an elt approach: ed’s

intro

If I were asked where my approach to second language teaching is heading, what would I say?

a possible answer

to make things easier I will use the following lines from david kern’s book “literacy and language teaching”

• “even the most basic acts of communication require interpretation, involving the use of resources that extend well beyond the grammar and vocabulary of a language”
• “the design metaphor emphasizes the construction of meaning and not a simple transfer of it in every communicative act”
• “from the metaphorical perspective of design, communication occurs at the intersection between language and context and relies on the perception of linguistic, cognitive and social relationships”.

.

keywords are: communication, design and the third line. put together, they build the framework reference i have for my teaching principles and approach:

one
communication is everything. a sense of it is constantly in the air. exactly, it is like air without which there is language learning. so, intentions drive all efforts to get things done or express feelings, and ways are found to let others know of them. that is communication, and that should be clear to learners.
two
design is none of other than construction of meaning. language learning is a process more than a product. it is dynamic. it changes in every instance. it is a mind game. it is fun. that is how sessions can be described: continuous designs.
three
from the perspective of methodology explained, language learning takes humans to understand that is language is not a code alone. language uses context to exist. in other words, there is no language without context. who, where, when, by whom, to whom, etc.. everything expressed must answer all these questions. and only humans can understand such a complex code, which they process in their minds and use as well as improve it through social actions.

alan kay

Alan Kay´s presentation at TED reminds me of the theory of experiential learning with some minor differences, especially at the start of the cycle. One tends to believe what one initially sees, and that must cast some doubt. However, it is the feeling through the senses that triggers the curiosity to observe attentively whether there is a pattern in the dynamics of phenomena. The learner then parts from the emotions and enters the world of the abstract. It is here where s/he conceptualizes, where s/he interiorizes knowledge. So do his learners in his experiments: they touch the balls and feels the weight. Then they go through observation of movements, use Mr Kay´s software to conceptualize while at the same time link the behavioral patterns observed.

What I personally find fascinating about Alan Kay´s samples of learning is the effectiveness of its simplicity. In fact, his argument is that the old traditional way of teaching physics, in the case of gravity for example, is absurd. No wonder most grown ups find the issue too hard to understand, including me. Children, as it is very apparent in the video, reach to their conclusions in a very logical manner. It is as if to say that we are born with the ability to solve problems if the right environment is provided. Traditional teaching denies the individual the opportunity to train for thinking.

Alan Kay is the cofounder of Viewpoints Reserch Institute a research group dedicated to improve education in children through computing. The areas covered are four: Teaching and learning powerful ideas, powerful ideas content and how to represent it, UIs that help learning and doing and inventing fundamental new computing technologies. A little into his biography and one can´t help but admire him: he in fact comes a long way, from the 60´s when he worked at XeroxPARC and was part of changing inventions, such as the graphical interface we find in computers today, the object-oriented programming which makes it easy for programs to incorporate subprograms or modules, etc. For more information check his profile. 

A few phrases: 

• “We see things not as they are but as we are” ( Talmud )
• “We go to the theater in order to be fooled” ( Shakespeare )
• “We do more. We like more. Complex means more”