PREPARATION FOR SELF-LEARNING
As students and English teachers, we know SAC has many advantages that may be highly useful for developing skills and sub-skills which are very important for developing communicative competences in English. About the impact or how successful those tools are depend on how they are used.
In our context, many of the university students have used SAC previously, it means the majority of them have already identified how it works. However, preparation and orientation should be given to those learners who are totally new on using tools for self-learning as well as for those who had experienced working by themselves in SAC.
The following tasks are intended to prepare and orient those students who are starting the first semester of English in our university and they may have some experience on using SAC or they may be totally new on using it.
From there, please, consider activities to be included in the classroom to guide students towards self-learning as well as how to prepare them for learning by themselves in order to make the most of their self-learning time with or without a SAC.
What have you done? Up to this point you have worked on Needs Analysis and Categorizing or Organizing Materials; from there we are going to continue on Identifying Learning Styles, Establishing Immediate/Short-term objectives, Individual Study Plan, and Learner Contract.
TASK 3. Identifying Learning Styles. Establishing Immediate/Short-term Objectives. Individual Study Plan. Learner Contract.
Deadline: Friday April 15th
Pair work
INSTRUCTIONS. Check the suggested bibliography for materials to be used with students from our context or a specific bachelor. Adapt them as needed. Consider those materials are for:
· Identify learning styles
· Establish immediate/short-term objectives
· Individual study plan (according to the format used for needs analysis presented and corrected before)
· Learner contract
NOTE: Take into account these:
· Materials must not be the same to the ones presented in the bibliography, nor the ones presented by other teams.
· Include bibliography from where the materials are adapted.
· Use Arial font, 12 point
· Follow the specifications given before for sending your task
Suggested bibliography: - Self-instruction in Language Learning. Leslie Dickinson. Cambridge UP
- Self-Access. Susan Sheerin. Oxford UP
- Learning to learn English. Gail Ellis & Barbara Sinclair. Cambridge UP
- Helping Students to Learn. A guide to Learner Autonomy. Ricky Lowes and Francesca Target. Richmond.
- Language Learning Strategies. Rebecca l. Oxford. Heinle & Heinle.
For commenting next Monday:
a) What can be the challenges that you, English teacher, should face when guiding your students towards self-learning? How can they be tackled? What help would you need, which one would you give as teacher to your students and as a colleague to other English teachers?
b) What are the first experiences your students will face when using a self-access center?
c) Which ones if working by themselves without a SAC?
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ReplyDeleteHey there
ReplyDeletehello everybody!!!! ^_^
ReplyDeleteLópez Mejía Cristina
ReplyDelete8th semester GROUP: 1
090851
COMMENT:
a) It is important to remember that self access learning is related to how self directed or other directed the learners are. So, as we know the role of the teacher is more than only stand up at the front of a group and start teaching aspects about the language, teachers´ role is more than that, it is get involved in pedagogical aspects such as planning: aims, goals, select the appropriate material, pace, the appropriate activity, etc.
Nowadays, it is necessary to share those kinds of responsibilities with the learners in order to acquire more self-learning.
Unfortunately, when teachers try to share these responsibilities with students, parents or learners are not agree, because they think that teachers are lazy or irresponsible, and finally pupils do not want to work by themselves or accept the new responsibilities.
I was thinking about how to help my students to be more self-directed, and I think that if teachers tell since the beginning to the students what is the main objective of the course, learners will be more prepared to what they are doing, and step by step, teacher should ask students what they need and what they want to learn according to their personal needs, and they will acquire more self learning inductively. However, we as teachers need to be up dating about students aspects. For example: be aware of learning needs, styles etc. So, it will be a good idea to receive lectures or speechless about those facts.
b) When students go for first time to Self- Access Center they feel frustrated, and confused, because sometimes they are not pretty sure about what to do at the center, because of that it is relevant to talk about what a self access center is, why they should go there and what kind of activities and materials they can find at the center before go there.
c) When students work by themselves without SAC, it is good, because they find different ways to deal with the language. So, in my point of view learners are more self directed because they work with authentic material by using what they really need or want, when they really need.
Hello girls!
ReplyDeleteWelcome!
Hey teacher how was you day?
ReplyDeletewho wants to be my partner? i do not understand quite well the task teacher. are we going to adapt the materials for a real student?
ReplyDeleteby the way I'm mauricio!!
ReplyDeletenobody? how can I know who is online
ReplyDeletedo you want to be my partner maria?
ReplyDeleteLol Mau well are we going to comment the topic or what?
ReplyDeletehi every 1!!! =P
ReplyDeletehello
ReplyDeleteHi Mauricio! (AA style)
ReplyDeletei do not know exactly what to do... well we obviously have to comment the task but nobody seems to care
ReplyDeleteHI
ReplyDeleteHi everybody, First I want to say that you as teacher can guide your students through certain activities but they are the ones who take the decisions about their learning, sometimes they do not like working with extra materials because they want to follow only the book. I had a problem related to this situation, it happened to me some months ago, I brought extra material for my students and one of them told me that if i am not going to use the book she was going to drop the course and I felt so bad when she told me that. For that reason for me as a Teacher it is better that you ask your students since the beginning of the course how they want to work.
Good point Edna, let's start?
ReplyDeleteI think the main problem we face when trying to foster autonomy in our students is their attitude, because we are not used to it
a) Some of the challenges the teacher could have are that the students don´t want to go to the SAC, so the teacher´s job could be motivate them, make them see what is good for them, and putting the example.
ReplyDeleteb) To be self-directed, and see that the teacher won´t be there all the time.
c) Authentic material
Thanks! :D
And about the Self- Access Center the first impression that students have is that they think that when they arrive to the center someone is going to tell them what they are going to do but they realize that this is not the purpose that the main aspect is that they should take decisions about their learning but good choices, what I mean is that they should practice what they need not only the things that they like.
ReplyDeleteI also think what Maria said is important, that is why we should start making our students aware of the necessity of more, in such a way they ask for more and look for more by their own
ReplyDeletehi! cristina lopez mejia is here
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kesia. the first problem to overcome with students is to deal with their lack of interest in a self-instructional model. But, yes, the teacher needs to guide them towards autonomy and motivate them to do their best in this.
ReplyDeleteExactly Kesia, the main thing is that we as teachers should guide our students in order to they become aware of their needs
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kesia, the first step is becoming ourselves autonomous and then persuade our students.
ReplyDeleteBreeze and Sunshine use your real names, please
ReplyDeleteerika it is not "putting the example" the correct way to say your idea is "being a role model" one of the most difficult challenges is to tackle procrastination, lazyness and the sight students have about language, if they have had bad experiences as students with the language, it will be extremely difficult to overcome the false and individualized ideas toward English, how to tackle this? through good teaching, trough enjoyable and meaningful lessons that help students change their perspective about the target languag, having this kinds of lessons will help them to change their negative aspects. another very important aspect is culture, I can assure that most of the students consume or like things that come from english spoken countries (music, movies, books, comics, tv programs, pop culture) so that is an advantage we can take as a resource to increase their motivation in learning and hence, that is the estarting point to be self-directed, if we give students a purpose to learn the language, it will be easir for them to start their path to autonomy.
ReplyDeleteteacher i do not know how to change the name
ReplyDeleteOther important aspect is that students do not like to go to the self access center because they think that the activities there are not important but we should motivate our students, and we can do that by telling them the purpose of each activity.
ReplyDeletesunshine is me, Mauricio
ReplyDeleteI have a question, What can the teacher do if his/her students find SAC like a waste of time?
ReplyDeleteHello!! sorry because I am late, anyway I am read all the comments and according to the questions What problem we can face as teachers Is that some students prefer working into the classrrom because if they work by themselve they can feel like lost about what they have to achieve in their learning.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you Mau, also, taking advantage of our Ss' likes, we can encourage them to use authentic material and start being self directed
ReplyDeleteyes maria, that is what i was saying, we can use their likes to use them as a kind of weapon to eliminate those negative thoughts towards the language, if they feel motivated they will start to be autonomous. Teachers must know their learners very well to be able to iniciate them, that is why the learning profile, their thoughts about language, their reason to be there in the course, and also most important their atiitude towards visiting self acces center (or doing any activity in which they are self-directed). these factors will be trascendental if we have the objective of making them autonomous
ReplyDeleteGood point Mauricio!
ReplyDeleteThere´s another important aspect related to having the need of using the language
how can you, English teacher, create that need?
Erika: I think we should train them in order to avoid that behavior, and if we catch them, me, in my personal opinion, I would banned them until they prove they will use the center properly.
ReplyDeleteWell, reading what you say about good teaching reminds me of what a teacher always says to us : "stop blaming teachers!" a good learner is created when she or he has an intrinsical motivation, we can lead them to the water but only they will decide whether to drink or not. The question here is what to do to make them feel the need to drink that water.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Maria, I think that strategy is a good resource for the teacher.
ReplyDeleteThank you for changing your nickname, Mauricio
ReplyDeleteErika you should encourage your students to become aware about what they can practice in the SAC because sometimes they do not know the kind of materials that they can find so we can help them by telling them which can be useful for them.
ReplyDeleteIt is important to remember that self access learning is related to how self directed or other directed the learners are. So, as we know the role of the teacher is more than only stand up at the front of a group and start teaching aspects about the language, teachers´ role is more than that, it is get involved in pedagogical aspects such as planning: aims, goals, select the appropriate material, pace, the appropriate activity, etc.
ReplyDeleteNowadays, it is necessary to share those kinds of responsibilities with the learners in order to acquire more self-learning.
Unfortunately, when teachers try to share these responsibilities with students, parents or learners are not agree, because they think that teachers are lazy or irresponsible, and finally pupils do not want to work by themselves or accept the new responsibilities.
Using only English in the classroom and using attractive material in such a way that our students feel the need of being part of it, and it would be possible just through English. I think that is how we could create the need for them
ReplyDeletea) What can be the challenges that you, English teacher, should face when guiding your students towards self-learning? How can they be tackled? What help would you need, which one would you give as teacher to your students and as a colleague to other English teachers?
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning of the course it was a big challenge but know I can say that I am well prepared to guide my students toward self-learning because I am experiencing that process and I know how students may feel. It might be difficult because our culture does not prepare students for self direction. I could give my students my example of becoming a self-directed learner and show them the advantages of self-direction.
b) What are the first experiences your students will face when using a self-access center?
That student will not know how it works or what to do. Teacher’s job is to tell the students what is a SAC or CAI? How does it work? Advantages, etc… students should have a preparation course of the SAC before sending them.
c) Which ones if working by themselves without a SAC?
I strongly recommend the SAC or CAI as an English resource. I did not like the CAI at the beginning of the BA but know that I am attending I can see that it has changed a lot, starting for the material.
that is exactly what we are telling kiki, increase their motivation through really KNOWING the likes of your students. the problem here is not if they think it is a waste of time, the thing is to make them like being responsible of their own learning, so if they are responsible, they will not think it is a waste of time never again.
ReplyDeleteI asked that question because my CEVIDE Tizayuca students have access to the SAC, but they told me that, and I don´t know how to make them see it is a good way of learning and become autonomous at the same time.
ReplyDeleteHi everybody, I already read all your comments and I totally agree with María. We as teachers have to encourage our students, but it is also important to tell students waht the benefit of use SAC is, also we have to guide students before they start to use this place, sometimes the reason they do not use it is because they do not how or what for.
ReplyDeleteWell, something useful is what mauricio said. Using their likes could be really good. Telling them that English is not only a school subject but a life subject. Relating english to real life and making them realize that English is a tool, a very useful tool for life.
ReplyDeleteWell Kiki I think that is one of the main problems that teachers have to face, and maybe to solve that problem, tutors have to leave students or learners to discover what they want to learn by just suggesting activities, because most of the students feel like force to attend to the SAC and they find like why "I have to go If I have classses of english at the school?".
ReplyDeleteyeah Mau, This is the most important to encourage our students to feel motivated to learn English, that they do not feel to go to the sac like a compulsory activity,that they feel that they can improve their level of proficiency going there.
ReplyDeleteRight Cristina! That is why I think e should first of all make them realize all of them have different needs, and we are going to meet most of them, or the most common ones in that very classroom, and so they will understand they have to be involved in that kind of decisions; and hopefully start being self directed. Of course letting them know that we are still there for them
ReplyDeleteIn autonomy class we review some aspects to teach students before they go to SAC so taht they can take everything they can from that resource. Some teachers are not aware of those and taht is why they do not transmit that to their studnets. Students just go without having any idea of what to do there and what for.
ReplyDeleteMaria,Kesya & Mau I think you are completely right when you say it is a matter of attitude and motivation and that we as teachers should use a diversity of materials to increase that motivation for learning. Mau the pint you make about the influence Mexico has of USA is certain and we can take advantage of it. Maria you mention a very important aspect about training students to use the SAC in my personal view if all students were train for it there would be better results.
ReplyDeleteWhat about my question? what can you do, to achieve what Brisa mentioned? CONVINCE them for self-learning!
ReplyDeletea) What can be the challenges that you, English teacher, should face when guiding your students towards self-learning How can they be tackled What help would you need, which one would you give as teacher to your students and as a colleague to other English teacher?
ReplyDeleteWe have to be a very good example to our learners, the first impression is always important; if we talk about good experiences in self access our learners can be interested and motivated. But when we want to learn something we have to think seriously not only in having fun when we are leaning.
b) What are the first experiences your students will face when using a self-access center
They feel lost…that’s why the learners need to know they learning style and see what are their needs in language
c) Which ones if working by themselves without a SAC?
Just using SAC as a resource
Give me examples!
ReplyDeleteIn the suggested bibliography there are many
the first experiences students will face in self acces center may be frustrating at the beggining, dont you think, remember the first time you went to sel acces center, i was truly nervous i mean i felt awkward because everybody seem to know exactly what to do and where to go an i was confused, now i know the reason of their confidence was that it is very easy to access, to find your room, to check youar attendance, to grab a book or a video, or to go to practice for an exam, maybe the only day that it is difficult is the very first one, maybe they will experience things like not having attendance because you forgot to leave your schoolbag in the area to keep them, or maybe they dont find their room because of the shame they feel to ask for instructions, and maybe it is not advisable to go to conversation room in your first day! but apart from that, there will be no problems and the experiences qill be pleasant. if they are not good students, they will obviously get bored, but that will be always unless teacher takes the commitment to monitor how their students are perfoming in SAC, and to really help them like being self-directed, so that student is able to change and be a succesful learner of english.
ReplyDeleteKiki, what I did is to make them know that it is a service that normally has a cost ($$$$$$) and that just because they are studying in CEVIDE they are able to use it "for free" (reminding them that they paid for the course)and telling them that in there they are not just going to find a wild variety of materials, also tutors that may help them if they ask! I made highlighted that the tutors are there for them, but they need to ask them for help or feedback
ReplyDeleteTeacher should give students a variety of strategies to choose according to their needs and he has to given them the opportunity to choose the ones that fit with them in order to have an effective learning.
ReplyDeleteTeacher is jus a resource to help students to find learning strategies that fit with them and they have the responsibility of using them or not, they have to make their own choices in learning
Erika you are right about students attitude and behavior but we are not going to let the culture barrier interfere in our guidance students to self-direction.
ReplyDeleteTo all of you guys I think we should star changing ourselves attitude and become self-directed or autonomous to be able to teach our students self-direction.
maybe mentioning good experiences in order to motivate our learners
ReplyDeleteI think that it is not convince students, it is about to guide them in order that they can be self- directed you cannot tell students you have to be autonomous, we as teachers have to show students about the importance of working by themselves.
ReplyDeleteI'm lost =S
ReplyDeleteWell to convience them I think it is really good 1st to make them realize of their need of learning English by making them think in what situations they might need to use English or porbably, thinking about situations they have faced already 2nd Teach them the way to do activities on their own, remember that SAC is just a tool, a very good one, but they can do more than that, and if we are sending them to SAC we must be sure that they have their objectives clear and a CLEAR idea of what thy are going to find there and what they can do there
ReplyDeleteHow are you going to give strategies? Wha is the best way for learners to understand those strategies?
ReplyDeleteI think that the most common difficulty we face as teachers is that sometimes ss do not care about their learning, so we have to encourage them to work by their own. With our guide ss have to realize that learning will be easier if they make their own decisions about materials, goals, activities and strategies etc.
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning will be hard for them to use tools like the sac, because when we used to go to the sac was like - what am I doing here?- you do not know where to start or where to go and what to do; so we have to teach ss and guide them to take advantage of that tool. We can teAch guide them to make decisions about what kind of things they want to do there, how they can do it but according to their needs and they way the like to learn.
I agree with you Mauricio, one of the most common and difficult challenges that students and teachers can face in self-learning is Procrastination, and it is very hard to deal with this aspect because it has to do with PERSONAL ATTITUDES. Sometimes teacher can have a very positive attitude towards helping their students to overcome procrastination, but if they don't have the same attitude, if they don't care about it, then they won't do it. There is the big challenge, because teacher needs to persuade Students to overcome this problem, and to make students aware of the importance and benefits of self-learning.
ReplyDeletejajajajajaja kesia's trick was great! but how about if they figure out that you lied to them?? they are going to lose respect on you and they will start cheating because you lied to them, don't you think? maybe they will start to make tricks to you like copying their activities
ReplyDeleteI was thinking about how to help my students to be more self-directed, and I think that if teachers tell since the beginning to the students what is the main objective of the course, learners will be more prepared to what they are doing, and step by step, teacher should ask students what they need and what they want to learn according to their personal needs, and they will acquire more self learning inductively. However, we as teachers need to be up dating about students aspects. For example: be aware of learning needs, styles etc. So, it will be a good idea to receive lectures or speechless about those facts.
ReplyDeleteI think that students already know strategies for example inferring the meaning of some words by their context so you do not need to teach them strategies only to become aware of them
ReplyDeleteI agree with Edna ,that is true how we can ask for something to our students if we don´t have experienced to be autonomous learners.
ReplyDeleteCome on Angy! What happened?
ReplyDeleteGood point Brisa. That´s why you are working on the charts and you need to identify what activities you can use in your classroom
Give me some examples, please.
I think that something that we can do with our students is to help them first to set their own goals about their learning and after that we can tell them what kind of activities can help them to improve their learning, after that explain students how SAC works and what it is useful for them, once we do that we can asks them to do it, but as Erika mentioned practice what you preach so that students can notice that what you tell them is true.
ReplyDeleteThe first experinces that my students can face are: they will feel a little bit confused because even if we explain how SAC works and how they can use the materials according to their goals and objectives, it is maybe their first time they know what they are going to do instead of wasting time.
Yeah I agree with you Maria we can not convince our students of something we are not convince and as it is a SAC resource students should take the initiative of their learning that is why is self-direction.
ReplyDeleteTeachers should know well the things students can do at the SAC,how can it be useful for them etc.. in order to guide them, because most of the time students are sent just for the hell of it but with out objectives etc.
Excellent Maria.
ReplyDeleteWhat other strategies can you use? (For everybody not only Maria)
the best way to explain the strategies it's make them to do them...
ReplyDeletewhen we start to learn English we learn a lot of startegies but we choose the best for us
Yeah I am agree with maria, I think they know what they use in order to learn the language, but maybe they have to know the name of the strategies, and teachers can given activities then students can infer what they are using to perform the activity.
ReplyDeleteBecause they have access to a huge amount of tools for self-learning
ReplyDeletebut you need to guide them how to use them
When students go for first time to Self- Access Center they feel frustrated, and confused, because sometimes they are not pretty sure about what to do at the center, because of that it is relevant to talk about what a self access center is, why they should go there and what kind of activities and materials they can find at the center before go there.
ReplyDeleteVery good Vicky
ReplyDeleteI get it!!! hehehe
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kesia about that we as counselors have to make aware our ss about the necesity they have to go to the SAC and about their needs... and we have to encourage ss to learn how to learn to become autonomus. We have to guide them during this process so in this way the could not lost interest and not feel alone.
About the strategies I have noticed that most of the time we know a lot of strategies but we just not know how are they called and we always use strategies for every single thing we do not only in learning. We know what works best for us and we use them because of the results we have but as teacher we can provide a list of strategies that students should try and figure out which one suits their lack, wants and needs.
ReplyDeleteSome other strategies that can be taught to students are: self-assessing, analyzing, reviewing, asking questions... and the most know ones: scanning, skimming.
ReplyDeletea) What can be the challenges that you, English teacher, should face when guiding your students towards self-learning? I think the first and more difficult problem is what we were mentioning before, their attitude, we are not used to be autonomous, and if ss take decisions in the classes, they may feel they are doing our job. How can they be tackled? As I posted before, and according to the bibliography, the first step is to increase their language learning awareness, this is, let them know what they need and how to achieve it, in order to having them willing to make decisions concerning to the classes and looking for more opportunities to practice the language outside the classroom What help would you need, which one would you give as teacher to your students and as a colleague to other English teachers? According to Dickinson, there are some tools to increase language awareness, and I really liked them, specially the journal and the questionnaire
ReplyDeleteb) What are the first experiences your students will face when using a self-access center? As Mauricio mentioned, the first experience WE encounter is going to the self access center, and as I saw all of the other ss knowing exactly what to do, I was expecting my teachers to give me some kind of orientation when they sent us, but of course it did not happen. That is why we should include an explanation of what SAC is and how to take advantage of it for our ss to know what to do, and the purpose
I agree with Edna! just setting our objectives since the beginning we can get good results!
ReplyDeleteand actually the beginners use a lot of strategies without know the name of those strategies
other strategies they can use is skimming, scanning, reading in depht, listening to key words, taking notes, underlining, prioritizing, etc. the thing is we as teachers have to practice those strategies with students and maybe make them answer questionaires to see what strategies fit better with their learning profile, their persdonality and their favorite way of learning to be able to encommend tasks using those strategies for each student according to their own. this will help the achieve the needs they want to achieve
ReplyDeleteOk, everyone. Time for leaving.
ReplyDeleteFor your next task, and in the same file include a reflection about these aspects (From 150 to 200 words, I mean NO MORE THAN 200, please):
What help would you need, which one would you give as teacher to your students and as a colleague to other English teachers. GIVE EXAMPLES.
and I also agree with Vicky due to as we saw in Autonomy we can help our ss through the process of self-instruction by guiding them to make their own needs analysis (wants, needs, lacks,strenghts,ect) then we can help them to create their own learning contract that includes setting objectives (realstic and short term), this learning contract will allow learners to be part of the process and to feel proud and responsible for it! =D good point Vicky!!
ReplyDeleteI think in this process we as a teachers we have to help our learners in a certain way, we have to show the correct way to achieve autonomy and this implies help them to find out what their needs are , what their leaning style is and how to set their goals or objectives, and based on that giving a list of stretegies and acitivities that will be more appropriate for them so they can work on their needs
ReplyDeleteSelf –direction learning was something very difficult for us, because we as students were not use to learn in autonomous way, so this process of learning was something frustrating for us as Mauricio said.When we went to self access center we were asked to cover a requirement for the semester, but we were not given with the reasons of what visiting a self access center, now we know the importance of visiting this place as a resource for our process of learning, we have been experiencing the a self-directed learning , so know we should take advantage of tit and make the difference with our future students by teaching them the importance of being an autonomous learner and how they can use different resources for having an effective learning
ReplyDeleteI must say i do not remember my first experience in SAC but I must say that it is not that the other studnets knew exactly what to do but they learned just by looking at other students picking a book picking a movie or just looking at the tutor... IT does not matter how many times they have gone to the SAC I'm sure they must learn about 1) finding their way 2) setting goals and 3) assessing their progress
ReplyDeleteI have read most of the comments and I agree with most of them. First of all helping students to know that SAC is a very useful tool we have but sometimes students do not take advantage of it, but that is the teacher job, to encourage students to go to the self access and work on all their needs. A very important fact is that teachers should help the learners to become aware first of all of their needs, then the way they will approach to them by letting them know about the variety of strategies they can put into practice to achieve their goals and onjectives, but a really important thing in this is that they should work with the strategy that suits them best according to their learning style.
ReplyDeleteMmm, yes it is very important to teach, guide or train learners before sending them to Self Acces Center. If they go without knowing anithing they could feel lost there. If we provide training before using this place learners would not waste time, and would take great advantage of this space.
ReplyDeleteI am sorry, I did not know how to comment, so I could not comment yesterday, but I could comment today, and I do not even know how or what I did to do it, je =)
ReplyDelete