Elina+Kirjallisuustehtävä


 * Creating a good learning environment for foreign language acquisition and learning **


 * Introduction**

In this paper I try to find out on how to construct a classroom that is a good learning environment for an English as a foreign language (EFL) learner. Learning environment is seen as the physical classroom environment and also the framework where the language learning and acquisition take place during the lessons including the social aspects of the learning situation and the tools used. I approach the problem from the point of view of my own workplace, where such a process is undergoing at present.

It can be very difficult for a language teacher to try to construct a classroom that is beneficial to learning since the policy makers, heads of schools and other staff have their own fond memories of the language classrooms where they learned foreign languages. They are not aware of the new research results and base their decisions on their own experience (Sawyer, 2006).

Since the 1960s or 1970s most learning institutes in Finland used to have language laboratories which were used in foreign language learning as places where students listened solely to tapes where native speakers used the language in acted situations and where most tasks were multiple choice questions. In addition to basic listening comprehension tasks they might also have tasks where they were expected to react verbally to a stimuli from the tape. These tasks were highly structured and basically only one right reaction was accepted. Often students heard the model answer after their own on the tape. Each student had their own booth where they weren’t supposed to see the next person or to hear anything distracting from the world around them. All other teaching took place in a regular classroom where each student had their own desks and no communication was encouraged between students.

This phase was followed by learning institutions getting rid of their language laboratory equipment based on more recent studies on the importance of pair and group work in the language classroom. Different disciplines started to study how collaboration, group dynamics and collaborative discourse were beneficial to learning (Greeno, 2002; Sawyer, 2006). It was also thought that, for example, listening tasks cannot take place in a total silence and in the absence of any distractions, since in real life language using situations there is always extra noise around the people communicating with each other.

In the 2000s the language laboratory systems have evolved towards computer-guided multimedia systems and computers are emerging to language classrooms. First in the 1970s and 1980s artificial intelligence was seen as the answer to education problems. It soon became evident that the AI technology did not support articulation, reflection and collaboration the way the Education community was looking for. Since 1990s learning scientists have focused on computer support for collaborative learning. (Sawyer, 2006.)

The tools used in the language classroom should provide the students with meaningful input, give an environment for a meaningful interaction with the target language and elicit meaningful output. They should help the students in developing their use of cognitive strategies in learning. Multimedia defined as the use of words and pictures to present material to students can be very a beneficial tool in language learning and acquisition. (Plass & Jones, 2005.)

Second language //acquisition// is defined by Plass and Jones (2005) as meaningful interaction in the target language where the focus is on communication, and a language is acquired incidentally in the process of this communication. Second language //learning//, on the other hand, means that the focus is on formal instruction about the language. In my view a good learning environment enables both these strategies.


 * Current situation in the process and how we got there**

I am teaching English as a foreign language for students at a vocational institute. Majority of the students are between the ages of 16 and 19, and most of them are boys studying for vocational qualifications in different areas of technology. As a rule they are not very language-oriented and many have low prior knowledge of the language even though they have studied it for six years at comprehensive school. Their willingness to participate in communication conducted in English varies, but quite a few are not able to follow such communication at all nor take part in it.

When I started teaching there two years ago, I faced unwilling students who didn’t really want to be at the English teaching classroom. Many of them came there just to sit and refused to take part in the classroom activities in any way. The English teaching classroom itself was a nightmare for modern language learning based on interaction between students. It consisted of three long rows of tables where each student had their own area separated from the surroundings with walls on each side and a glass window in front of them. The rows of tables were so close together that it was very difficult for the teacher to get near students sitting in the mid-section, for example, in order to guide them with their tasks or to give feedback. The room was equipped with an about 30-year-old language laboratory system that broke down at least once a week.

In spring 2009 funding was granted to renew the language class. We decided to purchase new desks seating students as pairs to enable pair work and to spread them more widely in the classroom to allow more space for the teacher to approach the students and also to create more room between the students to avoid distraction caused by having too many talking buddies around one.

It is often difficult to get the class silent in order to, for example, listen to a listening comprehension task. Students’ abilities to do such a task are also very heterogeneous and so some may be able to answer the questions after listening to the task once while others may need to listen to it several times. Many of them also have problems with focusing their concentration, even the slightest noise gets them off the track and heads start whirling around. These were the main reasons why we didn’t want to abandon the language laboratory equipment entirely. First we were going to acquire a traditional language laboratory system, similar to the one we had before with the difference of the system guiding unit being a computer used by the teacher. This, however, didn’t seem to give us anything new and so we ended up purchasing a so-called multimedia language lab computer program that needed computers for both the teacher and the students. This would allow us to use the computers as other sorts of learning tools also besides the traditional language lab usage, i.e. for listening tasks and pair conversations.

When the process of changing the physical appearance of the classroom started, I had quite a few conversations first with the head of our institute and then with the people involved with planning and executing the required alterations in the classroom, including new electrical wiring for the computers, about how the desks should be positioned in the classroom. I had to persuade them time after time to spread the desks more loosely around the classroom instead of stuffing them in long rows as they used to be. In the process many a time a decision was made to do as I had planned, but when the next building expert appeared, the same conversation started again; it would be so much easier to draw the wiring as it was instead of drilling new cavities for it on the floors. Fortunately I finally managed to get the head of our school solidly on my side and the pedagogical aspects won.

At the moment we have the furniture and wirings as well as the computers in place and the program installed even though it is not working properly. The construction process took a lot longer than expected and the same seems to apply to the process of getting the language lab program working.


 * Notes as a basis for creating a good learning environment**

Since knowledge is build on the existing knowledge (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000; Plass & Jones, 2005; Sawyer, 2006) such an environment should be created where this would be possible. The learning environment should also encourage the students to work collaboratively to solve problems and to learn new skills. There should be room for negotiating strategies how to do the task and work actively in constructing the interaction. (Greeno, 2002.)

The environment should be a mixture of a learner-centered environment, knowledge-centered environment and an assessment centered one. In learner-centered environments learners’ prior experiences and understandings are accepted and it is assumed that these can serve as a foundation for building new understandings. In a Knowledge-centered environment instruction should begin by taking the students’ initial preconceptions about the subject matter into account. Assessment is needed to give feedback to the students which strengthens their learning and gives an opportunity to revise their thinking. (Bransford et al., 2000.) It is also very important that assessment is coherent with the learning phase. You should assess using the same approach as was used in the actual learning process, if the learning environment gives the student, for example, access to word lists and the test doesn’t that may hinder the output of knowledge in the test situation. (Plass & Jones, 2005.)

Multimedia can be a powerful tool in creating an effective and attractive learning environment for students. You can awaken the students prior knowledge by, for example, showing them a video clip that allows them to reflect upon the topic at hand and gives them a better basis for processing, for example, a new text. You can place hyperlinks to the text so the students can access additional information, such as vocabulary or other explanations helping them to understand the topic and thus providing scaffolding for the students. They may then, for example, write an essay of the topic or to give a presentation of it for their peers or engage in a conversation with a group or pair clarifying what they have learned or use the newly gained language matter in real world conversation. (Plass & Jones, 2005.)

It needs to be acknowledged, however, that multimedia itself doesn’t automatically result in better learning. Students need effective strategies to process the information and a good multimedia learning environment should guide the students towards using such strategies. The student should have the opportunity not only to find more information when needed, but also tools to arrange the information she has found building, for example, a mind map to help her to process the information in a more versatile manner. (Salovaara, 2006.)

Using technological tools, such as multimedia, may increase the cognitive strain for a student if the tool is difficult to use or, for example, there are too many possible paths to follow when figuring out how to proceed with the learning task. The environment should be controlled enough for the student not to vanish somewhere in it and open enough for the students’ thoughts to find room in it.

The learning culture in the classroom is also very important. In Japan students are used to having their mistakes discussed in class to help others see the problem and learning from other’s mistakes. (Bransford et al., 2000.) In Finnish classrooms this can be done to an extent, you can bring out students’ mistakes as basis for conversation as long as you don’t point the blaming finger, so to say, to any particular student. It would be ideal if an open forum could be created in a classroom where everyone dared to bring their thoughts and problems would be solved together.

Students bring their own culture with them to the classroom and this is evident when looking at the students in our English classroom. Almost all of them would like to listen to music from You Tube while doing their tasks on computers. Whether this is beneficial or not is problematic. On one hand if they listen to English lyrics, they may learn something from a real world context, but at the same time the music may distract them from the task at hand.

Motivating students is challenging. Students are oriented differently towards learning and since learning in an environment with technology isn’t necessarily always easy, but instead requires deep involvement from the student, it can prove to be even more challenging than in a traditional classroom, especially for students who are oriented towards avoiding work as I have to say many of our students seem to be. (Veermans & Tapola, 2006.)


 * Future challenges**

At the moment we have already one advantage compared to the situation last year; students are very eager to enter the English classroom. Unfortunately, however, they are not driven by a burning desire to learn English. Instead they are eager to use the computers for their own entertainment. The Internet is a major problem in computer classrooms. It is sometimes very difficult to keep the students interested in the task at hand instead of surfing the Internet and playing computer games. I suppose it could be argued that such activities may teach them some skills as well, but certainly not the ones defined in the curriculum.

Our new computer program has a feature that helps keeping the students on track. The teacher can take over a student’s computer when needed and can monitor what the students do on their computers. This feature, however, is not yet in full working order. Monitoring students can also be effective when giving feedback, teacher can see what is going on and guide the student using his or her computer together with the student. An interesting difference between boys and girls has already appeared. While a class of girls stated that it is actually a good thing that the teacher can monitor their doings, otherwise it would be easier to wonder off to forbidden paths, a class of boys try everything in their power to hack the system just because it is there to potentially restrict them.

A major challenge for developing the learning environment from now on is how to guide student’s learning the way described in the previous chapter and how to create appropriate tasks for them. So far I have used the Moodle course management system in creating tasks for students to the Internet. The tools available are not very versatile and most of my exercises have been made with Hot Potatoes program with which you can make clozes, crosswords, matching exercises and quizzes which are all very teacher controlled tasks. Learner can control the order in which they are done and how much help he or she requires. It is possible to give some feedback with some of the tasks, but it is automatic, not learner-specific.

It is also important to keep in mind that not everything needs to be done with a computer. Good old methods involving printed learning material and pair and group work are still as valid as ever. The students’ expectations tend to lean towards working with computers. When other kinds of tasks are done, they frequently ask, whether they will soon be allowed to turn on their computers and work with them. This can be distracting and taking their concentration away from learning.

I do believe that in order to create a better learning environment I must first change my own thinking and actions. That is a long-term process and will not take place overnight, but hopefully this EDUTOOL program will help me in it. A huge challenge is also changing the students’ attitudes and guiding them towards true collaborative learning. At vocational school students only have two courses of English during the two years they study with us. That means one period, that is to say six weeks of English 5 hours per week, during their first and second year of study. Courses are so short and intensive that bringing new approaches to learning for the students may prove to be a mission impossible, but time will tell. First key to success is undoubtedly a thorough preparation and efficient guidance in the beginning.


 * References**

 Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L. & Cocking, R. R. (Eds.) (2000). How people learn: brain, mind and school. Washington: National Academy Press.

Greeno, J.G. (2002). Learning in Activity.  In Sawyer, R. K. (Ed.) The Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences (pp.79-96). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Plass, J. & Jones, C. (2005). Multimedia learning in second language acquisition. In Mayer, R. E. (Ed.) The Cambridge handbook of multimedia learning (pp. 467-485). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Salovaara, H. (2006). Oppimisen strategiat ja teknologiaperustaiset oppimisympäristöt. In Järvelä, S., Häkkinen, P. & Lehtinen, E. (Eds.) Oppimisen teoria ja teknologian opetuskäyttö (pp. 103-120). Helsinki: WSOY.

Sawyer, R. K. (2006). Introduction. In Sawyer, R. K. (Ed.) Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences (pp. 1-16). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Veermans, M. & Tapola, A. (2006). Motivaatio ja kiinnostuneisuus. In Järvelä, S., Häkkinen, P. & Lehtinen, E. (Eds.) Oppimisen teoria ja teknologian opetuskäyttö (pp. 65-84). Helsinki: WSOY.