Diary: Session 2

In the 2nd session we discussed about what's learning, the distinction between class & natural learning, what's the role of the teacher and so on…

Learning is a process. Just getting information doesn't make a process. We have to perceive, explore and retrieve. this is the process of learning. This process is experienced differently; for example inductive/deductive processing, bottom-up processing, top-down processing, dec-pro processing…

We can say that dec-pro processing is learning & pro-dec processing is acquisition. We can link it to Krashan's hypothesis: ACQUISITION/LEARNING hypothesis. He is in favour of acquisition, so he believes in the pro-dec processing.
Now we make a distinction between acquisition & learning:

learning is consciously as students study the rules of the language and listen to their teachers explain the grammar rules…

Acquisition is subconsciously as the students participate in communication study. It is subconscious attainment of knowledge in the environment. Nobody provides him what he needs. Krashen believes that it is acquisition that is permanent, not learning. He believes that learning doesn't lead to acquisition, but today critics believe that even in the most natural settings, the learner is partly aware of doing things to get information.

Krashen believes that learning is done just at the right time. It means when the learners are ready to use their monitoring ability. This hypothesis is called MONITOR LEARNING.
He believes that in order to gain more inputs students should have low affective filter,that is not too much anxiety, not too much motivation, not too much stress. this is called AFFECTIVE FILTER hypothesis. And he believes that too much affective filter blocks the enterence of useful inputs.
He also believes that learners should learn in a natural order. it means not to force students to produce language from the first sessions. There should be a silent period. This period is needed for students in order to concentrate & when they are ready, they put these things into practice. This is his NATURAL ORDER hypothesis.
His INPUT hypothesis deals with how individuals internalize language. He believes that individuals acquire language by understanding language that is slightly above their current level of competence.
Ellis in his book discussed the distinction between naturalistic learning and classroom learning. we can discuss it on 3 perspectives:
1)sociolinguistics
2)psycholinguistics
3)Educational
From the sociolinguistics perspective, classroom and natural learning can be discussed on 4 factors:
a) participants
b) topics
c) location
d) purpose

-Participants: in classroom learning participants systematically and academically acquire knowledge. But in natural learning what he picks up is survival. Participants are different in terms of their needs, their ages, motivations and…
-Locations: in class everything is there to help learning. The noise, light, board… everything is artificially present. In natural setting everything is there because they should be there. Not because you should learn. You should adjust yourself with it.
-Topics: in natural setting topics are various, but in classroom setting topics are more controlled.
-Purpose: in natural setting it varies, we try to communicate and learn a language for different reasons, but in classroom settings it is more focused.

From the psychological aspect you, as a learner should be corrected, be attentive… but in a natural setting everything is like a trial and error, hypothesis testing… everything is learnt in natural setting.
From the educational aspect in formal setting somebody trains you what to do directly. But in informal setting you are alone, you yourself should learn everything.

A teacher has the role of a "guide". She should be aware of what is going on the classroom, but not overtly. A teacher should has 2 kinds of plans: one is overt and the other is covert. The first one is what a teacher gives to learners like the class syllabus. The second one is what s/he does any moment during the class time. it is not shared with learners.
What a teacher does is teaching them & they understand, they are learning, they are involved, they are paying attention to the teacher.