The Third Design Principle and my personal experience
While reading situated cognition and the culture of learning many memories of my own learning experiences came into my mind, I currently work as an ESL teacher, but not so long ago I was a language learner myself. The process of learning a language relays heavily on the cultural context. Words and expressions gain their meaning through culture, and we cannot learn one without the other.
I remember having a "cultural component" in my EFL (English as a foreign language) classes, we usually shared a few facts about different English Speaking countries and discussed common traditions. It wasn't until I moved to the States that I started developing a real background of the English Language, I gained comprehension skills that help me discover the meaning behind expressions I hadn't heard before.
The statement that the authors made "it is possible to acquire a tool but to be unable to use it" reminded me of the struggle of learning a set of grammatical rules for every tense and memorizing irregular verbs. I had the tools, but it wasn't until I immerse myself into the culture that I started figuring out how to use them. I truly learned the language by listening to others and observing native speakers use it in its natural context; it was an acculturation process.
Going into this journey myself helps me connect to my students, understand their struggles and identify their needs. It is now my chance to developed authentic activities that include AeCTS leading my students to the knowing and doing. They need to be writers, readers, and thinkers, capable of communicating their thoughts and targeting any audience successfully.
Your experience is fascinating to me. Your personal experience in your current role must be so beneficial to your students. It is one thing to learn it and practice, but to live it and practice is even better. It makes sense when you say that your development of the English language happened when you moved to the States. Your students are blessed to have you understand where they are coming from when they acquire the English language.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your experience. The process of learning music is very similar to the way language is acquired. Once the tools are acquired we have to try and create authentic settings for them to connect those tools to a relevant outcome. As each tool has authenticity and students can use them independently the start to develop fluency.
ReplyDeleteYour experience of learning the language and immersing yourself in the culture is a great example of how you have to learn in the moment, through interaction, experience, etc... especially if they're tricky concepts that are difficult to grasp. It's much easier to learn while "doing" things in authentic situations. If you take a look at the learning pyramid, the most retention occurs via group discussion, practice by doing, and teaching others. These are the higher level thinking activities that are more interesting to students, but that are also authentic and real.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your personal experience. It is so relevant to what we are working on in class with language and culture. You truly have a deep understanding of what many of our students go through and you clearly have a passion for connecting with your students.
ReplyDeleteYour example also made me consider something else- we expect children to learn different social cues and how to appropriately interact with other children. Your example of learning English is similar; you relied on social context to really learn the language. We should expect nothing different with content knowledge. One question that I have is, what do we do with students who aren’t building knowledge adequately by using cultural context?
ReplyDelete