M. Jimena Linares Monroy

Concepts

Ø  Language: according to the given study materials, language is a complex, specialized skill which develops in the child spontaneously, without conscious effort or formal instruction, however, I consider important to mention that language is also a reflect of a specific culture, it represents the way people interact each other in a society.

Ø  Learning: in the reading, it refers to the acquiring or getting of knowledge of a subject or a skill by study, experience, or instruction; according to my point of view I would add to this concept that, learning implies the intellectual growing through acquiring knowledge in any field of life not only the scientific or scholar field.

Ø  Teaching: it is defined by the suggested book, as showing, or helping someone to learn how to do something, giving instructions, guiding in the study of something, providing with knowledge, causing to know or understand, however, I consider this concept is kind of outdated, nowadays, teachers must motivate and involve students into their own learning process, so they can build their own knowledge and the acquired information will definitely be a tool for they to face new challenges though the knowledge appropriation process.

Constructivism as a school of thought

The constructivism was born in the last part of the XX century, it was supported by the work of many other disciplines like the philosophical, anthropological, mathematical, biological, and linguistic.

The constructivism states that every single person construct their own version of reality, which means that since every person study or experience something, they build their own point of view supported by the praxis besides the theory, the constructivist people are not guided only by what they found into a text book.

This school of thought highlights the importance of social interaction to get the knowledge in any area and to acquired by practicing and experimenting, it also contributes to a behavioral changing, it is stated that students or people in general, learn easier and are able to memorize data when they experience than when they read a textbook (when people read in most of the cases, their memory is of short period), we must take into account that scientific research or methods, include praxis in most of the cases; theory must converge in a good praxis, but constructivism combines both and in most of the cases people learn first by experiencing and then theorizing. 

The constructivism has been applied in many fields, in the educational field is has a great impact in the teaching practices, it is one of the most common strategies to use un classrooms.

Finally, it is important to mention that, the constructivism applied to the educational field, considers that the human learning is always an internal process, even in the case of the teacher doing a magistral intervention in the classroom, because, this intervention is not taken as relevant or significative if those given concepts don’t match with the previous knowledge that the students may have, that’s the main reason of why the constructivist education has as main objective, to facilitate and boost that internal process of the student to reach his real development.

Vygotsky’s philosophy

A proposed theory by Lev Vygotsky is the Social constructivism, which refers to the social interaction as an essential part in the process of cognitive development and improvement. The knowledge is constructed through interactions with teachers and other knowledgeable people.  Therefore, through planned activities by the teacher, students interact and socialize with other people sharing their experiences and creating a new perspective or knowledge and learning.

The school is presented as the place where the abilities or skills are graded and the teacher as the one who leads and guides the teaching and learning process in the educational institutions, through observation of the learner’s environment, behavior, development, and progress.

This theory highlights a relevant aspect in the teaching practices, recognizing the relations and connections that students make each other because, they can find common interests while they share their living space and their sociocultural context. The teacher is who creates new spaces for language learning through the observation of these situations to engage students into their own learning process (in this case of a foreign language).

An interesting way to encourage students is by using technology resources into the teaching and learning process for example, by designing a blog or a website with contents that they may find interesting and motivating. To include technological resources to the teaching activities will make easier for the teacher to follow and monitor the student’s participations and improvement of the target skills, likewise, these kinds of activities are taken as a new way to build knowledge and it doesn’t left behind the cooperative learning, the key to success in this process is to keep the students motivated enough.

The zone of proximal development (ZPD) theory, states that students learn best from other learners who are just a little ahead of them. So, the student can accomplish by doing the task of autonomous way, however if we practice this theory, we would be wasting what the social interaction offers to improve and develop the students’ skills to reach the learning goals.

Teachers are able to find others places to make the classes more interesting like: task-based learning and the students could take advantage of it, for example: role plays of real life situations.

Finally, and taking the example of learning a second language in a classroom, I consider that teachers must provide students with enough experiences to practice speaking and listening, I think these skills need to be more practiced at schools and the interaction may help to develop the necessary activities, to motivate students to have a critical thinking, solve problems are also important skills for the students to face the current world’s challenges, obviously we can’t let behind the other skills (reading and writing).

Classroom examples of Vygotsky’s theories in action

Ø  To plan debates about the most interesting topics for students.

Ø  To design a rally where students must work into teams to solve the puzzles about the target topics to complete the different stages.

Ø  Divide students into groups to perform role plays about real life situations.

Ø  To divide the whole class into groups and give them different topics to investigate and use technological resources to explain each topic (videos on YouTube, websites, blogs, or wikis)

References

Brown, H. D. (2017, December 13). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching Fifth Edition. Retrieved from https://es.scribd.com/doc/184040151/Brown-H-D-2007-Principles-of-Language-Learning-and-Teaching-Fifth-Edition

Clark, E. V. (2003). First Language Acquisition: Second Edition . Retrieved from http://assets.cambridge.org/97805217/32932/frontmatter/9780521732932_frontmatter.pdf

Culatta, R. (2011). Innovative learning. Retrieved from www.innovativelearning.com/educational_psychology/development/zone-of-proximal-development.html

Farr, T. (2014, June 18). An Introduction to Using Vygotsky Scaffolding in the Classroom. Retrieved from https://blog.udemy.com/vygotsky-scaffolding/

Frankfurt International School (FIS). (2017). Scaffolding Vigotsky's theory. Retrieved from http://esl.fis.edu/teachers/fis/scaffold/page1.htm

Güillen, M. d. (2016, November 7). Unit 1 Language learning and teaching. Retrieved from http://repository.unad.edu.co/handle/10596/10152

Long, C. J. (2003). The hand book of second language acquisition . Retrieved from http://www.international.ucla.edu/media/files/handbook.pdf?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1%20

Matthews, C. H. (2017). Vygotsky’s philosophy: Constructivism and its criticisms examined. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ854992.pdf

University of Wollongong. (2008). Scaffolding and learning: its role in nurturing new learners . Retrieved from http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1043&context=edupapers