showed that the presumed ungrammaticality of everyday speech appears to be a myth.Bellugi and Brown (1964) found that the speech addressed to children was carefully grammatical and lacked the usual hesitations and false starts common in adult-to-adult speech.Landes’s (1975) summary of a wide range of research on parental input supported their conclusions.Later studies of parents’ speech in the home (Hladik & Edwards 1984; Moerk 1985) confirmed earlier evidence demonstrating the selectivity of parental linguistic input to their children. Read the rest of this entry »

The Collaborative Research Model is a flexible model for collaborative student research in coursework across the curriculum. The foundation of the model lies in its cooperative stance, which supports students in working together toward informed decision making on a common research problem.

Many variations on the model are possible, but successful implementations include collaborative research projects in lieu of individual research papers. For instance:

*In a sociology class, students might work together to explore issues relevant to population growth, create issues briefs focused on a common resolution with common claims and counterclaims that represent multiple perspectives, and then engage in a cooperative debate.

*Students in an early-childhood education class might decide to examine various perspectives on reading instruction, working together to create a common resource bank, and then engage in a round table discussion for pedagogical decision making.

The Collaborative Research Model works well in both small and large undergraduate classrooms, and has the potential to result in interesting and innovative research by lower-division students, as well as sophisticated research products by upper-division students.

THE Home Page of  The Collaborative Research Model