1、Psychology for Language Teachers:A Social Constructivist ApproachInstructor:Cui LinTime:Fall of 2010Description of the CourseThis course aims to provide those majors of English education(English teachers,would-be English teachers including postgraduate students)with a psychological foundation which
2、will help them better understand ways of teaching and learning and which will provide a fund of knowledge from which to draw to inform their later classroom practices.The primary purpose of this course is to reflect the current theoretical development in pedagogy related to classroom learning,especi
3、ally the psychological aspects of language learning and teaching.Based on a quick review of some of the precursors in pedagogical theorization,we will examine social constructivism whose main assumption is that individuals are actively involved right from birth in constructing personal meaning,that
4、is,their own personal understanding,from their experiences.This is done,however,through interactions with significant others.In this way,the learner is brought into the central focus in learning theories as well as in the classroom.Currently,social constructivism is the single most important theory
5、that informs not only EFL but also education in general.This course is not only about English teaching;rather,it aims at raising teachers(or would-be teachers)consciousness about the differences between teaching and education,developing their critical thinking,making them reflect on the current situ
6、ation of EFL in China,and encouraging them to explore possible remedies for the problems.It is hoped that the insights provided by this course will shed light on many of the issues and questions that we have about the current quality education in China.ContentsIntroductionChapter 1 An introduction t
7、o educational psychology:behaviorism and cognitive psychologyChapter 2 Further schools of thought in psychology:humanism and social interactionismChapter 3 What do teachers bring to the teaching-learning process?Chapter 4 What can teachers do to promote learning?Chapter 5 The contribution of the ind
8、ividual student to the learning processChapter 6 What makes a person want to learn?Motivation in language learningChapter 7 How does the leaner deal with the process of learning?Chapter 8 The place of tasks in the language classroomChapter 9 The learning contextChapter 10 Putting it all togetherOver
9、view of the BookChapter 1 and 2Get a birds view of some important theories of educational psychology,selectively introduces behaviorism,cognitive psychology,constructivism and social interactionism,and finally social constructivism.Chapter 3 and 4About the teacher,teacher belief sand the role of med
10、iatorChapter 5,6 and 7About the learner,influence of individual differences,motivation and strategyChapter 8 About the task,which is the interface between the teacher and the learnerChapter 9About the context,physical condition,interpersonal interaction and psychological atmosphere,laying emphasis o
11、n the individual learners feeling and understanding of the environmental factors.Chapter 10A summary.About 10 points which can be taken as valuable advices for language teachers.IntroductionPurpose:Explore the way of applying the contemporary theories of psychology to foreign language teachingThese
12、psychological theories:behaviorism,cognitive psychology,constructivism,humanism,social interactionismHumanism:Reflects learners personal feeling and personal needs;emphasizes the point that learning must have personal meaning;also holds the view of whole-person education(both affective and cognitive
13、).Constructivism:Emphasizes that individual learners starts with personal experiences,and then construct their own understanding of the world and construction of their personal meanings,stresses learning process,and objects to simple transmission of knowledge.Social Interactionism:Emphasizes that le
14、arning and personal development takes place in the interaction with other people,and the teacher is an important interactional object of the learner.Social Constructivism:Integration and interpretation of the above theories.Here:“Social”is used in its narrow sense.i.e.the relationship between people
15、 and a group.It is no longer concerned with politics and economy.Gist of Social Constructivism:Knowledge is constructed by individual person,rather than passed on by other people;The construction takes place in the interaction with other people,and it is the result of social interaction.This model e
16、stablishes its four essential elements:learner,teacher,task,context.Learner-centerTeacher-mediatorTask&context-external environmentThe four elements correlate and interact with each other a dynamic way.The theory also absorbs the gist of humanism,laying special emphasis on learners whole-person educ
17、ation.That is,besides cognitive development,there is also the development of learners competence characterized by meta-cognitive features,positive concept and personal character.Pedagogical Implications1.More emphases are laid on the subjectivity of learners,and the teacher should provide process an
18、d experience for the learners to conduct the construction of personal meaning.2.Besides providing process and experience,the teacher plays the role of a mediator,guiding them in the appropriate response to the meaningful stimuli,helping them understand the significance and goal of the task,promoting
19、 them to take shape their own consciousness of self-control,self-confidence and provides them with favorable psychological environment,etc.3.All these are done through the use of language.The challenge the teacher is faced with is that,he should not be satisfied with the routine classroom expression
20、,he should also learn to use language to realize the function of mediation.4.Foreign language teaching must have education value,must make learning process full of personal meaning.Communicative approach makes us understand“information gap”,and we learn to do“meaningful practices”.However,what kind
21、of information and meaning are of value to the learner?The book tells us that,it must be relatedto the learners personal experiences and the present situation.,which requires foreign language teachers to learn to understand learners individualities,uniqueness,their personal traits and needs.5.The ed
22、ucational value of foreign language teaching also lies in the promotion of learners whole-person education.i.e.besides language learning itself,there are also the development of learning aptitude,positive affective factor and noble character.6.Teachers own learning-Social constructivism also applies
23、 to the interpretation of teachers cognitive process.In his own experience of teaching,his own understanding(knowledge)and belief of learning and teaching takes shape,on the basis of which his own teaching practice is guided.This book advocates teachers reflection on his own teaching practice,making
24、 those implicit personal beliefs embedded in teaching practice explicit,so that he will have a clear picture and a conscious knowledge of his own teaching and the importance of making modifications.As a result,teachers professional development is promoted.Chapter 1 Behaviorism and cognitive psycholo
25、gynThe positivist schoolnPremiseknowledge and facts exist within the real world and can be discovered by setting up experiments in which conditions are carefully controlled and where hypotheses are set up and tested.BehaviorismnRooted in positivismnS-R/classical conditioningnSkinner:Emphasize the im
26、portance of reinforcementExplain learning in terms of operant conditioningnAudiolingual methodCognitive psychologynInformation processing(attention,perception,memory)nMemory(short-term/working memory,long-term memory;Tulving,episodic/semantic memory)nIntelligence(Gardner MIT)MIT and its implications
27、nLinguisticnLogical-mathematicalnSpatialnInterpersonalnIntrapersonalnMusicalnBodily-kinestheticnNaturalisticnexistentialConstructivismnPiagetnEmphasize the constructive nature of human learning processnIndividuals are actively involved right from birth in constructing personal meaningnStages:Sensori
28、-motor stageIntuitive/preoperational stageOperational stageConcrete operational stageFormal operational stageOther termsnMaturationnEquilibrationnAssimilation/accommodationnAdaptationJerome BrunnernDiscovery learningnEducation of the whole personnLearn how to learnn3 modes of thinking:enactive,iconi
29、c,symbolicGeorge KellynPersonal-construct theorynpremise:man as scientistnImportant implication:meaningful vs meaningless learningChapter 2 Humanism and Social interactionismnErik EriksonnEpigenetic principlen8 stages:Trust/mistrustAutonomy/doubtInitiative/guiltIndustry/inferiorityIdentity/role conf
30、usionIntimacy/sense of isolationGeneravity/sense of stagnationIntegrity/despairAbraham MaslownHierarchy of human needs:nBeing needs:self-actualizationaesthetic needscognitive needsnDeficiency needs:need for self-esteemneed for interpersonal closenessneed for safety and securitybasic physiological ne
31、edsCarl RogersnPremise:Human beings have a natural potential for learning.Significant learning will only take place when the subject matter is perceived to be of personal relevance to the learner and when it involves active participation by the learner.Learning which is self-initiated and which invo
32、lves feelings as well as cognition is most likely to be lasting and pervasive.nWhen there is a perceived threat to the learners self-image,resistance to learning is likely to occur.nIndependence,creativity and self-reliance are most likely to flourish in learning situations where external criticism
33、is kept to a minimum and where self-evaluation is encouraged.nThe most socially useful kind of learning to prepare learners to cope with the demands of the modern world is learning about the process of learning itself,a continuing openness to experience and a preparedness to become involved in the p
34、rocess of change.Humanism in ELTnThe Silent WaynSuggestopaedianCommunity Language LearningAll the three methods have their theoretical foundation in psychology rather than linguistics.Social interactionismnLev VygotskyThought and Language(1962)Mind in Society(1978)nMediationnZone of Proximal Develop
35、ment(ZPD)-the layer of skill or knowledge which is just beyond that with which the learner is currently capable of coping.nReuven Feuerstein nAnyone can become a fully effective learnernStructural cognitive modifiabilitynInstrumental enrichmentnCognitive mapA Social Constructivist ModelnFour key fac
36、tors involved in the learning process-teachers,learners,tasks and contextsnTheir relationship-teachers select tasks which reflect their beliefs about teaching and learning.Learners interpret tasks in ways that are meaningful and personal to them as individuals.The task is the interface between the t
37、eacher and learners.Teachers and learners also interact with each other;nthe way that teachers behave in classrooms reflects their values and beliefs,and the way in which learners react to teachers will be affected by the individual characteristics of the learners and the feelings that the teacher c
38、onveys to them.These three elements:teacher,task and learner are in this way a dynamic equilibrium.nMoreover,the context in which the learning takes place will play an important part in shaping what happens within it.This includes the emotional environment,the physical environment,the whole school e
39、thos,the wider social environment,the political environment and the cultural setting.This can be represented as a set of concentric circles,influencing each other,with the participants playing an ongoing part in shaping those environments.Chapter 3 What do teachers bring to the teaching-learning pro
40、cess?nA constructivist view of education:n1 to empower learners to think for themselvesn2 to perpetuate in the next generation ways of acting and thinking that are judged the best by the present generationnIn Glaserfelds view,a constructivist approach to education is best put into practice by presen
41、ting issues,concepts and tasks in the form of problems to be explored in dialogue rather than as information to be ingested and reproduced.nA constructivist view of teaching:nBy SalmonnNot as the passing on of a parcel of objective knowledge,but as the attempt to share what you yourself find persona
42、lly meaningful.nConstructivist approach emphasizes that fact that no two teachers and no two teaching situations are ever the same.And an important component of a constructivist approach to education is for teachers to become aware of what their own beliefs and views of the world are,which leas us i
43、nto the notion of the reflective practitioner.The teacher as reflective practitionernTeachers subject their everyday professional practice to ongoing critical reflection and make clear their own particular world view by means of such consideration.nThe task of the reflective practitioner is to make
44、tacit or implicit knowledge explicit by reflection on action,by constantly generating questions and checking our emerging theories with both personal past experience and with the reflections of others.nSchons distinction between reflection-in-action and reflection-on actionTeachers beliefsnBeliefs a
45、bout learnersnBeliefs about learningnBeliefs about themselvesnBeliefs about teachingChapter 4What can teachers do to promote learning?nFeuersteins theory of mediationnDifferences between teacher as mediator and teacher as disseminator of information-n 1 Mediation must be concerned with empowering,wi
46、th helping learners to acquire the knowledge,skills and strategies they will need in order to progress,to learn more,to tackle problems,to function effectively in a particular culture and a changing society,and to meet new,emerging and unpredictable demands.n2 It is also concerned with helping learn
47、ers to become autonomous,to take control of their own learning,with the fundamental aim of enabling them to become independent thinkers and problem solvers.Key features of mediationnSignificancenPurpose beyond the here and nownShared intentionnA sense of competencenControl of own behaviornGoal-setti
48、ngnChallengenAwareness of changenA belief in positive outcomesnSharingnIndividualitynA sense of belongingChapter 5The contribution of the individual students to the learning processnProblems with the traditional notion of individual differences:nTraditional research on individual differences has bee
49、n mainly concerned with measuring,labeling and grouping people.nThe purpose of such research is usually not to identify how individuals differ but to group them according to perceived similarities.nThe findings have been of limited practical value because they do not inform us how we can help any in
50、dividual to become a more effective learner.nIn many instances they do not even help us to improve the functioning of the groups that are identified by the research.nResearch in this area is often based on a theory of learning which views peoples behavior as being heavily influenced by certain trait
