TESL 0150 Unit 3 Reflection

TESL 0150 Unit 3 Reflection: We Must Learn How to Learn

(Source: http://sayquotable.com/quotes/quote-about-it-is-better-to-know-how-to-learn-than-to-kno-image.html)

What stood out to me from this week’s assigned readings from Tomlinson (2014) was the idea that students, as well as teachers, must learn how to learn. What he means by this is that in order to become independent learners, students must first be exposed to a variety of learning skills and mediums. Once students become familiar with a wide range of approaches to learning, they can then be tasked with choosing an approach that best suits their needs. This plays into the idea of creating a learner who is self-aware of their abilities and needs and can effectively work at bettering themselves.

One way teachers can go about doing this is by stating an objective for an assignment and giving the students the freedom to choose how they will set out to accomplish it; the students might decide to write a poem, compose a short story, perform a skit, or make a video presentation.

One of the benefits of helping students to “learn how to learn” is that they can then become more involved in the adaptation of materials. Tomlinson discusses what is known as a “Negotiated Syllabus”, where the students and the teacher work together to come up with the content for a lesson. Students who are actively aware of their own needs and are familiar with how they best learn will be better able to participate in creating a syllabus than those students who have not been taught to think in this way.

Teaching students about things like grammar, listening skills, and speech registers are expected of an English teacher. However, I think it is equally important that teachers also instruct their students on how to learn.

References:

Tomlinson, B. (Ed.). (2014). Developing materials for language teaching. United Kingdom:  

        Bloombury Academic