What’s Learning? How does Second Language Learning Take Place?

Education and Learning, Learning, Second Language Acquisition, SLA 0 comments

What’s Learning? How does Second Language Learning Take Place?

Learning can be defined as “the activity or process of gaining knowldege or a skill by studying, practicing, being taught, or experiencing something” (Meriam-Webster Dicitonary). If this definition is to be moved in a Second Language context, it refers to the fact of how learners gain knowledge in the target language by studying in a course or independently, by practicing the target language with peers, by having an instructor guiding the process and scaffolding his/her attempts, or by undergoing some sort of experiential situation that will trigger some new understanding and use of the target language.

Second Language Learning (SLL), although it may be connected to some sort of language teaching methodology and teaching beliefs, take place in the classroom in various ways. 1) SLL is linked to motivation. A language learner must be moved by intrinsic and/or extrinsic circumstances that trigger his/her learning, and that is brought into the classroom. 2) SLL is connected to a systematic organization (lesson plan) that guides a teacher in his/her teaching. A language student –if attending class- is scaffolded by the instructor in his/her studies (cognitive relationship with the subject-matter), while practicing with peers (social presence and interaction) to test and monitor language understanding (teaching presence) that facilitates the students’ learning.

Then, what’s teaching?

If learning is the process of gaining knowledge or a skill, teaching is the “process” in which learners are facilitated “gaining of knowledge or a skill.” Second Language teaching, e.g., implies a method along with teaching beliefs and practices and a certain organization of the class continuum (lesson plan) with learning outcomes fully connected to hierarchical thinking skills clearly stated by Benjamin Bloom (Bloom’s Taxonomy). Additionally, the gaining of knowledge or a skill is also connected to the teacher’s discovery of his/her students’ learning preferenes (VAK or Kolb’s Learning Repertoire). By understanding his/her learners’ preferences, learning outcomes can be clearly defined in Bloom’s Taxonomy’s frame of learning to trigger hierarchical thinking abilities among studetns. And once learning objectives have been stated, the learnin plan (lesson plan) can be prepared with the activities needed to provoke certaing language uses (behavior) among students. As stated here, teaching is a complex process that –for sure- involves both active participants: the learner and the instructor.

? To fully comprehend the scope of this teaching reflections, it is highly advisable that the following topics must be expanded further:

· Kolb’s Learning Model

· VAK (Visual Auditory Kinesthetic) Learning Styles

· Bloom’s Taxonomy

· Hierarchical Thinking Skills

Professor Jonathan Acuña-Solano

ELT Trainer, Instructor & Curriculum Developer based in Costa Rica

NCTE – Costa Rica Member

Resource Teacher and Curricular Developer at CCCN

Senior ELT Professor at Universidad Latina, Costa Rica, since 1998

Contact Information:

Twitter @jonacuso

Email jonacuso@gmail.com

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