Concept Learner Centered Curriculum in TESOL

¶ … Learner-centered curriculum' in TESOL The most important learning processes in any school anywhere in the world involve the use of several different means of communication. The communication methods may be verbal or non-verbal. Verbal communication involves the use of oral and written symbols that can communicate a message to the student, and non-verbal involves the use of, primarily, among other means, body language.

Without communication there can be no means of telling the other person what one person wants or needs, and communication is used between teachers and parents, between groups, between the parents and the community, and also for the formation of interpersonal relationships and as the medium of instruction in a school. Any sort of behavioral problems in school would be dealt with by effective means of communication, and it can be stated that without communication there would be no education.

However, the culture or the background of the individual has a lasting impact on how that person communicates, and this is the reason why the teacher who is more aware of the varied cultural backgrounds of her students will be bale to communicate better with them and also understand them with respect to their cultural backdrop.

When a teacher is not aware of or will not try to learn of the different cultures of the students, then the students will definitely find themselves in an awkward position, because the style and type of communication of these children would be very different to that of the others in the school, and when the teacher recognizes this and deals with it without prejudice, then the education of these children would be easier and more efficient.

In America, for example, the cultural diversity of the students in a single classroom is amazing; the children come from different backgrounds and are of several different colors. (Cross Cultural Communication: An Essential Dimension of Effective Education) Statistics reveal that by the end of the year 2010, 'non-whites' will make up more than one third of the entire population of the United States of America, and more than 50% of these people would belong to the school going age of children.

This diversity has to be reckoned with and dealt with by the teachers in schools; they would have to acknowledge the elements and traits of the different cultures that the children come from and educate themselves on these cultures to a sufficient extent so that they could deal with such children with innate understanding and compassion.

It is a sad but true fact that most schools in America have neglected these cross cultural communication issues and the related problems of school going children, and this has therefore inevitably caused several problems for these children, like for example, as demonstrated by the school going population of African-American males in many schools across America who undergo a lot of trauma in school because of their different cultural background.

(Cross Cultural Communication: An Essential Dimension of Effective Education) Statistics reveal that, in the year 1989, less than 11% of African males attended more than four years of college and finished their education successfully; the rest of these children dropped out of school even before finishing high school, while in most other schools, African-American males were sent on to special education classes and therefore subjected to unnecessarily strict disciplinary actions on account of their being from a low social economic status and also of their different means of communication and the different language that they use for communication.

The student's communication methods therefore conflict with the norms of the school, and this leads to misbehavior on the part of these children, and misunderstandings on the part of the school, wherein they are termed as slow learners and violent individuals who need to be disciplined strictly at all times.

It is therefore a must that teachers take matters into their own capable hands and try to learn about the diverse cultures of the people of America, so that they can deal with their students in the manner that they deserve to be treated. Education on culture can only be acquired by a first hand experience of the various cultures, rather than by reading about them, and many teachers today are trying their best to learn and assimilate such knowledge that would serve to benefit their young students in school.

(Cross Cultural Communication: An Essential Dimension of Effective Education) The problem in teaching students who are from diverse cultural backgrounds is the ways and means in which to bridge the gap between 'language teaching' and the teaching of grammar.

Grammar as such is an innate part of any language, and is composed of the three elements of 'phonetics', that is the production of the various sounds associated with the language, 'phonology' that is the way in which several sounds are combined together to make sense, 'morphology', that is the way in which different elements are combined to make words, 'syntax' or the making of sentences with words, and 'semantics' or the meanings of these sentences.

These are all modern terms created by the linguist of today, but it is true that grammar in fact meant 'writing' in the old days. (The Role of Grammar in Communicative Language Teaching) Most teachers of language today know that there can be no language without grammar, and the communicative languages teacher must be aware of the important part that semantics meaning plays in the language as such, especially as communicative language teaching has been in existence for a great many years before today.

It is a fact that English, as a 'world language' has not been in existence for many years; in fact, even at the beginning of the twentieth century, most linguists were of the opinion that no language could ever replace the loss of the world language of the time, Latin, since it was the official language of culture and of wide communication known at the time.

It was considered to be of vital importance for teachers of language to be well versed in Latin, and it was for this purpose that an entirely new curriculum was created for the student and the teacher: the 'studia humantitis', which was the study of humanities. According to this curriculum, students would acquire the information needed to develop their proficiency in the language, while at the same time achieving personal growth and motivation.

The need to acquire proficiency in Latin as a spoken as well as a written language was purported by the Latin scholar Guarino da Verona (1374-1460) so that the student may be able to not only understand the ancient literature that was written primarily in Latin, but also use it as a living language, with more emphasis on meaning rather than on the form of the language, however difficult it proved to be initially.

He emphasized the idea of continued progress and perseverance so that the language could become a part of the daily life of the student. Ignatius (1491-1556) also believed that language skills could only be acquired through first hand exposure to the literature written in Latin, and also by using it as a living language and speaking it all the time.

(The Role of Grammar in Communicative Language Teaching) Johann Amos Comenius (1592-1670) advocated the invention of a new language that would replace the sometimes difficult to comprehend Latin so that a wider reach among scholars would be possible. He also argued that the form of the language must come first and then the matter so that the knowledge of facts and the power to express these learned facts would go hand in hand, and this would lead to better and more effective means of communication and also better language teaching.

This was to ensure that a beginner in any language would not become totally confused with the various intricate and sometimes unintelligible rules of grammar, and the best way in which a person could learn a new language would be by actually going to the place where that particular language was being spoken as a local dialect, and then read as well as write in that new language.

(The Role of Grammar in Communicative Language Teaching) What is 'Communicative Language Teaching'? This is a means of teaching a language whereby the emphasis is on the learner and the ways and means in which he would use that particular language to express himself and also communicate effectively in real-life situations where the language would be actually used.

In a traditional teaching method of language, the teacher is the person who is in charge of the entire educational process and takes control over all the proceedings, whereas in the communicative language teaching method, the teacher takes on a secondary role, and the learners the primary, in other words, the learner is allowed to be in charge of his own learning processes and the methods in which this happens.

In both the methods the teacher is still responsible for creating exercises and other aids for the process of learning, but in the communicative language teaching method, the student not only participates more in the activities of the class, but also speaks more in the classroom than he would in the traditional method, and this makes him extremely self-confident and this in turn will enable him to use the language confidently when the occasion arises.

Since it is a fact that all individuals use language to communicate with each other, the communicative language teaching method utilizes communication methods to teach a language effectively, by eliminating the various complex rules of grammar and syntax that are used in the traditional methods of teaching a language, and using, instead, real-life situations and communications in that context.

(Communicative Language Teaching) However this does not mean that grammar is totally eliminated, the emphasis is rather on learning to communicate a message to another person using the new language that is being learnt. For example, the student is expected to practice a real life situation such as buying food at the market. The student will, by this method, learn to communicate his thoughts and feelings to the shopkeeper without the fear of imperfect grammar hounding him and barring him from actually using the language.

The social circumstances of communication are also stressed by the communicative language teaching method, like for example, when a person is to be addressed using the new language, the 'you' may change depending on the person's age and social status and gender, and this is to be remembered by the student when communicating with the person. When he gets this right, the major hurdle has been crossed, since the method and the words of addressing a person is invariably very difficult to remember when learning a new language.

Today, multimedia plays a major role in the teaching of a new language using the communicative language teaching method. The lesson is taught through games in which the learner is placed in real life situations wherein he has to use all his communication skills to get through that particular difficult situation. This ensures that the learner is able to use his language effectively. Some of these games are 'Who is Oscar Lake?' And 'A la Rencontre de Philipe'.

(Communicative Language Teaching) These Online methods are rapidly changing the way in which basic education has been perceived traditionally down the years, and the schools and universities find that they must either keep pace with the changes taking place or fall behind the times and lose out on the competitive spirit.

Online learning offers a more hands on and also holistic approach to the entire learning process and is at the same time more cost efficient, less time consuming, and less intimidating, especially for adult learners, since they will not have to have a face-to-face confrontation with authoritative figures.

(Evaluation Considerations for Online ESL Courses) What is 'Learner Autonomy', and why is it important? Learner autonomy has been described as the acceptance of responsibility for his own learning experience by the learner himself, as an individual, rather than on him depending on the teacher to be taught a language. In other words, the learner has to be totally aware of what he is learning, how he is learning it, and also why he is learning it; otherwise, the learning process would not be complete.

In the traditional method, the learner is not really aware of what and why he is learning something, whereas in learner autonomy, he is totally responsible for all his actions in learning a language or anything else. The learner takes part in all the decisions that involve his learning, like for example, in the initiatives and motivation processes and also the evaluation processes, and this in turn makes him a much better learner than the learner in the traditional methods.

Learner autonomy is also known as 'humanistic language teaching', collaborative learning', and also 'experimental learning'. (Learner Autonomy: What and Why?) The fact that the learner is an individual from a background that may be different to that implied and recognized by the classroom and the curriculum is taken into consideration and the fact that the learner brings with him his entire cultural background and history and personal stories into the classroom must be recognized by the teacher and the syllabus so designed that all these factors are taken into consideration.

Another important fact is that when a learner of a foreign language is able to integrate the new language into his daily living and daily activities, then that particular methodology of teaching can be deemed as a successful attempt at teaching a new foreign language to a learner.

Learner autonomy also considers the fact that the learner is an individual who is 'free', in the sense that he is free from the restrictions of the classroom and the teacher and the curriculum; in fact he is free to choose not to learn too. It also means that he is free to learn by breaking away from the shackles of his own personal heritage and culture and transcend it to become a better learner and thereby improve himself.

It is true that sometimes people mistake learner autonomy to mean that such learners are isolated and therefore works better because of this very isolation. However, this is not correct, and since man is a social creature who needs to interact with others at all times, as is demonstrated by the fact that an isolated child often develops into a mentally impaired adult, the learner will in fact have to interact and depend on others in order to learn and work better.

Interdependence is the norm of the independent and autonomous learner. Therefore the classroom becomes an interdependent 'learning community', wherein the teachers and the learners interact with each other while at the same time maintaining independence. The use of a textbook means that the teacher will gradually transfer what is in the textbook to the learner through successive units of learning dictated within the syllabus being followed by the book, while external factors of motivation and individual needs are ignored.

(Learner Autonomy: What and Why?) In the autonomous learning system, the starting point in a classroom is not a textbook but the learner himself, in other words, the fact that the learner is from a background and culture different to that of the majority of the others in the classroom is recognized, and remembered while teaching.

The fact that learning is a 'bi-directional process' whereby an individual can only learn something from the point of what he already knows, which means that the autonomous learner can only learn within the limits imposed by what he knows already. Whereas a textbook teaches from the 'outside-in', the autonomous system lays emphasis on the 'inside-out' process whereby the learner tries to learn according to his own meanings and according to his own terms.

There have been objections to the development of the autonomous learner system of education from countries other than Western, as they do not understand the fact that the learner is a self-sufficient person.

(Learner Autonomy: What and Why?) According to the 'Unschooled Mind', a book by Howard Gardner, the theory of 'Multiple Intelligence' is presented wherein a human mind has a minimum of seven different ways of knowing the world as such, by the seven human intelligences of language, logic, spatial thinking, music, the use of the human body to communicate, an understanding of others, and an understanding of the self.

An individual can differ according to the strength of each of these intelligences, and also by how these intelligences are used to carry out specific functions. In a classroom of several different students where each student comes from a different background and culture and tradition, a teacher must take into account all this differences of intelligence and count them as part of the intelligence profiles of these students, which helps them to either learn better or fare worse than their peers.

How must the teacher handle this sort of diversity? (Multiple Intelligence Theory and the ESL Classroom) In a traditional classroom, the teacher will generally ask the same questions of all the differently students and expect the same answer for a question from all of them, and expect it within the same time period specified by her, and the emphasis is on language and on logical-mathematical analysis on the part of all the students.

The method of teaching in the traditional classroom is by rote, and the student who is better able to memorize the subject and present it when asked fares better than the student who is bad at memorizing. It is a fact that not everyone can memorize in the same way, and that a uniform and universal method exists whereby the intelligence level of the student can be tested satisfactorily.

Gardner advocates that the more diverse the testing system is, the better recognized the intelligence of the students of a classroom would be, in other words, if the lessons were to be presented in a variety of different ways, and if the testing methods were as diverse as the cultures of the students, then the diversity of the students would be acknowledged by the society as well as the school and the student would end up being more confident and also sure of himself and of his ideas.

He would also be better motivated and encouraged since he would be treated as an individual and not as a part of a group. (Multiple Intelligence Theory and the ESL Classroom) The MI theory therefore must be used to find out more about the diversity of students in each classroom and also about the varied strengths and weaknesses of each student so that the teacher may be able to change her teaching methods to adapt favorably to the diversity in the class.

Gardner has devised a questionnaire for the students to answer when they enroll for any class that would reveal their intelligence levels to the teachers. When such data is collected, an individual intelligence profile can be created for each student, and this in turn will demonstrate the varied cultural differences between all the learners of the class. The teacher can then guide the students into using the areas where they show their strengths into learning better and performing better, and using these strengths as entry points.

This would help build cooperation and enthusiasm among the students of her class. (Multiple Intelligence Theory and the ESL Classroom) Another important goal that a teacher must achieve during her tenure is the teaching of a student to 'think'. What makes up 'good thinking'? Some people say that good thinking is made up of a group of well-developed imaginative and essential thinking skills, provided the student has the perfect disposition to think.

In other words, not only must the teacher see to it that her students think, but she must also ensure that the student becomes disposed to think creatively and imaginatively in a manner that would better aid him in his learning processes. A good thinker must be able to, with clear thought develop his thinking strategies as well as skills to help him think well.

He must be an individual who is always prepared to explore unexplored realms, to look for clarity in his thinking process, and take up plenty of intellectual risks creatively and imaginatively. This is the thinker who is in the possession of a 'thinking disposition'.

(Teaching Thinking Dispositions: From Transmission to Enculturation) A good thinker will inevitably be an intellectual of high standing, who will belong to the seven broad categories of thinking dispositions such as the disposition to be broad and adventurous, to be intellectually curious, to elucidate and search for understanding, to plan out strategies, to be an intellectually careful individual, to constantly look out for and evaluate reasons, and to be 'metacognitive' or to be aware of and monitor his own thinking process.

When tests are carried out based on these differences and the results are assessed, it will be obvious where the strengths and weaknesses of the student lies and when these are worked on, it will produce an extremely beneficial result. (Teaching Thinking Dispositions: From Transmission to Enculturation) Some learners, when they speak a foreign language, make use of a number of learning strategies to develop learning language skills.

For example, when a clause has been given, a general word or a word approximately closest in meaning can be used to complete the clause. 'Fillers' can also be used at times when a gap needs to be filled, such as 'ah', and 'hmm' etc. The speaker can also speak without planning beforehand what he wants to convey, and this will bring about better results.

(Researching Elements of Interlanguage and Learning Strategies of a Native Speaker of English & Quebec French learning German) some teachers prepare unit plans for the purpose of helping their students prepare speeches. One example of such a plan is the 'speech making plan' by Elaine Herbert in which she underlines the method to be followed while writing out and planning a speech.

When using a text, the student is expected to be able to maintain the interest of the audience by preparing well from the text before hand so that eye contact may be made whenever necessary. Pauses, gestures, appropriate props and also different pitches and paces all contribute towards an interesting speech. Transactional writing using the 'hamburger format' enables the student to write and speak confidently using the language of the audience as required.

While in the process of listening and speaking the student will learn to use effective speaking techniques that demonstrate a clear understanding and therefore better presentation of material to the audience wherein a mini speech of one minute can hold the attention of the audience and interest them sufficiently. (Speech making unit plan) The 'new' vision of a successful learner involves the idea of a 'collaborative classroom' wherein it has been demonstrated that it is through a.