🌿 meaningful learning
✔️ also called subsumption
✔️ the process of relating and anchoring new material to relevant established entities in cognitive structure
✔️ David Ausubel contended that learning takes place in the human organism through a meaningful process of relating new events or items to already existing cognitive concepts or propositions—hanging new items on existing cognitive pegs.
✔️ Meaning is not an implicit response, but a clearly articulated and precisely differentiated conscious experience that emerges when potentially meaningful signs, symbols, concepts, or propositions are related to and incorporated within a given individuals cognitive structure on a nonarbitrary and substantive basis.
✔️ It is this relatability that ,according to Ausubel, accounts for a number of phenomena: the acquisition of new meanings (knowledge), retention , the psychological organization of knowledge as a hierarchical structure, and the eventual occurrence of forgetting.
✔️ The cognitive theory of learning as put forth by Ausubel is perhaps best understood by contrasting rote learning and meaningful learning.
⬇️
Ausubel described rote learning as the process of acquiring material as discrete and relatively isolated entities that are relatable to cognitive structure only in an arbitrary and verbatim fashion, not permitting the establishment of meaningful relationships. That is, rote learning involves the mental storage of items having little or no association with existing cognitive structure.
⬇️
Most of us, for example, can learn a few necessary phone numbers and ZIP codes by rote without reference to cognitive hierarchical organization.
✔️ in meaningful learning, as new material enters the cognitive field, it interacts with, and is appropriately subsumed under, a more inclusive conceptual system ➡️ The very fact that material is subsumable, that is, relatable to stable elements in cognitive structure, accounts for its meaningfulness.
#teaching
@Eltprogram
@Elt_program
✔️ also called subsumption
✔️ the process of relating and anchoring new material to relevant established entities in cognitive structure
✔️ David Ausubel contended that learning takes place in the human organism through a meaningful process of relating new events or items to already existing cognitive concepts or propositions—hanging new items on existing cognitive pegs.
✔️ Meaning is not an implicit response, but a clearly articulated and precisely differentiated conscious experience that emerges when potentially meaningful signs, symbols, concepts, or propositions are related to and incorporated within a given individuals cognitive structure on a nonarbitrary and substantive basis.
✔️ It is this relatability that ,according to Ausubel, accounts for a number of phenomena: the acquisition of new meanings (knowledge), retention , the psychological organization of knowledge as a hierarchical structure, and the eventual occurrence of forgetting.
✔️ The cognitive theory of learning as put forth by Ausubel is perhaps best understood by contrasting rote learning and meaningful learning.
⬇️
Ausubel described rote learning as the process of acquiring material as discrete and relatively isolated entities that are relatable to cognitive structure only in an arbitrary and verbatim fashion, not permitting the establishment of meaningful relationships. That is, rote learning involves the mental storage of items having little or no association with existing cognitive structure.
⬇️
Most of us, for example, can learn a few necessary phone numbers and ZIP codes by rote without reference to cognitive hierarchical organization.
✔️ in meaningful learning, as new material enters the cognitive field, it interacts with, and is appropriately subsumed under, a more inclusive conceptual system ➡️ The very fact that material is subsumable, that is, relatable to stable elements in cognitive structure, accounts for its meaningfulness.
#teaching
@Eltprogram
@Elt_program
🌿 attrition
✔️ the loss or forgetting of language skills
✔️language attrition refers to the gradual forgetting of a first or second language
✔️a common typology for research in attrition lists four categories of natural language attrition :
1⃣ attrition of first language skills (L1) in an L1 environment (e.g., ageing, dialectal loss)
2⃣ attrition of L1 skills in an L2 environment (e.g., fading L1 in migrant populations)
3⃣ attrition of L2 in an L1 environment (e.g., decline in school-learned L2) or decline in L2 following return to home country (e.g., returning expatriate workers or their children)
4⃣ attrition of L2 skills in an L2 environment (e.g., loss of L2 skills when ageing).
✔️ the degree and rate of language attrition may be affected by any or all of the following factors:
▪︎proficiency
▪︎age
▪️attitude
▪️motivation
▪️frequency of language use
#teaching
@Eltprogram
@Elt_program
✔️ the loss or forgetting of language skills
✔️language attrition refers to the gradual forgetting of a first or second language
✔️a common typology for research in attrition lists four categories of natural language attrition :
1⃣ attrition of first language skills (L1) in an L1 environment (e.g., ageing, dialectal loss)
2⃣ attrition of L1 skills in an L2 environment (e.g., fading L1 in migrant populations)
3⃣ attrition of L2 in an L1 environment (e.g., decline in school-learned L2) or decline in L2 following return to home country (e.g., returning expatriate workers or their children)
4⃣ attrition of L2 skills in an L2 environment (e.g., loss of L2 skills when ageing).
✔️ the degree and rate of language attrition may be affected by any or all of the following factors:
▪︎proficiency
▪︎age
▪️attitude
▪️motivation
▪️frequency of language use
#teaching
@Eltprogram
@Elt_program
🌿 Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP)
✔️ a cognitive theory of L2 acquisition which is based on the notion that information is processed simultaneously at several levels of attention
✔️ as you read the words on this page, your brain is attending to letters, word juncture and meaning, syntactic relationships, textual discourse, as well as background experiences (schemata) that you bring to the text.
✔️ a child’s (or adult’s) linguistic performance may be the consequence of many levels of simultaneous neural interconnections rather than a serial process of one rule being applied, then another, then another, and so forth
✔️ The main properties of a PDP are as follows:
🔘 it is argued that multiple constraints govern language processing, with semantic and syntactic factors constantly interacting without it being possible to say that one set is primary
🔘 processing is activated by input which stimulates one or more units and, of course, their connections with other units.
#teaching
@Eltprogram
@Elt_program
✔️ a cognitive theory of L2 acquisition which is based on the notion that information is processed simultaneously at several levels of attention
✔️ as you read the words on this page, your brain is attending to letters, word juncture and meaning, syntactic relationships, textual discourse, as well as background experiences (schemata) that you bring to the text.
✔️ a child’s (or adult’s) linguistic performance may be the consequence of many levels of simultaneous neural interconnections rather than a serial process of one rule being applied, then another, then another, and so forth
✔️ The main properties of a PDP are as follows:
🔘 it is argued that multiple constraints govern language processing, with semantic and syntactic factors constantly interacting without it being possible to say that one set is primary
🔘 processing is activated by input which stimulates one or more units and, of course, their connections with other units.
#teaching
@Eltprogram
@Elt_program
🌿 connectionism
✔️ connectionism is a theory which likens the brain to a computer that would consist of neural networks: complex clusters of links between information nodes.
⬇️
these links or connections become strengthened or weakened through activation or non-activation, respectively.
✔️ learning in this view occurs on the basis of associative processes, rather than the construction of abstract rules.
⬇️
in other words, the human mind is predisposed to look for associations between elements and create links between them. These links become stronger as these associations keep recurring, and they also become part of larger networks as connections between elements become more numerous
✔️ when applied to the learning of language, connectionism claims that learners are sensitive to regularities in the language input (i.e. the regular co-occurrence of particular language forms) and extract probabilistic patterns on the basis of these regularities. Learning occurs as these patterns become strengthened by repeated activation
#teaching
@Eltprogram
@Elt_program
✔️ connectionism is a theory which likens the brain to a computer that would consist of neural networks: complex clusters of links between information nodes.
⬇️
these links or connections become strengthened or weakened through activation or non-activation, respectively.
✔️ learning in this view occurs on the basis of associative processes, rather than the construction of abstract rules.
⬇️
in other words, the human mind is predisposed to look for associations between elements and create links between them. These links become stronger as these associations keep recurring, and they also become part of larger networks as connections between elements become more numerous
✔️ when applied to the learning of language, connectionism claims that learners are sensitive to regularities in the language input (i.e. the regular co-occurrence of particular language forms) and extract probabilistic patterns on the basis of these regularities. Learning occurs as these patterns become strengthened by repeated activation
#teaching
@Eltprogram
@Elt_program
🌿 interaction hypothesis
✔️ the hypothesis that language acquisition requires or greatly benefits from interaction, communication and especially negotiation of meaning, which happens when interlocutors attempt to overcome problems in conveying their meaning, resulting in both additional input and useful feedback on the learner’s own production.
🌿 negotiation of meaning
✔️ an attempt made in conversation to clarify a lack of understanding
✔️ negotiation of meaning is triggered when there is a mismatch between a speaker’s intended message and what the listener interprets as the intended meaning
⬇️
the purpose of negotiation is to resolve the perceived mismatch, and such negotiations can occur in just about any kind of interaction.
✔️ negotiation of meaning is a term attributed to Michael Long and now widely used in the interactional research literature.
#teaching
@Eltprogram
@Elt_program
✔️ the hypothesis that language acquisition requires or greatly benefits from interaction, communication and especially negotiation of meaning, which happens when interlocutors attempt to overcome problems in conveying their meaning, resulting in both additional input and useful feedback on the learner’s own production.
🌿 negotiation of meaning
✔️ an attempt made in conversation to clarify a lack of understanding
✔️ negotiation of meaning is triggered when there is a mismatch between a speaker’s intended message and what the listener interprets as the intended meaning
⬇️
the purpose of negotiation is to resolve the perceived mismatch, and such negotiations can occur in just about any kind of interaction.
✔️ negotiation of meaning is a term attributed to Michael Long and now widely used in the interactional research literature.
#teaching
@Eltprogram
@Elt_program
🌿 measurement
✔️ a process of quantifying the characteristics of persons according to explicit procedures and rules
⬇️
🔘 quantification involves the assigning of numbers, and this distinguishes measures from qualitative descriptions such as verbal accounts or non-verbal , visual representations .
🔘 characteristics are mental attributes and abilities, sometimes called traits or constructs ➡️ they can only be observed indirectly
🔘 rules and procedures which means that the "blind" or haphazard assignment of numbers to characteristics of individuals cannot be regarded as measurement ➡️ in order to be considered a measure, an observation of an attribute must be replicable, for other observers , in other contexts and with other individuals
#testing
@Eltprogram
@Elt_program
✔️ a process of quantifying the characteristics of persons according to explicit procedures and rules
⬇️
🔘 quantification involves the assigning of numbers, and this distinguishes measures from qualitative descriptions such as verbal accounts or non-verbal , visual representations .
🔘 characteristics are mental attributes and abilities, sometimes called traits or constructs ➡️ they can only be observed indirectly
🔘 rules and procedures which means that the "blind" or haphazard assignment of numbers to characteristics of individuals cannot be regarded as measurement ➡️ in order to be considered a measure, an observation of an attribute must be replicable, for other observers , in other contexts and with other individuals
#testing
@Eltprogram
@Elt_program
🌿 test
✔️ test is a measurement instrument
✔️ test often connotes the presentation of a set of questions to be answered, to obtain a measure ( that is , a numerical value ) of a characteristic ( that is , mental attribute and ability) of a person in a given domain ( language, math , etc )
✔️ what distinguishes a test from other types of measurement is that it is designed to obtain a specific sample of behavior from which one can make inferences about certain characteristics of an individual.
✔️ tests are prepared administrative procedures that occur at identifiable times in a curriculum.
✔️ a test measures performance , but the results imply the test-taker's ability, or to use a term common in the field of linguistics , competence.
#testing
@Eltprogram
@Elt_program
✔️ test is a measurement instrument
✔️ test often connotes the presentation of a set of questions to be answered, to obtain a measure ( that is , a numerical value ) of a characteristic ( that is , mental attribute and ability) of a person in a given domain ( language, math , etc )
✔️ what distinguishes a test from other types of measurement is that it is designed to obtain a specific sample of behavior from which one can make inferences about certain characteristics of an individual.
✔️ tests are prepared administrative procedures that occur at identifiable times in a curriculum.
✔️ a test measures performance , but the results imply the test-taker's ability, or to use a term common in the field of linguistics , competence.
#testing
@Eltprogram
@Elt_program
🌿 evaluation
Three definitions :
1⃣ The process of delineating, obtaining, and providing useful information for judging decision alternatives
2⃣ The determination of the congruence between performance and objectives
3⃣ A process that allows one to make a judgment about the desirability or value of a measure
✔️ The information relevant to evaluation can be either qualitative ( non-measurement ) or quantitative ( measurement) .
#testing
@Eltprogram
@Elt_program
Three definitions :
1⃣ The process of delineating, obtaining, and providing useful information for judging decision alternatives
2⃣ The determination of the congruence between performance and objectives
3⃣ A process that allows one to make a judgment about the desirability or value of a measure
✔️ The information relevant to evaluation can be either qualitative ( non-measurement ) or quantitative ( measurement) .
#testing
@Eltprogram
@Elt_program
🌿 structural linguistics
✔️ advocates :
Leonard Bloomfield
Edward Sapir
Charles Hockett
Charles Fries
✔️only "publicly observable responses"
✔️ the linguist's task ➡️ to describe human languages and to identify the structural characteristics of those languages.
✔️ languages can differ from each other without limit, and that no preconceptions could apply across languages.
✔️ language could be dismantled into small pieces or units and that these units could be described scientifically, contrasted, and added up again to form the whole.
#teaching
@Eltprogram
@Elt_program
✔️ advocates :
Leonard Bloomfield
Edward Sapir
Charles Hockett
Charles Fries
✔️only "publicly observable responses"
✔️ the linguist's task ➡️ to describe human languages and to identify the structural characteristics of those languages.
✔️ languages can differ from each other without limit, and that no preconceptions could apply across languages.
✔️ language could be dismantled into small pieces or units and that these units could be described scientifically, contrasted, and added up again to form the whole.
#teaching
@Eltprogram
@Elt_program
🌿 behavioral psychology
✔️ a behavioral paradigm also focused on publicly observable responses
⬇️
those that can be objectively perceived, recorded, and measured.
✔️ concepts as consciousness and intuition were regarded as mentaltstic, illegitimate domains of inquiry.
✔️ typical behavioral models were classical and operant conditioning, rote verbal learning, instrumental learning, discrimination learning, and other empirical approaches to studying human behavior.
⬇️
experiments with Pavlov's dog and Skinner's boxes
#teaching
@Eltprogram
@Elt_program
✔️ a behavioral paradigm also focused on publicly observable responses
⬇️
those that can be objectively perceived, recorded, and measured.
✔️ concepts as consciousness and intuition were regarded as mentaltstic, illegitimate domains of inquiry.
✔️ typical behavioral models were classical and operant conditioning, rote verbal learning, instrumental learning, discrimination learning, and other empirical approaches to studying human behavior.
⬇️
experiments with Pavlov's dog and Skinner's boxes
#teaching
@Eltprogram
@Elt_program
🌿 generative linguistics
✔️generative-transformational linguistics emerged through the influence of Noam Chomsky and a number of his followers.
✔️ Chomsky was trying to show that human language cannot be scrutinized simply in terms of observable stimuli and responses or the volumes of raw data gathered by field linguists.
✔️ the generative linguist was interested not only in describing language (achieving the level of descriptive adequacy) but also in arriving at an explanatory level of adequacy in the study of language.
#teaching
@Eltprogram
@Elt_program
✔️generative-transformational linguistics emerged through the influence of Noam Chomsky and a number of his followers.
✔️ Chomsky was trying to show that human language cannot be scrutinized simply in terms of observable stimuli and responses or the volumes of raw data gathered by field linguists.
✔️ the generative linguist was interested not only in describing language (achieving the level of descriptive adequacy) but also in arriving at an explanatory level of adequacy in the study of language.
#teaching
@Eltprogram
@Elt_program
🌿 cognitive psychology
✔️ cognitive psychologists asserted that meaning, understanding, and knowing were significant data for psychological study.
✔️ cognitive psychologists, like generative linguists, sought to discover underlying motivations and deeper structures of human behavior by using a rational approach.
⬇️
that is, they freed themselves from the strictly empirical study typical of behaviorists and employed the tools of logic, reason, extrapolation, and inference in order to derive explanations for human behavior.
#teaching
@Eltprogram
@Elt_program
✔️ cognitive psychologists asserted that meaning, understanding, and knowing were significant data for psychological study.
✔️ cognitive psychologists, like generative linguists, sought to discover underlying motivations and deeper structures of human behavior by using a rational approach.
⬇️
that is, they freed themselves from the strictly empirical study typical of behaviorists and employed the tools of logic, reason, extrapolation, and inference in order to derive explanations for human behavior.
#teaching
@Eltprogram
@Elt_program
🌿 constructivism
✔️ Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky are often associated with constructivism
✔️ refreshing characteristic of constructivism is its integration of linguistic, psychological, and sociological paradigms
✔️ its emphasis is on:
social interaction
the discovery
construction of meaning
✔️ two branches of constructivism: cognitive and social
✔️ in the cognitive version of constructivism, emphasis is placed on the importance of learners constructing their own representation of reality ➡️ Piaget
✔️ social constructivism emphasizes the importance of social interaction and cooperative learning in ultimate attainment ➡️ Vygotsky
✔️ Vygotsky ➡️ zone of proximal development (ZPD)
1⃣ the distance between learners'existing developmental state and their potential development
2⃣ ZPD describes tasks that a learner has not yet learned but is capable of learning with appropriate stimuli
#teaching
@Eltprogram
@Elt_program
✔️ Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky are often associated with constructivism
✔️ refreshing characteristic of constructivism is its integration of linguistic, psychological, and sociological paradigms
✔️ its emphasis is on:
social interaction
the discovery
construction of meaning
✔️ two branches of constructivism: cognitive and social
✔️ in the cognitive version of constructivism, emphasis is placed on the importance of learners constructing their own representation of reality ➡️ Piaget
✔️ social constructivism emphasizes the importance of social interaction and cooperative learning in ultimate attainment ➡️ Vygotsky
✔️ Vygotsky ➡️ zone of proximal development (ZPD)
1⃣ the distance between learners'existing developmental state and their potential development
2⃣ ZPD describes tasks that a learner has not yet learned but is capable of learning with appropriate stimuli
#teaching
@Eltprogram
@Elt_program
🌿 formative assessment
✔️ most of our classroom assessment is formative assessment
✔️ formative assessment ➡️ evaluating students in the process of " forming" their competencies and skills with the goal of helping them to continue that growth process
✔️ virtually all kinds of informal assessment are ( or should be) formative
✔️ ongoing development of the learner’s language
🌿 summative assessment
✔️ aims to measure , or summarize, what a student has grasped
✔️ typically occurs at the end of a course or unit of instruction
✔️a summation of what a student has learned implies looking back and taking stock of how well that student has accomplished objectives
✔️ final exams in a course and general proficiency exams are examples of summative assessment
✔️ summative assessment often , but not always , involves evaluation ( decision making )
#testing
@Eltprogram
@Elt_program
✔️ most of our classroom assessment is formative assessment
✔️ formative assessment ➡️ evaluating students in the process of " forming" their competencies and skills with the goal of helping them to continue that growth process
✔️ virtually all kinds of informal assessment are ( or should be) formative
✔️ ongoing development of the learner’s language
🌿 summative assessment
✔️ aims to measure , or summarize, what a student has grasped
✔️ typically occurs at the end of a course or unit of instruction
✔️a summation of what a student has learned implies looking back and taking stock of how well that student has accomplished objectives
✔️ final exams in a course and general proficiency exams are examples of summative assessment
✔️ summative assessment often , but not always , involves evaluation ( decision making )
#testing
@Eltprogram
@Elt_program
🌿 washback/ backwash
✔️ the effect of the nature of a test on teaching and learing
✔️ if a test is regarded as important, then preparation for it can come to dominate all teaching and learning activities
✔️ if test and testing techniques are at variance with the objectives of the course , then there is likely to be harmful backwash or negative backwash
✔️ backwash need not always be harmful; indeed it can be positively beneficial which is called beneficial backwash or positive backwash
⬇️
positive washback is said to result when a testing procedure encourages " good " teaching practice
✔️ if the knowledge from teaching has an influence on testing , this would be an example of reverse washback.
#testing
@Eltprogram
@Elt_program
✔️ the effect of the nature of a test on teaching and learing
✔️ if a test is regarded as important, then preparation for it can come to dominate all teaching and learning activities
✔️ if test and testing techniques are at variance with the objectives of the course , then there is likely to be harmful backwash or negative backwash
✔️ backwash need not always be harmful; indeed it can be positively beneficial which is called beneficial backwash or positive backwash
⬇️
positive washback is said to result when a testing procedure encourages " good " teaching practice
✔️ if the knowledge from teaching has an influence on testing , this would be an example of reverse washback.
#testing
@Eltprogram
@Elt_program
🌿 test bias
✔️when a test happens to be in favour of some test takers due to their individual or group characteristics, we say that the test is biased
✔️ bias is defined as prejudice or having a particular bent or direction
⬇️
to say a test is biased is to charge that it is prejudiced or unfair to groups or individuals characterized as different from the majority of test takers
✔️ characteristics which are likely to affect test performance and hece result in test bias :
🔘 cultural background
🔘 background knowledge
🔘 cognitive characteristics
🔘 native language
🔘 ethnicity
🔘 sex
🔘 age
#testing
@Eltprogram
@Elt_program
✔️when a test happens to be in favour of some test takers due to their individual or group characteristics, we say that the test is biased
✔️ bias is defined as prejudice or having a particular bent or direction
⬇️
to say a test is biased is to charge that it is prejudiced or unfair to groups or individuals characterized as different from the majority of test takers
✔️ characteristics which are likely to affect test performance and hece result in test bias :
🔘 cultural background
🔘 background knowledge
🔘 cognitive characteristics
🔘 native language
🔘 ethnicity
🔘 sex
🔘 age
#testing
@Eltprogram
@Elt_program
🌿 authenticity
✔️ Bachman and Palmer defined authenticity as “the degree of correspondence of the characteristics of a given language test task to the features of a target language task"
✔️ essentially, when you make a claim for authenticity in a test task, you are saying that this task is likely to be enacted in the real world.
✔️ an authentic test ...
🔘 contains language that is as natural as possible
🔘 has items that are contextualized rather than isolated
🔘 includes meaningful, relevant, interesting topics
🔘 provides some thematic organization to items, such as through a story line or episode
🔘 offers tasks that replicate real-world tasks
#testing
@Eltprogram
@Elt_program
✔️ Bachman and Palmer defined authenticity as “the degree of correspondence of the characteristics of a given language test task to the features of a target language task"
✔️ essentially, when you make a claim for authenticity in a test task, you are saying that this task is likely to be enacted in the real world.
✔️ an authentic test ...
🔘 contains language that is as natural as possible
🔘 has items that are contextualized rather than isolated
🔘 includes meaningful, relevant, interesting topics
🔘 provides some thematic organization to items, such as through a story line or episode
🔘 offers tasks that replicate real-world tasks
#testing
@Eltprogram
@Elt_program