ABC's Method in Language Learning Skills

Published By Melissa (1507042035)

When we heard the word language, perhaps most of us will think that language is the tools or the symbols which is used for communication with one another. You might have come up with this definition because we know that we used language to communicate with one another. But only a few of us know or study about how the process of the language learning.

Some questions are emerged when we talk about how the process of the language learning. Where does the learning take place? How can a person ensure success in language learning? And maybe one of the question which is emerged is ‘What are the strategies does the learner use?' These are some questions which will be answered by the writer in this paper.

In order to find the answers of those questions, we must ascertain the core and the fundamental issues to be discussed: defining the focus of our inquiry. Since this paper discuss about Language Skills Learning and learning couldn’t be separated with teaching. So, let’s try to define those two terms first; learning and teaching.

Learning and teaching is two terms which cannot be defined apart because we know that learning is the process of getting and acquiring knowledge or new informations consciously by study, experience or instruction (Kimble and Garmezy 1963 : 133). Similary, teaching, which is implied in the first definition of learning maybe define as transferring the knowledge, giving an instruction and guiding in the study of something to the learner.

The Four Basic Language Skills

When we learn a language, there are four skills that we need for complete communication. When we learn language, we are generally taught and assessed in terms of the ‘four skills’: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Listening and reading are known as ‘receptive’ skills while speaking and writing are known as ‘productive’ skills. And in the case of being success to learn language, all language learners will need to develop their skills in each of these areas. Not only that, the person’s prior knowledge, attitudes, personality, learning styles, skills and motivation, to mention a few, are all factors related to the eventual outcome of the language study.

A further importance for ensuring the learner to be success in learning language is the consciousness of the teacher to find a good teaching style, the classroom techniques and know the principles of teaching. We can say that not only the learner need to develop their skills in each of those four areas but the teachers also need to find their appropriate techniques of teaching the students.

As a teacher of language, we must be able to know about our students and how the way they learn. Because as we know a teacher is one of a basic need for a learner. As the writer clarified in the first chapter that teaching activity cannot be apart from learning activity.

Following these circumstances, we will roll out some principles of language teaching and learning. In some cases the principles will be expanded so that you can try to put them into practice if you wish. We outline eight principles that apply our best understandings of research on both effective teaching and learning for school-age learners and specific knowledge about how language is most efficiently acquired and best taught. Indeed, the purpose of this paper is to present a variety of principles, some of which may be new to you, and to encourage you to experiment with them.

Active Engagement

Learners play enjoyable, engaging, active roles in the learning experience. Language and literacy development are facilitated by a comfortable atmosphere—not only one that values, encourages, and celebrates efforts but also one that provides the appropriate level of challenge to motivate and engage learners (Cummins, 2007; Guthrie et al., 2004; Jensen, 1998; Sprenger, 1999; Krashen, 2003). When active engagement is practiced, language is learned while doing something with it, not just learning it.

Cultural Relevance

Classrooms respect and incorporate the cultures of learners in the class while helping them to understand the new culture of the community, the school, and the classroom. Teachers play the most important role in determining the quality and quantity of participation of the learners in their classrooms. When teachers develop a climate of trust, understand children’s social and cultural needs, and involving them as a model, can include English learners in classroom conversations and activities as important members of the classroom learning communities, the learners’ active involvement in the classroom and their learning show improvement (Yoon, 2007).

Creating a culturally responsive and culturally relevant classroom goes beyond “parental involvement” and requires thoughtfulness and effort on the part of teachers to learn about students’ cultures from students themselves, families, community members, and library and Internet resources; to value and include what learners bring to the classroom from their cultures; and to take into account the different world views represented in the classroom.

Collaboration

Learners develop and practice language in collaboration with one another and with teachers. As language is a tool for meaning-making, and communication and thinking are developed through using language to accomplish things (Vygotsky, 1986), and as learning cooperatively has been shown to be effective at improving learning (Kessler, 1991; Slavin, 1995). So instruction should be organized to facilitate interaction and collaboration. Learning should provide two-way experiences through which learners solve problems, negotiate meaning, and demonstrate what they have learned.

Learning Strategies

Learners use a variety of language and learning strategies to expand learning beyond the classroom and to become independent, lifelong learners. Learning strategies (also called learner strategies) (Chamot & O’Malley, 1996; Nunan, 1996; Oxford, 1996; Lessard-Clouston, 1997) are steps taken by learners to enhance their learning and develop their language competence. These strategies can be observable behaviors, steps, or techniques, such as SQ3R (survey, question, read, recite, review) (Robinson, 1970), a reading strategy, or mental practices, such as visualization or positive thinking. Although learners do use strategies unconsciously, the focus in teaching learning strategies is to bring them to the learners’ attention and make them consciously part of the learners’ repertoire. Learning strategies allow learners to control and direct their own learning. These strategies also expand the role of language teachers beyond teaching language to that of helping learners develop their own strategies. They are generally oriented toward solving problems and can involve many aspects of language to be learned beyond the cognitive.

Differentiation

Learning activities accommodate different language, cognitive levels and incorporate many dimensions of learning: different learning styles, intelligences. All learners are not the same: they have different native intelligence, learned intelligence, learning styles. Including English learners in a grade-level classroom expands the differences by adding different language backgrounds, educational levels, cultural experiences, experiences of culture change, and sometimes the trauma of war, famine, or poverty. When learners are limited in their comprehension of English, providing input through other means—pictures, gestures, sounds, movement, graphics—helps provide them the “hook” they need to be included in the classroom conversation.

Prior Knowledge

Teachers help learners use their prior knowledge of language, content, and the world to develop new language and increase learning. If we already know a lot about a topic—global warming, for example—we will find television programs, lectures, or written materials on global warming much easier to follow. If a student has learned a lot about a topic in his home language, it is easier to develop new language about that topic. Prior knowledge or background knowledge is key to comprehension for all learners (Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2004), but it is of particular importance for English learners. If learners are less familiar with a topic and structures of the oral discussion or written text, they will have more difficulty with comprehension (Upala et al., 2007; Carrell & Eisterhold, 1988). Language difficulty increases with cognitive difficulty, unfamiliarity, and lack of context. So, when developing language with English learners, teachers must work to start where students are. This includes finding out what students already know about a new topic and helping them to make connections between what they already know and what they are learning. It includes making connections between learners’ cultures and cultural knowledge and the new culture of the school and the community. It also may include, at beginning levels, selecting topics that learners are likely to be familiar with, providing necessary background information on new topics in home languages, preteaching key vocabulary to expand background knowledge before studying a topic, or helping learners make connections between what they know about language in their home language (L1) to uses of this knowledge in English (L2). It also might include providing background information in L1 before proceeding to study a theme or topic in L2. In a bilingual classroom, content could be taught in two languages. In a monolingual classroom teachers might, for example, have learners read or listen to a home language summary of a text before they will be reading it in English.

Content Integration

Language learning is integrated with meaningful, relevant, and useful content—generally the same academic content and higher-order thinking skills that are appropriate for the age and grade of learners. Teaching language along with age-appropriate academic content has several advantages: it is efficient because two goals—acquisition of language and content learning—are accomplished at once. It is effective first because language is learned better when learners are doing something purposeful and important to them—and learning the content for their grade level is very important. It is also necessary because learners cannot afford to take a year or two off from content learning while they develop language: they will end up only further behind their peers. Content-based language learning can happen in a ­variety of settings: in a pull-out English language development (ELD) class (also called an ESL class), in which the teacher introduces content through integrated themes (this is often used with newcomers/ beginners); in a special section of a content class with a grade-level teacher with training in teaching ELD who teaches the content using approaches that make the content comprehensible to language learners and promote language development (this is sometimes done in middle and high schools with significant numbers of English learners); or in grade-level classes that include both English proficient learners and English language learners and in which teachers have training to attend to both content and language needs of learners and to differentiate instruction to include learners at different language and learning levels. These integrated models are used because research findings have shown that they are the most effective at both language learning and content learning for English learners (Cummins, 1986; Thomas & Collier, 2003). Teachers can differentiate through adapting the language, content, process, or product in classrooms (Tomlinson, 1999).

Clear, Appropriate Goals and Feedback

Teachers set and communicate attainable goals for learners and provide students appropriate and consistent feedback on their progress in attaining these goals. Setting clear goals helps both teachers and learners have a much greater chance to attain those goals. Goals begin our curriculum, inform our curriculum, and new, more advanced goals are the outcome of our curriculum. As John Dewey once said, “Arriving at one goal is the starting point to another.” We want English learners to attain the same high goals as their English-proficient peers, but to do this, we must set the right goals—goals that comprise the next step forward for individual learners. Learners want to do well, and will do much better when they understand what is expected of them and when our expectations are appropriate. We must establish clear language and content goals for learners and provide them feedback on their progress toward those goals. We can also, in developmentally appropriate ways, encourage learners to begin to evaluate their own progress toward accomplishing goals to help them become independent, self-motivated learners. We must determine intermediary steps toward grade-level standards that are attainable at learners’ language level. 

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