What
were the greatest differences between teaching students in New Zealand and
Japan?
There
were lots of differences. But if I compare the international EAP and Writing
skills students I taught in NZ with the Japanese undergraduates who were
preparing for a year of study abroad, the key difference was in the students'
appreciation of the need to develop independent learning skills. If they
had remained in Japan, they probably could have survived without needing
to know how to manage and evaluate their own learning. But for international
students who come to NZ, any difference between their level of language
and learning competence and the level required to learn successfully is
immediately obvious.
As a result the "starting point" for the two groups of students had to be different. In Japan, I spent quite a lot of time using case studies of students I had worked with in the past, to help my Japanese students understand some of the challenges, and to get them thinking about ways of approaching them. In NZ, it was possible to take tasks and difficulties from the students' own simultaneous learning experiences.
Obviously, there is also a major difference in the availability of opportunities to practise, and of suitable materials to practise with. In Japan my colleague Garold Murray had established an excellent Self Access Centre at the university before I arrived. This provided both a place for students to practise, and a site for us to introduce metacognitive skills about managing and monitoring learning.
There
are doubtless also some cultural differences that teachers who work in Japan
can use positively in their teaching. One obvious example is the group culture
which pervades all social situations in Japan. Once I learned how to exploit
this - i.e. by always organising learning tasks as group activities, and
also by talking about group dynamics and expectations in Western settings
- my classes became much more successful. In NZ, on the other hand, I was
working with groups of mixed nationalities, so it was much more difficult
to make use of these kinds of characteristics.
In your experience of dealing with different nationalities,
what differences have you noted in adoption of independent learning?
Basically, I don't believe it is possible to make valid generalisations
across nationalities. I remember a young male Indonesian student I worked
with in New Zealand more than 20 years ago who I used to refer to as "the
quintessential autonomous learner". He seemed to instinctively know
how to set up opportunities to practise his language skills, how to measure
his progress and also how to select suitable materials for the tasks he
set himself. When I think of myself, I note that I am much more willing
to be independent in learning how to do new things on the computer than
I am in cooking! So I think that an individual's "setting" in
relation to independent learning can vary in terms of the task (s)he is
focusing on. Therefore, basically, all bets are off when it comes to generalisations!
However, there are definitely some obvious advantages when working with
a group of learners from a particular language background. An important
advantage is the potential for using the learners' first language to explain
the rationale behind independent learning. This is a complex topic, so communicating
the ideas clearly is a must.
How do you think independent learning could be better
integrated into traditional classroom activities?
I think I see this question the other way around. I think that all
teaching and learning needs to be designed with a view to making the teacher
redundant. There is no point, in my view, in a teacher standing in a room
and transmitting information to learners. What is important is to focus
attention on the means of obtaining, evaluating, critiquing and potentially
applying knowledge. Therefore every class in the curriculum - Geography,
Mathematics, History - needs to be designed so as to impart these skills.
Talking explicitly about these skills is a good start, as is clarifying
the purpose of every task presented to the learners, and tying it to goals.
To
give a concrete example, if a teacher is introducing a reading text to a
group of learners, (s)he needs to talk about (and demonstrate) different
ways of reading the text, discuss why it is being included in the class,
and, in particular, talk about what learners can do if they strike difficulties
when reading it. In this way the reading lesson on any given day is an opportunity
to better understand how to read ANY text, and not just a focus on content.
After all, if learners gradually build know-how and confidence (a key factor)
in reading independently, they will be able to access the content they need
without being guided through the task by a teacher.
How can 'teaching' an awareness of learning strategies
best be approached and do you feel that there is still a place in the ILC
for paper-based materials, games etc?
I believe the best way to approach strategies is by adopting a problem-solution
focus. Strategies are useful when learners get "stuck" on something
(in their reading, their writing etc). So if a repertoire of strategies
is introduced and trialled as a means of helping solve learning problems,
learners can see the point of it.
As
for including games and paper-based materials in an ILC - sure. Everyone
is different, and people like to learn differently. I think I subscribe
to the "supermarket" approach to Learning Centres. We can't second
guess all our learners' preferences, so it's our job to provide as many
different types of materials and ways of working as we can. Part of our
job as learning advisors then includes making sure that people experiment
with a range of materials and learning approaches, rather than just sticking
to their old favourites!
How
do you feel that 21st century skills overlap with the concepts of IL?
Totally. The ability to determine needs, to problem solve, to identify appropriate
materials, skills and solutions- these skills are essential to life in the
21st century. These skills, tied to metacognitive knowledge about the special
characteristics of language learning, formed the centrepiece of the course
on Independent Learning that Garold and I taught at AIU in Japan. We felt
confident that this core of knowledge and skill that the learners acquired
during the IL course would be useful not only in their other university
courses, but also in other life situations. Many of them said as much at
the end of the course. We have a paper on that course coming out in the
next issue of System.
What are the hot topics or big issues in independent learning in NZ and/or
Australia?
This is an interesting question for me to think about as I am no longer
working directly in the field of Independent Learning. However at the forthcoming
Independent Learning Association conference to be held in Hong Kong in June
this year, the key areas include assessment, teacher education, e-learning,
management of learning centres and self-directed and self access learning.
I
am particularly interested in encouraging learners to develop their own
measures of learning. I consider this important because learners need to
know that what they are doing in the Self Access Centre (or at home in their
own time) is in fact helping them achieve their goals. What I found with
my Japanese students was that the effort they put into designing learning
measures both motivated them, and helped them better understand the skills
they were trying to develop. I presented a paper on this at the last Independent
Learning Association conference in Japan but have only published a version
of it on the web in Spanish so far! Sorry about that!
To help students the most, offer strategy instruction that is woven into
regular language teaching. Strategy instruction can really be quite simple
and is necessitated by ordinary language tasks. Teachers recognize when
a task is difficult for some or all students in the class; at that point,
strategy instruction might be warranted. The most effective strategy instruction
includes (a) demonstrating how to use a given strategy to make the task
at hand easier and (b) encouraging students to employ the strategy while
doing the task. For instance, the teacher teaches students to make mental
pictures of English prepositions of place when they are doing early tasks
with these prepositions. Another example is teaching students to analyze
unfamiliar words to get the meaning while reading an English newspaper or
short story. Effective strategy instruction also includes (c) helping students
check whether the strategy has aided them (not every strategy is equally
valuable to all students) and (d) reminding students when to transfer a
useful strategy to other language tasks. The goal is for a new, useful strategy
to become automatic and virtually effortless.
What advice would you give to independent learners
who need to prepare for high-stakes exams such as TOEFL or IELTS? What strategies
might they use to maximize their independent learning strategies while still
having very narrow learning goals?
Standardized-test-takers would benefit from many vocabulary-learning strategies,
such as grouping and labeling related words, semantic mapping, using visual
images of words, and (for hands-on learners) using flash cards or posting
word-labels on a "word wall." They would also benefit from many
reading-related strategies involving guessing from context, predicting,
reviewing questions before reading the passage, and analyzing words and
phases to understand the meaning. Strategies such as planning one`s time
and checking one`s work would also be helpful. There are many books available
on how to take standardized tests, and shrewd test-takers consult these
books to find the best strategies for such tests.
In terms of your own theories of second language acquisition,
what is the relationship between developing a very conscious knowledge of
your own learning strategies, on the one hand, and simply acquiring language
unconsciously through exposure, enjoyment, engagement, etc.?
Some students are able to absorb language less consciously than others;
that is, they can "acquire" language rather than "learn"
it, to use Krashen`s terminology. The youngest learners fall into this category.
However, many learners from upper elementary school through adulthood tend
to need more conscious, structured language instruction, and for them the
use of (conscious) learning strategies is essential. By structured language
instruction I certainly do not mean grammar-based, but I do mean organized
and intentional. I just read an article about adult advanced-proficiency
language learners living in the target (host) country. It said that only
a small percentage actually improved their language proficiency merely through
exposure and involvement; the majority needed real instruction (conscious,
intentional teaching and learning) in order to improve. One would assume
that those who required real instruction in the host country would also
benefit from the conscious use of learning strategies. Also, from personal
experience, learning strategies help in travel situations as much as in
the classroom.