Can pluralistic approaches develop whole-brain learning? R. DAHM

LAIRDIL international conference

“ Affective aspects in foreign language teaching and learning “ Toulouse, October 17th-18th, 2013

Can pluralistic approaches develop whole-brain learning?

Rebecca DAHM ÉSPÉ – University of Limoges

LACES – EA 4140, Bordeaux-Segalen - Bordeaux IV

Pluralistic approaches of languages and cultures

= didactic approaches which use teaching/learning activities involving several (i.e. more than one) varieties of languages or cultures (http://carap.ecml.at)

LAIRDIL international conference “ Affective aspects in foreign language teaching and learning “

Toulouse, October 17th-18th, 2013

Whole-brain learning

•  Research underlines importance of connecting left hemisphere of brain (verbal, logical and analytical memory) to right hemisphere (spatial and intuitive processing) (Respress & Lutfi, 2006).

•  AFFECT can interfere in the process of learning : enhance or sabotage ability of pre-frontal lobe to maintain working memory (Goleman, 1995).

=> « accelerate and enrich our learning, by engaging the senses, emotions, imagination » (Gross, 1992 : 139).



Outline

•  Research question and hypothesis •  Theoretical framework •  Research design •  Method of analysis •  Results •  Discussion



Research question and hypothesis

Experimentation

•  Led in 2011-2012 : showed that being confronted to Pluralistic Approaches based upon Unknown Languages (PAUL) develops students’ cognitive skills (enhanced strategy use and metalinguistic competence).



Research question

•  implementation of PAUL sessions can have an impact on both individual and relational affective factors (Arnold,1999).



Impact on individual factors

PAUL sessions : no learning goal.

•  language anxiety (Gardner and MacIntyre, 1993) can be reduced.

•  Students review their attitudes (Lasagabaster, 2006)

•  Teacher is led to review his beliefs regarding students’ abilities (Puchta, 1999)



Theoretical framework

Anxiety

•  Specific anxiety related to learning a second language (Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope, 1986; Rubio, 2004).

•  Adolescent learners seek to transmit ‘mature ideas’ but can only resort to ‘immature’ language resources => impact self-esteem (Arnold, 2006).

•  Anxiety can be reduced through teacher’s attitude (Dörnyei & Csizér,1998; K. Ellis, 2000)



Effects of self-esteem on learning

•  ‘Affective filter’ (Krashen, 1982): influence of negative emotions.

•  Balanced self-esteem: competence and self-worth (Mruk, 1999).

Responsibility of the individual but also of the social context. In classroom, self-esteem and confidence can be encouraged by teacher’s attitude.



Impact of teacher’s beliefs on learning/teaching

Puchta (1999): negative beliefs of teachers determine students' expectations.

-  If expectations are limited, lower level of motivation = confirmation of initial beliefs.

-  Need to work on current beliefs of teachers



Research Design

Mixed methodology

Didactic triangle (Chevallard, 1985)

•  Impact on teacher/teaching: action-research •  Impact on learner/learning: quasi-experiment Both qualitative and quantitative data



Knowledge

Teacher Learner

Participants

•  Teachers: N=9

•  Lower secondary school pupils, two target groups: •  students from year 7 (12-13 year-old)

•  students from year 9 (14-15 year-old)

•  Observed students: N = 88 students from year 7 (22 groups)



Procedure

•  Three unknown languages: Dutch, Italian, Finnish •  Two types of activities:

Ø metasemantic activities Ø metasyntactic activities

•  Same model: give systematicity to a regular exercise



Corpus

•  Qualitative data (Nvivo): –  Excerpts from 4 different teacher questionnaires

–  Excerpts from the transcripts of the action-research workshops

–  Excerpts from

–  Excerpts from post-experimentation pupil questionnaires

•  Quantitative data (ModaLisa): analysis of pupil questionnaire



Analysis

Variables and indicators

•  Teachers’ beliefs about students: vision of students’ knowledge, skills and attitudes (questionnaire 3 + transcripts of workshops 1 and 2 + forum messages)

•  Students’ beliefs:

–  Beliefs about unknown languages (analysis of transcript of metasemantic and metasyntactic activities)

–  Beliefs regarding own abilities QII-5 and QII-6 : “Have you improved your ability to find new information in a text?” “Have you improved your ability to identify grammar elements?”

•  Self-esteem: student questionnaire Q III-10: “Do you feel more intelligent?”



Results

Individual factors (teachers)

Impact on teacher’s way of considering students (1/3)

Preconceptions regarding students’ knowledge: –  P2 believes students will not have the same knowledge on unknown

languages as teachers had (excerpt 1).

–  P9 believes that because of lack of multilingual repertoire comprising Spanish, students will not be able to access meaning (excerpt 1).



Excerpt 2

Excerpt 1


•  Preconceptions regarding students’ skills: –  P1 considers it necessary to attract attention of students on

instruction

–  P2 believes students will not comply with instruction



Excerpt 3


•  Preconceptions regarding students’ attitudes: –  P4 believes students will not feel like trying to retrieve their

metalinguistic knowledge. They might reject it as an additional learning task (excerpt 4).



Excerpt 4

Evolution of teacher’s way of considering students (1/2)

•  Only when working on third language (Finnish), does P4 seem to believe in the students’ abilities to access meaning in an unknown language (excerpt 5 from Forum):



Excerpt 5

Evolution of teacher’s way of considering students (2/2)

•  Teacher final questionnaire shows amazement regarding pupils’ general abilities: –  P1: « fascinantes, surtout celles des élèves en difficulté »

–  P2 : « surprenantes et enrichissantes »

•  Some view certain students differently: –  P3 states the impact on their self-confidence: « cette expérimentation a permis

à certains élèves d’avoir plus confiance en eux car ils faisaient des remarques judicieuses (qui les surprenaient eux-mêmes), ils ont découvert que faire travailler son cerveau pouvait être intéressant ».

–  P1 underlines the impact on her vision of pupils with learning difficulties : « à quel point des élèves en difficulté pouvaient retrouver le sourire et le goût quand ils se sentaient en réussite ».



Individual factors (students)

Students’ beliefs (1/2)

–  Beliefs regarding own abilities QII-5 : “Have you improved your ability to find information in an unknown text?”



Students’ beliefs (2/2)

–  Beliefs regarding own abilities (QII-6) : “Have you improved your ability to identify grammar elements?”



Anxiety and self-esteem

•  Development of metalinguistic competence (shown in previous research), thus leading to an increase of self-esteem

•  Student questionnaire Q III-10: “Do you feel more intelligent?”



Attitudes towards languages

•  Transfer of skills to other languages and situations: –  « Quand je suis partie en vacance j'ai pris un texte dans l'aéroport

et j'ai essayé de le traduire ».

–  « Sur les bouteilles d’eau, avec le texte en français et la traduction dans une autre langue ».

•  Curiosity towards other languages: 24 other languages.

Conclusion

Impact on teachers

•  Implementing Pluralistic Approaches based upon Unknown Languages has enabled teachers of English to consider students' abilities otherwise.

•  Benefits are not only cognitive but also related to affect: students can adopt new role

•  Renewal and modification of teacher-student relationship.

Impact on students

•  Developed self-esteem

•  Changed their attitude regarding the language object.

•  Developed interest in learning how to learn

•  Increased curiosity: students report having used the methodology in another context. They also would like to discover a large number of additional languages.

References •  Candelier, M. (2003). L’éveil aux langues à l’école primaire. Evlang  : bilan d’une innovation

européenne. Bruxelles: De Boeck. •  Deyrich, M.-C. (2011). Exploration de la notion d’altérité dans la formation des enseignants

de langues   : pour une résonance des points de vue et des démarches. In Chini, D. et Goutéreaux, P. Intégration de l’altérité dans l’apprentissage des langues: Formes didactiques et procédures psycholinguistiques. Paris: L’Harmattan.

•  Díaz-Corralejo Conde, J. (2004). De l’étrangeté à la complicité. Didáctica (Lengua y literatura), (16), 23–32.

•  Dörnyei, Z. (2001). Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

•  Gross, R. (1992). Lifelong learning in the learning society of the twenty-first century. In In Collins, C. & Mangieri, J. (Eds.), Teaching Thinking: An Agenda for the Twenty-First Century (p. 137-154). Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum and Associates.

•  Guiora, A. Z., & Acton, W. R. (1979). Personality and language behaviour  : a restatement. Language Learning, 29(1), 193-204.

•  Gutiérrez, X. (2011). Knowledge representations underlying covert metalinguistic activity: a working hypothesis. Language Awareness, 20(3), 239-254.

•  Lasagabaster, D. (2006). Les attitudes linguistiques   : un état des lieux. Ela. Études de linguistique appliquée., 2006/4(144), 393-406.

•  Mruk, C. J. (1999). Self-esteem: Research, theory, and practice. New York: Springer Pub. •  Naiman, N. (1978). The Good Language Learner. Toronto: Ontario Institute for Studies in

Education. •  O’Malley, J. M., & Chamot, A. U. (1990). Learning Strategies in Second Language

Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. •  Oxford, R. L. (2011). Teaching and Researching Language Learning Strategies. Harlow:

Pearson education. •  Puchta, H. (1999). Creating a learning culture to which students want to belong   : the

application of Neuro-Linguistic Programming to language teaching. In In Arnold, J. (ed.), Affect in Language Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

•  Underhill, A. (1999). Facilitation in language teaching. In In Arnold, J. (ed.), Affect in Language Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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Thank you for your attention !

LAIRDIL international conference

“ Affective aspects in foreign language teaching and learning “ Toulouse, October 17th-18th, 2013

[email protected]

Video of first session on Dutch

Text in Dutch

Text in Italian

« Sono un topo molto famoso. Io sono piccolo, con grandi orecchie nere.

Indosso pantaloni rossi con grandi bottoni bianchi. I miei migliori amici

sono Paperino e Pippo e la mia bella ragazza di nome Minnie.

Mio padre è molto famoso: il suo nome è Walt Disney!

Chi sono io? »

Text in Finnish

Päivi: " Rakastatko musiikkia?” Timo: "Kyllä, minä rakastan. Lataan paljon musiikkia Internetistä.”Päivi: ”Soitatko musiikkia?”Timo: "Kyllä, minä soitan. Soitan pianoa. Sisareni Eija ei soita pianoa, mutta hän soittaa kitaraa. Entä sisaresi Nina?”Päivi: ”Sisareni Nina rakastaa rap-musiikkia. Rakastaako sisaresi Eija myös rap-musiikkia?”Timo: ”Ei, hän ei rakasta.”

Example of a group sheet in Dutch

Example of a group sheet in Italian

Example of a group sheet in Finnish

Can pluralistic approaches develop whole-brain learning? R. DAHM

Education

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