Learner Training

by Leslie Bobb Wolff, Mike Harris, Antonio Roldán, Gerry Sweeney and Vera Colwell

Leslie Bobb-Wolff is an associate professor in the Department of English and German Philology at the University of La Laguna, Tenerife. Her main areas of research are all related to learner autonomy, such as the role of self-assessment in learner autonomy, classroom management, learning strategies, small group work.

Michael Harris has worked at the British Institute for Young Learners in Madrid and the University of Alcalá de Henares. He is co-author of the methodology book Assessment (Heinemann 1994) and of various coursebooks for secondary learners of English, including World Class (Longman 1991, Worldwide (Longman 1998) and Opportunities (Longman 2002).

Antonio R. Roldán Tapia is a teacher at IES Alhaken II in Córdoba and also a part-time Prof. Asociado at the University of Córdoba. He has a Doctorate from the University of Granada and has taught Spanish in the UK and the USA. He has published articles in both national and international journals.

Since 1981 Gerry Sweeney has worked in ELT, teacher training and management of ESADE Language School, where he is currently responsible for Institutional and Professional Development. As a trainer, he has concentrated on teaching Language for Business and School Management. Other interests include affective factors and classroom management.

Veronica Colwell is a full-time lecturer in English and teacher trainer at the Dpto de Filología Moderna, Universidad de León. She is co-editor of the IATEFL LI SIGs newsletter. Her interests include learner autonomy, L2 writing, error analysis, practical stylistics and teacher training.

This article is both a summary of and a follow-up to a round table discussion on ‘Learner Training’ held on 17^th March 2002 at the 25^th TESOL-Spain seminar in Madrid. The speakers, Leslie Bobb Wolff, Mike Harris, Antonio Roldán, Gerry Sweeney and the moderator, Vera Colwell, all have a wide range of experience in learner training (including second and third level, teacher training and adult learners within both the private and state sectors). In order to focus the debate and to facilitate audience participation the speakers presented a list of questions at the commencement of the session. These we have included at the beginning of the article to get the reader thinking about the subject. When the discussion had already gone over time there still remained a great deal to be said on the subject. Therefore, we felt it would be worthwhile to provide a follow-up for those who attended the session and indeed for interested TESOL-SPAIN members who were unable to attend. Once you have read this article we invite and encourage you to offer feedback and comment. We are interested in keeping the debate going.

We would like to take this opportunity to express our thanks to Marina Arcos, who very kindly furnished a video tape of the greater part of the discussion which has proved very useful in the writing of this article.

LEARNER AUTONOMY, LEARNER TRAINING & LEARNER DEVELOPMENT

The development of learner autonomy in the foreign language classroom means that learners gradually, through negotiation, experimentation and self-assessment, while learning language, also learn how best they, as individuals, learn. Learners are encouraged to become involved at every stage of decision making in the teaching/learning process. They learn gradually how to take control of their own learning, to identify their needs, set objectives, select tasks, negotiate, co-operate, reflect, and evaluate. The aim is that learners develop the knowledge and skills necessary to manage their own language learning effectively and efficiently. Learning then, in this sense, involves learner initiative. The learner plays an active role in decision-making concerning his learning. This implies awareness on the part of the learner of what is involved and why; in other words, informed decision making. A teaching programme, which involves the development of learner autonomy, is concerned not alone with each individual learner’s cognitive development but with his social and psychological development as well. Therefore, if preparing pupils for life is one of the most important aims of our educational system, learner autonomy is undoubtedly central to this aim.

Learner training, within the paradigm of learner autonomy, can be considered synonymous with learner development. Indeed, there are those who prefer to employ this term and not to use the term ‘learner training’ at all. The principle objectives of learner development include getting our students to think about learning, in terms of how they learn and how they can learn better, and getting them to take some responsibility for what happens in class. For teachers, this means sharing responsibility with our students. It implies constantly looking at ways we can help them become more proficient learners in the different aspects and according to the objectives of the subject.

Helping our students become aware that a large part of their learning depends on them is a basic issue in learner development. This represents a great challenge for many students and for many teachers. This is particularly so in the foreign language class at second level where, for example, there may be as few as three class contact hours per week. Nevertheless, learner training, learner development and the promotion and development of learner autonomy do form part of the curriculum and have done since 1990, when the reforma and the LOGSE were introduced.

While learner training may be thought of as an optional extra by some, something that may or may not be added on, or, something that we can simply forget about, the fact of the matter is that teachers, whether they are aware of doing so or not, are either consciously training their learners, or, they are doing so by default. This is what makes learner training such an important issue. Learner training is, to all intents and purposes, totally unavoidable in language teaching.

A GRADUALIST APPROACH TO LEARNER TRAINING

Learner training, which is about instructing learners in language learning, is concerned with finding ways of helping students to go about the business of learning language more effectively and efficiently. Typically, when a teacher meets a new class the students have mixed language learning experiences in terms of both training and levels. Some students will have acquired a lot of great strategies previously while others will not. In situations such as these learner training makes the teacher’s life easier because students can help and enrich one another’s learning.

Too often teachers tend to ignore and/or shy away from suggestions, recommendations and activities in the textbook that are related to learner training and/or learner development. One of the pressing concerns facing teacher trainers, and the language teaching profession as a whole, is how to get teachers enthusiastic about learner training and learner development. The practicalities involved are very important. Highly successful international models can be off putting, even intimidating, rather than encouraging. But it is not a question of all or nothing. We should not expect to achieve radical reform overnight. It is important not to jump in at the deep-end, but rather to go easy, a little at a time. Communication strategies, getting students to communicate better and looking at ways of dealing with language, as well as ways of organising learning, are two examples of where we can begin. Students themselves can see that these are useful.

LEARNERS’ BELIEFS AND PREVIOUS LEARNING EXPERIENCES

At the beginning of a term it can be useful to have students look at their assumptions and beliefs about language learning; for example, their attitudes towards treatment of mistakes, self- and co-assessment, work in small groups, etc. This can be done with questionnaires answered individually and then discussed in small group and then with the whole class. This is one kind of initial self-assessment.

It can be also useful at the beginning of a course, especially with adult learners, to get people talking about their learning experiences because often the backgrounds of students differ. There are a lot of classes where some students have had private classes, others have been to an English-speaking country to study, others have done nothing. If you can get that out in the open in the beginning, people do not get so put out about being weaker than the others, they know they have studied less English. Less experience is a key issue. It is not just a question of the good ones and the bad ones and the middle ones. It is a question of how much experience each one has had.

GROUP WORK

Learner development is a process that aims at getting learners to take responsibility for their own learning. This does not mean that they work in isolation from their classmates. On the contrary, it is important to get students working together in small groups. This way they can help each other by sharing and communicating.

There is a need to think about, and deal with, how to work in groups. Students need training for this. They need to learn how to work in groups. You cannot just tell them to get into groups and work because, in general, they do not know how to do so, unfortunately. They should know but if they haven’t learned, then it is up to the teacher to help them.

STRATEGIES

Getting the students to compare their experiences and also their strategies is one way to help them learn about strategies and discover ones that are new for them. Everyone has acquired a few strategies, but if we are never involved in any discussion about strategies then we may well think that the ones we use are the only ones possible. Group work is a very valuable way to get the students to discuss the strategies each uses. You get learners in groups to talk about such things as what they do to memorise, how they organise their notes, what they do when they have to prepare for a test. All of a sudden, they start hearing other ideas and they learn some new strategies. The teacher can help them inthis regard and make suggestions and lists of possibilities. Then the learners can, for example, try two they have never used before and see how these work for them, because, by all accounts, the same strategy does not work equally well for everyone.

All types of strategies are relevant both inside and outside the class, for example, communication strategies and reading strategies. One way of presenting strategies in a class is to get people thinking about what they do in a given situation, how they deal with a problem. It is important to get people thinking about what suits them as individuals. What suits one person does not always suit the other. Again, at the beginning of a course, it is important to get people to think, not only about their own learning experience, but also about their own learning style and how they learn best.

You can get them to think about what they do out of class. There are basic practical aspects like:

• How do you do your homework?
• Where do you do it?

There are a lot of strategies that people use in the class that you can discuss. For example, when learners should be using learning strategies, such as, storing vocabulary or thinking about grammar. The teacher can also become more directly involved and say,

• "This is a useful strategy. Have you tried to use it? Try it, and then we will discuss your results."

One example is a way of dealing with words in a text. You tell the class that rather than try to translate everything they can ignore the words they do not know. That may be one of the most useful strategies there is. One activity is to tell students to cross out all the words they do not know. They then try to work out the meaning of the text from the words that they do know.

SELF-ASSESSMENT

Another area, one that undoubtedly represents a key element in learner development, is self-assessment. Self-assessment is concerned with getting the learners to think about what they are doing. Only through this can they start becoming aware of how their learning process is advancing. Self-assessment is one of the keys to both learner training and learner autonomy. Without thinking about your own progress, without thinking about how you are doing, you cannot begin to take control of how you are learning. Self-assessment is not about filling in an end-of-year questionnaire about aspects of the course. Self-assessment forms an essential and integral part of learner development in its fullest sense.

PROJECT WORK

Discussion is vital before you start doing project work, which should be done again bit by bit, in a gradualist manner. If you are getting your students to produce and be creative, first they might work on something individually, then something perhaps in pairs, then something in groups, i.e., not all or nothing. It’s a case of learning to walk before we can run, starting small and building.

In the case of project work the most appropriate group formation it seems, in order for groups to work, is that they be heterogeneous. Everyone contributes, the more proficient ones with their language skill, the less proficient ones with other different skills. However, does this mean that the stronger students lose out? Some concerns have been voiced that the better students might not learn much, and are just helping others while they themselves know they are not really going forward. In our experience, stronger students learn through helping their less-prepared classmates. In project work if there are one or two really very much stronger students, another option is that they can do their own project work. Here again, negotiation is necessary.

CONCLUSION

While learner training and learner development are often considered synonymous, learner development is perhaps broader and is related to educating learners for life (hence its importance in the reforma and the LOGSE, which promote developing students as fully as possible in all aspects). Learner training and learner development are part and parcel of every classroom context (albeit by default).

The development of learner autonomy in the foreign language classroom is concerned with encouraging learners to use their own initiative in a co-operative, democratic and conducive learning environment. The teacher should act as a facilitator and guide to learners and help them in a systematic and deliberate way to take charge of their own learning.

Motivation is a key issue in language learning and in all learning. We can take the term ‘motivation’, in the context of institutional foreign language teaching, to refer to attempts that are made by the teacher to suggest communicative needs to the learners or to create positive attitudes. Learning itself can be a motivating factor and certainly a learner-centred approach, which effectively takes into account the learners’ experiences and styles, along with their needs and interests, will go a long way towards motivating students initially as well as ensuring sustained motivation.

Key issues in learner training include learner beliefs and learning experiences, self-assessment, communication strategies and learning strategies. Good and effective learner training requires appropriate planning. However, it is not a matter of all or nothing, a gradualist approach (in collaboration with others, if possible) is recommended.

The promotion and development of learner autonomy in the context of the traditional classroom requires radical changes in the organisation and application of the curriculum of schools and in the traditional role of teachers and learners. Teacher training and in-service courses on relevant research and theory, not only in applied linguistics, second language acquisition and related fields, but in all subjects, are all urgently required. So too is a coherent language policy for schools. In the meantime, the most important things to bear in mind in learner training and the promotion of learner autonomy are that both involve strong and informed leadership on the part of the teacher and that it is important not to jump in at the deep-end, but rather to go easy, a little at a time.

A FINAL NOTE

We are interested in providing the possibility for continued discussion on the subject of learner training and learner development, if you are. This, we believe, would help to bring like-minded teachers together and provide support and collaboration. Would you be interested in participating in a discussion list on-line on the subject of learner training and learner development? If so, we would like to take this opportunity to invite you to write to one of the following e-mail addresses:

• Leslie Bobb Wolff lbobb@ull.es
• Vera Colwell dfmvc@unileon.es
• Michael Harris michael.harris@eresmas.net
• Antonio R. Roldán Tapia rotaara@supercable.es

or to the following snail mail address:

Vera Colwell
Dpto de Filología Moderna,
Facultad de Filosofía y Letras,
Universdiad de León, Campus de Vegazana s/n
24071 León
España

Depending upon the response we receive from you between now and the end of November, we will decide whether such a list will be set up and we will let you know through the TESOL-Spain newsletter.