JOHN HIRD
TEFL MASTER – ASSIGNMENT
“Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach him how to fish and he eats for a lifetime.”
Explain what this saying means to you in the area of language learning and teaching. Give examples from your own experience, justifying these and backing them up with information from the subject and from your outside readings.
At the risk of being pedantic I would like to start by deconstructing Confucius’s oft quoted advice. In the world of politics, well meaning liberals, NGOs and supporters of the United Nations development programmes use the phrase in support of developmental aid to the so called ‘Third World.’ It is better to give aid which is sustainable; the argument goes, rather than resources which will be quickly used up. Tractors instead of grain or teach them to fish as Confucius said. It is conveniently forgotten by those in the West that the ‘Third World’s’ resources, including human, have been systematically robbed for hundreds of years. The problem is not that they do not know how to fish. It is that their boats, rods, rivers, seas and fish have been taken away from them by force. Sometimes if they are lucky these very same resources are offered back to them at greatly inflated prices which they cannot afford.
A parallel can be drawn with language learning. Just as the West has colonised the ‘Third World’ then language professionals and experts have colonised language learning. Almost every human being on the planet is capable of learning one, two or even more languages without the help of a teacher, yet millions of teachers spend millions of hours ‘teaching’ thousands of millions of learners.
It was Ellis and Sinclair (1989) who first used Confucius to make their point about learning strategies in language learning. Their idea was that learning strategies require independence and initiative from the learner and thus work to make the role of the teacher redundant as the learner becomes more autonomous and self-directed in his or her learning.
Considering the limited access learners often have to instruction, becoming independent as language learners and users is perhaps the most important goal of a large number of, if not all second language learners.
The given ‘fish’ in Confucius’s quote represents many things to me in the context of language teaching. It can be the grammar translation method, PPP, transmission type teachers, teachers ‘as crowd controllers,’ (see quote from Meighan below) the Headway series, type ‘A’ grammar curriculum, exams and many more aspects of teaching languages which try to reduce it to a passing on of knowledge. The ‘fish on a plate’ type teacher believes they are the font of all knowledge and usually pass on ‘grammar nuggets’ and wisdom from their English speaking culture.
Obviously Ellis and Sinclair’s approach is a step forward from giving the learners ‘little fishies on little dishies,’ as we say in the North East of England. If the learner can learn how to learn they can teach themselves and the teacher will eventually become redundant. Later I will make some comments about the whole concept of teaching people how to fish in the language learning context. Are teachers really teaching or in fact guiding learners towards something they already instinctively know?
Teaching people how to fish in our context is in effect teaching people how to learn and teach themselves. This is what we mean when we talk about learning strategies. However, a deeper rationale for teaching strategies lies in the philosophical underpinning of learner empowerment through developing skills which provide independence and autonomy.
There is a clear connection between strategy use and learner autonomy and independence which for me flow naturally from the learner-centred and communicative approaches and methodologies. Strategies by their very nature have to involve independence and initiative from the learner and thus work to make the role of the teacher redundant as the learner becomes more autonomous and self-directed in his or her learning.
For me this point of view is well summed up by Roland Meighan (1998) when he asks the question, ‘What is a good teacher?’
‘People are often shocked to find that there is no agreement about ‘good’ teaching. One view stresses that a good teacher is in the business of making themselves redundant. The American educator, John Holt, put it like this:
“a good teacher teaches you how to teach yourself better.”
So the task of the teacher is to make them unnecessary as soon as possible.
Another view stresses the teacher as instructor, taking decisive action by using crowd control skills to organise learners. Then, using crowd instruction methods, the teacher tries to get the learners to memorise a particular piece of information or achieve a required understanding. This tends to be the officially approved view of ‘good’ teaching, which underpins the whole imposed apparatus of the National Curriculum, the Testing System and the OFSTED inspection ideology.
The third view sees the good teacher as supporting the growth of teach groups who direct and manage their own learning:
“Of a good teacher, they say, when the task is done, we did this ourselves!”
I subscribe to Meighan’s view. Good language teachers or dare I say, the best language teachers will have as their main objective that of teaching their students to fish. Meighan talks about supporting the growth of learning groups who direct and manage their own learning. Such groups discuss and develop their own learning strategies and do not depend on the teacher to give them fishes on a plate. Learners who employ strategies feel and know that they did it themselves.
This approach by the teacher in my opinion should not be an excuse for an abrogation of duty. The teacher cannot sit back and say, ‘you’re on your own!’ The teacher has to facilitate learning. They have to create an atmosphere and circumstances where learning takes place and guide the learners towards an understanding of where they are on the language learning journey and where they want to go. Strategies come into play when the learner realises where they are and where they want to go and then asks the question – ‘how do I get there?’
If I can draw an analogy with mountain climbing: A new mountain climber stands at the bottom of the vast mountain. It looks enormous and daunting. The climber has doubts that they will ever get to the summit. They find a guide who can show them the way up the mountain and accompany them on the journey. However, the guide cannot climb the mountain for the new mountain climber. That they have to do themselves.
Many learners and indeed teachers make the mistake of thinking that success or otherwise in language learning mainly depends on the teacher. How often have we heard the refrain – ‘I’m not getting anywhere because my teacher is crap.’ Teachers and learners are socialised into roles and most of the time play those roles. The learner with a ‘crap’ teacher does not usually think to raise their doubts about methodology with the teacher, have a dialogue and agree on changes. Neither does the teacher normally think to ask the learners their opinions about the class even when it is clear there are problems and learning is not taking place. The socialised roles are that the teacher should know best and the learner has to be pleased to get the fish however it is served up!
At the beginning of my teaching career I received some sound advice from the director of the first language academy I worked at in Euskadi. I was worried that my lack of experience as a teacher would mean the learners would not learn and I would fail as a teacher. My director, who is an expert language learner himself, said I should not worry, as at the end of the day students who really want to learn find their own way to learn. He commented that students who are aware of what they want and have the right attitude can learn from even the ‘worst’ teacher. Expert learners can and do direct and even manipulate the teacher to do what they want in class especially if that teacher is a young and inexperienced native speaker. Looking back I realize my director was unconsciously describing the process of how students look for learning strategies to improve their learning, sometimes despite the teacher.
Up to now I have linked learning strategies closely to learner autonomy which is as it should be but it also has to be recognised that not all learners can go from being fed fishes by their teacher to fishing for themselves in one jump. It is not enough to just have a ‘learner training’ chat in a class and expect learners to find their own strategies and become fully autonomous learners immediately. Ultimately that is the aim but the idea of using learning strategies can and should be introduced into classroom L2 language teaching at all levels and for all tasks and activities. It should not be left to intermediate level students or for ‘something to do in the school holidays.’
Simply put, a learning strategy is an individual’s approach to complete a task. More specifically, a learning strategy is an individual’s way of organizing and using a particular set of skills in order to learn content or accomplish other tasks more effectively and efficiently in the L2 classroom as well as in non-academic settings. Therefore, teachers who teach learning strategies teach students how to learn, rather than teaching them specific curriculum content or specific skills.
The reason that strategies are so crucial in the second language acquisition process can be understood in the following definition offered by Brown (2000: p122):
“They are the moment-by-moment techniques that we employ to solve “problems” posed by second language input and output.”
The question asks for examples from my own experience backed up with information from the subject and from my outside readings. I propose to do this by briefly relating the strategies employed by an expert language learner known to me and linking them with the categories of Oxford.
A friend and colleague of mine (Rooney) has learnt Spanish, Euskara, Portuguese and Arabic in that order to near native level. I observed him at close quarters developing his strategies when learning Spanish and using similar strategies years later in the Middle East when learning Arabic. I have also been witness to the success of his strategies as many native speakers of Spanish and Arabic regularly refuse to accept that he is in fact a native English speaker rather than a native speaker of their own language.
Oxford (2001) presents six categories of language learning strategies: cognitive, metacognitive, memory-related, compensatory, affective, and social Oxford (2001: 359). They can be summarized as follows:
COGNITIVE: practicing and repeating new words; deductive reasoning, translating, analyzing; taking notes, highlighting, summarizing.
Rooney used to repeat words in front of the mirror every day. He would also translate books and newspaper articles word by word using a dictionary. He could be seen every Saturday and Sunday morning in ‘Casco Viejo’ in Gasteiz with a coffee, cigarette, El Pais and a notebook. He would also practise pronunciation by repeating new words over and over again in the street.
METACOGNITIVE: paying attention, organizing, setting goals and objectives, evaluating one’s own performance.
Rooney set himself the aim of learning how to write in Arabic before he went to live in Saudi Arabia. He planned the process meticulously, setting goals and objectives and strove might and main to stick to them. He would regularly report to me how he was doing and it was clear he was following a well organized plan.
MEMORY-RELATED: creating mental linkages, such as grouping and placing words in context; applying images and sounds to represent things in memory; structured reviewing; using mechanical techniques, such as physical response.
When learning Spanish and Euskara Rooney would insist I played memory games with him and test him on his knowledge. He used to carry notebooks with him everywhere and his vocabulary was organized into various groups – football, literature, chit-chat, flirting, politics etc. He would also use poems and especially songs to remember whole phrases and words. He learnt several songs by Oskorri in Euskara and by Silvio in Spanish to improve his language learning. He also told me that in Portugal he learnt by heart the lyrics of Chico Buarque (Brazil’s musical maestro) and used to sing his songs as part of his language learning strategy.
COMPENSATORY: selecting a topic for discussion based on one’s knowledge of the language and shaping the discussion to avoid unknown vocabulary, guessing at words based on context, using gestures and coining words to communicate.
Rooney took advantage of every situation where he was able to communicate with native speakers. In Spanish at first, even with a small vocabulary he would talk about the things he knew how to say. Even when he lacked the vocabulary he would still nevertheless try to express himself using hand signals and facial expressions.
AFFECTIVE: using music or laughter as part of the learning process, rewarding one, making positive statements about one’s own progress, discussing feelings.
I have already mentioned that Rooney used music to positive effect. In Saudi Arabia he would always have a positive approach to his language learning. He often commented to me that his experiences learning other languages meant he had clear sign posting on his journey learning Arabic. He would regularly talk about the processes involved in learning a language. He is adamant that there is no short cut. The road is long and sometimes hard but ultimately rewarding if you continue the journey as far as you can go.
SOCIAL: seeking correction, asking for clarification, working with peers, developing cultural understanding.
‘The powerful social and affective strategies are found less often in L2 research. This is, perhaps, because these behaviours are not studied frequently by L2 researchers, and because learners are not familiar with paying attention to their own feelings and social relationships as part of the L2 learning process.’ (Oxford, 1990).
In my opinion this factor was key to Rooney achieving near native level in at least Spanish and Arabic. For this reason I think the above quote by Oxford is pertinent. It can be the case that even learners who use successful social strategies may be unaware of their real significance. Rooney himself contends that his seeming ‘success’ is all down to hard work on his part. He is sceptical about the communicative method in language teaching and often says there is no substitute for a dictionary and a grammar book.
However I observed him at close quarters as he was learning both Spanish and Arabic. He immersed himself in the cultures. Whether it was music, literature, politics and most of all people he was interested in it and them and tried to deepen his understanding. In Spain he found a Basque flat mate and later girlfriend. They watched the films of Almodóvar together and discussed the books they were reading with a bottle of Rioja. He was integrated into a ‘cuadrilla’ and spent countless Friday and Saturday nights being socialised into Basque life. At some points he even refused to speak to and avoided people from his country who would not speak Spanish. This was a conscious learning strategy on his part to maximise his learning time and hasten the process of acculturation.
In Saudi Arabia he admitted that the acculturation process was more difficult because of wide cultural differences but he began adopting integration strategies from the moment he arrived. After two years I saw that he had been so successful with these strategies that when we visited the traditional ‘Shisha’ or ‘Hubbly Bubbly’ houses in Riyadh, although I was instantly recognised as English, Saudis insisted that Rooney was Moroccan or Algerian.
An interesting and sometimes sad side effect of acculturation is that at a certain stage one can become alienated from one’s original cultural roots. Rooney and I both went to Saudi Arabia after several years in Spain and other countries and we found that we could not fully relate to people from our own country living there. To both of us many of the British people we met seemed like foreigners!
I have used the example of Rooney, who is an extremely successful language learner to illustrate the use of learning strategies. It is clear that the most successful learners use a wider range of strategies and are most of all, autonomous. Rooney has attended about half a dozen language classes in his life yet is capable of passing the highest Arab language certificate for foreigners.
Rooney has also tailored a combination of learning strategies to his particular need. This is more successful than a random use of individual strategies. Oxford (1994) makes it clear, as I have tried to point out with the example of Rooney, that the question of learning strategies is not an exact science.
“The L2 learner is not just a metacognitive and cognitive machine but, rather a whole person. In strategy training teachers should help students develop affective and social strategies, as well as intellectually related strategies based on their individual learning styles, current strategy use and specific goals.”
For learners to learn how to fish for themselves and become autonomous learners they need to employ a whole range of strategies and that at the end of the day depends on the learner or as Oxford puts it: (the) ‘whole person.’
I have illustrated the use of learning strategies by one expert learner. But what about TEFL teachers introducing the idea of learning strategies to learners who have not thought about the subject and who expect the teacher to do their learning for them? How do TEFL teachers start to teach learners how to fish for themselves?
I have discovered that strategy training should be explicit and overt. Strategies should be integrated with L2 activities and carried out over long periods of time with many opportunities to practice. It is not enough to give sporadic learner training
To illustrate this point I would like to give an example of how I attempted to integrate learner training into a course I taught.
CLASS – PROFILE:
Five young professionals in two Business English classes in a German owned automobile manufacturing company in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Euskadi, Spain. The main language of the company has been German but it has been agreed that English will now be the main means of communication between the different branches of the company.
The Advanced Class is made up of a secretary, a SAP engineer and a production technician.
In the Intermediate class there are two auditors.
Two out of the five learners are fluent German speakers and four are competent speakers of Euskara.
LEARNER CONCERNS:
Most learners in the classes feel fairly confident reading and writing English and giving verbal information. However all have expressed a lack of confidence in their ability to understand everything that is said to them by native English speakers and German colleagues speaking in English. They also felt they were making the same mistakes over and over gain.
Furthermore there was a feeling that they had not really improved since reaching their present level and they were just going through the motions of attending classes. Some learners admitted that they attended classes mainly because their bosses expected them to and it was well seen that they were attending classes.
This is a perennial problem in language classes where learners have reached an intermediate level but feel ‘stuck’ where they are. They seem to be making the same mistakes and errors over and over again and there is a certain frustration that they will never really progress beyond their present level and all that they can hope for is to maintain their present level.
In reality the learners displayed certain symptoms of fossilization of specific forms which could only really be corrected by a conscious and sustained approach. It would not be enough to merely go through the motions of learning English once or twice a week.
I decided to introduce the topic of learner training and learning to learn by asking the learners to relate their language learning experiences. I asked the students who had learnt German in Germany to relate how they had become proficient. Another student wrote a piece about his experiences learning English in Dublin.
It became clear during the discussions that there were some common problems and solutions but also individual differences. For example all the learners agreed that social strategies were extremely important if they really wanted to become fluent. They all concluded that being in the country were the L2 was spoken gave them better learning opportunities. This made them concentrate on what special measures they had to take to make up for the fact they were not abroad. They also recognised that they learned in different ways or had different styles of learning. Some were very precise and liked to write down everything while others preferred talking and did not mind about making mistakes.
During the regular discussions on learning styles we jointly came up with the idea of a listening diary. I had stressed that the development of listening comprehension skills is a process which if given constant and prolonged attention will improve. I would also point out that in their everyday exchanges in English at work they would invariably get the gist of the conversation and their inability to understand everything would not really prevent them doing their jobs properly. This was confirmed by the learner’s experience living abroad and learning a new language.
LISTENING DIARY USE:
We decided that a Listening Diary could serve as a way to record and analyse the learners’ exchanges in English at work. The learners kept a record of all their exchanges in English at work comparing how much they felt they understood to how effectively they completed the task arising from the conversation. The diary served as a useful research tool to find out the difference between the learners’s perceived level of comprehension and the actual level of comprehension as measured by how effectively they carry out the tasks arising from the listening.
The listening diary also added some meat to the bone when listening strategies were discussed in class. Instead of dealing in generalities as regards listening comprehension or limiting ourselves to discussions about the course book tape and how difficult it is we were able to talk about and confront some of the actual real-life challenges the learners faced in improving their listening comprehension skills.
I believe that the listening diary was a very useful tool for the above mentioned group of learners, mainly because it raised awareness of listening inside and out of class and helped the learners to be more conscious of their own and fellow learners’ L2 learning strategies, beliefs and attitudes. The diary also helped the learners to find out what their fellow learners were doing and how they had learned in the past and were learning at the time.
In conclusion, to return to the original quote by Confucius, I would say that it is far too presumptuous to say that language teachers actually teach learners how to fish. Of course it is essential that language learners know ‘how to fish for themselves’ for successful language learning to take place. However as I have hopefully shown in this essay, the whole language teaching and education industry socializes teachers and students into thinking that teachers know best and that to paraphrase the quote, ‘students eat a fish a day provided by the teacher.’ In reality language learners instinctively know the best way for them to learn a language. Very often, bad teaching, materials and exams hinder their progress towards proficiency. Learners lose sight of their ultimate communicative goal as learning is reduced to a never ending round of grammar exercises and class ´listenings’ which have no relevance to the real reason why they started to learn the language in the first place. The best service the teacher can provide is to guide the learner back to their original goals and remind them that in the end it is they the learner who really knows how best to learn. Teaching the learner how to fish? Not really – more like reminding the learner what they already instinctively know and giving them confidence to use their own strategies!
“But just as there are many different kinds of rods, different kinds of bait and different fishing locations, all of which offer a variety of choices and experiences, there are different ways of learning language.”
What does this mean to you? How does it affect what you think of the proverb as applied to strategy training?
We can illustrate this point with the graphic English saying, ‘there are many ways to skin a cat,’ meaning there are many ways to do the same thing and in the language learning context many reasons why things can and should be done in different ways.
The starting point is that all learners are unique and different. Every class is mixed ability and indeed every learner could be classified as mixed ability. Consequently each learner’s choice of strategy is going to be determined by a variety of factors. Oxford (1994) mentions seven factors which influence the choice of learning strategy:
‘1. Motivation. More motivated students tended to use more strategies than less motivated students, and the particular reason for studying the language (motivational orientation, especially as related to career field) was important in the choice of strategies.
2.Gender. Females reported greater overall strategy use than males in many studies (although sometimes males surpassed females in the use of a particular strategy).
3.Cultural background. Rote memorization and other forms of memorization were more prevalent among some Asian students than among students from other cultural backgrounds. Certain other cultures also appeared to encourage this strategy among learners.
4.Attitudes and beliefs. These were reported to have a profound effect on the strategies learners choose, with negative attitudes and beliefs often causing poor strategy use or lack of orchestration of strategies.
5. Type of task. The nature of the task helped determine the strategies naturally employed to carry out the task.
6. Age and L2 stage. Students of different ages and stages of L2 learning used different strategies, with certain strategies often being employed by older or more advanced students.
7. Learning style. Learning style (general approach to language learning) often determined the choice of L2 learning strategies. For example, analytic-style students preferred strategies such as contrastive analysis, rule-learning, and dissecting words and phrases, while global students used strategies to find meaning (guessing, scanning, predicting) and to converse without knowing all the words (paraphrasing, gesturing).
8. Tolerance of ambiguity. Students who were more tolerant of ambiguity used significantly different learning strategies in some instances than did students who were less tolerant of ambiguity.’
It is clear that before learning strategies can be successfully put in to practice teachers must guide the learners towards an attempt to know themselves as learners, to understand their own learning style. It would be pointless and indeed counterproductive to suggest learning strategies which did not match the learner’s style.
In the past writers have attempted to define the characteristics of a good language learner and the strategies they use. Rubin and Thompson (1982) mentioned 14.
14 Characteristics of a Good Language Learner
1. Good language learners find their own way and take charge of their learning. They determine the methods that are best for them as individual learners. They learn form others and experiment with different methods.
2. Good language learners organize their study of the language, and they organize information about the language they study.
3. Good language learners are creative. They understand that lanuage is creative. They experiment with the language and play with grammar, words, and sounds.
4. Good language learners make their own opportunities for practicing the language inside and outside of the classroom.
5. Good language learners learn to live with uncertainty by focusing on the meaning of what they can understand, by not getting flustered, and by continuing to talk or listen without necessarily understanding every word.
6. Good language learners use mnemonics and other memory strategies to recall what they are learning.
7. Good language learners make errors work for them and not against them.
8. Good language learners use linguistic knowledge including knowledge of their first language, in learning a second language.
9. Good language learners use contextual clues to aid their comprehension of the language. They maximize use of all potential contexts around the language attended to for enhancing comprehension.
10. Good language learners learn to make intelligent guesses
11. Good language learners learn chunks of language as wholes and formalized routines to help them perform beyond their competence. For example, they may learn idioms, proverbs, or other phrases knowing what the whole phrase means without necessarily understanding each individual part.
12. Good language learners learn certain tricks that keep conversations going
13. Good language learners learn certain production techniques that also fill in the gaps in their own competence.
14. Good language learners learn different styles of speech or writing to learn to vary their language according to the formality of the situation.
All these characteristics are well and good but they may not be applicable to all learners at all times with different learning styles and in different circumstances. It is perhaps a little too ambitious to try and define all the characteristics of a good language learner. This is the main point Question 2 brings to mind. The choice of learning strategies depends on the learning style of the learner and other important individual factors.
Oxford (1994) mentions the following principles which need to be borne in mind when advising on strategy choice:
- L2 strategy training should be based clearly on students’ attitudes, beliefs, and stated needs.
- Strategies should be chosen so that they mesh with and support each other and so that they fit the requirements of the language task, the learners’ goals, and the learners’ style of learning.
- Training should, if possible, be integrated into regular L2 activities over a long period of time rather than taught as a separate, short intervention.
- Students should have plenty of opportunities for strategy training during language classes.
- Strategy training should include explanations, handouts, activities, brainstorming, and materials for reference and home study.
- Affective issues such as anxiety, motivation, beliefs, and interests — all of which influence strategy choice — should be directly addressed by L2 strategy training.
- Strategy training should be explicit, overt, and relevant and should provide plenty of practice with varied L2 tasks involving authentic materials.
- Strategy training should not be solely tied to the class at hand; it should provide strategies that are transferable to future language tasks beyond a given class.
- Strategy training should be somewhat individualized, as different students prefer or need certain strategies for particular tasks.
- Strategy training should provide students with a mechanism to evaluate their own progress and to evaluate the success of the training and the value of the strategies in multiple tasks.
What are the pros and cons of conducting strategy training in your opinion?
Oxford’s principles (1994) (above) are also a good guide to the pros and cons of conducting strategy training.
If students feel the learning strategy is clearly based on their needs and beliefs they will be more successful, however if the strategies are imposed or are alien to the learner they could be counterproductive.
Strategies need to flow from the learner’s own style and fit the requirements of the tasks. Those which do not will be unsuccessful and could turn the learner off trying to discover the right strategies for them.
Learner training has almost negligible positive effects when it is taught as an afterthought. Learning strategies have to be integrated into regular L2 activities over a long period of time and in this way extremely positive results are possible.
Strategy training needs a certain preparation by the teacher. It is not enough just to chat to the students about the subject. The teacher needs to prepare materials for home and autonomous use.
Issues such as anxiety have to be addressed in strategy training and some learners may be unwilling to delve into such matters. However a discussion on motivation is almost always a ‘pro’ as learners focus on their own reasons for learning.
Strategy training should not be tied to the class in hand and this can prove problematic for some teachers who have to get used to ‘thinking outside the box.’ (Classroom) The ‘pro’ side to this conundrum is that if learners can transfer strategies outside the classroom learning will undoubtedly take place which can only make the teacher’s job easier!
Obviously the individualising of learning strategies is not an easy task for teachers especially if they have large classes. If the teacher can achieve this challenge then learning strategies have more chance of being successful.
A central aim of strategy training is that learners become autonomous and can evaluate their own progress. This can be difficult to achieve in some cultures or with some age groups, especially children. Some students expect and demand that the teacher gives them the language on a plate like a fish. If such learn students can be guided towards an understanding that they can and should be in control of their own learning then everyone involved in the process will benefit.
In conclusion the pros of conducting strategy training far outweigh the cons. There may be resistance to strategy training from some learners for cultural and social reasons. Due to past learning experiences learners may not accept that they have to take ultimate responsibility for their learning and may expect to be fed fishes by the teacher. However with patience and preparation a teacher can become a facilitator and guide. The pros are self evident. The learner ultimately takes control of their learning and discovers the optimum way to learn for them. At the end of the day the successful utilization of the right learning strategies mean that the learner discovers how to fish for themselves and successful language learner takes place, which has to be the biggest pro of all!
I will end with five quotes on education from great thinkers. Although they do not deal specifically with language learning they graphically illustrate the main premise of teaching learning strategies in EFL and back up the philosophy of this subject which I agree with 100% – that is rather than ration our students to a few choice fishes each class our job as teachers is to guide our learners towards the realisation that in reality they already know how to fish for themselves.
‘Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.’ Isaac Asimov
‘It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.’ Albert Einstein
‘You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him to find it within himself.’ Galileo
‘Spoon feeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon.’ E.M. Forster
‘To teach a man how he may learn to grow independently, and for himself, is perhaps the greatest service that one man can do another.’ Benjamin Jowett
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BROWN, H. D. (2000). “Principles of language teaching and learning” (4th ed.). White Plains, NY: Longman.
ELLIS, G. & B. Sinclair. (1989). Learning to learn English: A Course in Learner Training. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
MEIGHAN, R ‘What is a good teacher?’ A version of this appeared in the column of Natural Parent magazine, Sept/Oct 1998
http://www.alternative-learning.org/altlearn_map/parent-mag/7-edu-heritic-parents%20mag.html
OXFORD, R. (2001). Language learning styles and strategies. In M. Celce-Murcia (Ed.), “Teaching English as a second or foreign language” (3rd ed.). Boston: Heinle & Heinle.
OXFORD, R (1994) Language Learning Strategies: An Update
http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/oxford01.html
Oxford, R.L. (1990). Language learning strategies: What every teacher should know. Boston: Heinle & Heinle.
RUBIN AND THOMPSON (1982) 14 Characteristics of a Good Language Learner
http://www.tci.ac.jp/~naphtali/SenseiOnline/14char.htm
