Spanish Courses School Blog

¿Cúal es tu teoría del aprendizaje de español? Comentarios a V.J. Cook

Elegí este artículo para publicarlo en el blog porque creo sinceramente que tanto si eres un profesor nuevo como si eres veterano deberías tenerlo siempre presente en tu trabajo diario.

Cuando eres un profesor novato sueles cometer los errores propios de la falta de experiencia y tal y como me ocurrió a mí empecé con muchas ganas e ilusión pero de una manera inconsciente aplicaba en mis clases de español e inglés principalmente la teoría denominada “cognitiva” que está basada en las reglas gramaticales y el vocabulario.

¿Por qué? Es una buena pregunta y en mi caso concreto supongo que puse en práctica lo que me habían enseñado en la universidad y sin que sirva de excusa puedo confirmar que esa teoría es la que se usaba más tanto en las clases de inglés como en las de español. La referencia cronológica aquí sería a finales de los 80 y principios de los 90.

Como es lógico, vas aprendiendo de tus errores e intentas mejorar día a día. Las consultas a otros compañeros veteranos, las lecturas de libros, artículos, trabajos de campo y tu propia experiencia acumulada consiguen que alcances un equilibrio razonable entre estas teorías que, como bien indica el artículo, por sí solas son incompletas y mi objetivo final siempre ha sido extraer los aspectos más positivos de todas ellas para aplicarlos conjuntamente en mis clases. No es tarea fácil porque no existe una teoría única y perfecta sino más bien lo contrario tal y como refleja Cook en su artículo.

A pesar de los avances conseguidos en el campo de la enseñanza de lenguas y de las TIC, todavía no existe una única teoría que responda a la difícil tarea que es la enseñanza de una segunda lengua. Si además de las varias teorías existentes añadimos el grupo meta aún se complica más nuestra tarea.
No sólo es cuestión de aplicar varias teorías para enseñar una segunda lengua sino también el conocimiento del tipo de alumnos al que van dirigidas.
Nuestra enseñanza será mucho más completa y efectiva si analizamos previamente las necesidades concretas de nuestro grupo meta. Esto nos permitirá elegir y preparar el material más adecuado para nuestros alumnos, además de usar equilibrada y eficazmente las teorías expuestas en este artículo.

Mi experiencia impartiendo clases me lo ha demostrado así y por esa razón procuro tener siempre presente este artículo y el tipo de alumnos a los que voy a enseñarles una segunda lengua. De esta forma procuro no caer en el error de relajarme y que mi trabajo sea monótono, aburrido e ineficaz.

Como conclusión final creo que un buen profesor debería siempre pensar en la forma más efectiva de enseñar a sus alumnos y esta pasa ineludiblemente por conocer muy bien sus necesidades y en base a eso podrá aplicar estas teorías de una manera útil y eficaz.

WHAT IS YOUR LEARNING THEORY?
From: V. J. Cook (1982) in M. E. T. no 1 September 1982.

Every teacher has a theory about how students learn a second language. However hard they protest they know nothing of learning theories, their every action in the classroom proclaims that they have very definite ideas about how their students are learning; in other words they have an implicit theory of which they are unaware. To find out your learning theory, go through this questionnaire and put ticks against the alternatives that are closest to your own ideas. Try to choose only one out of each four, but you can tick more than one if you feel you have to.

1) The goal of language teaching is chiefly:
a) the mental advantages of understanding a language system.
b) the ability to use language in everyday situations.
c) the ability to communicate with people.
d) the self-fulfilment of the learner’s potential.

2) What are students actually learning? It is mainly:
a) language rules?
b) habits of speaking?
e) how to communicate with people?
d) how to form relationships with people?

3) In what way are they learning? Is it chiefly by:
a) consciously understanding the language?
b) practising language till is a habit?
c) trying to communicate with people?
d) trying to form relationships with people?

4) How important are the grammatical mistakes they make?
a) Do they show they have not understood the grammar properly?
b) Do they show they have practised insufficiently or inadequately?
c) Are they symptoms of the learner’s progress?
d) Are they trivial provided the learner can build up a relationship?

5) Should anything be done about their grammatical mistakes?
a) Yes, they should be pointed out to them and their causes explained.
b) Yes, they should be corrected before they can do permanent damage.
e) No, they are just a passing phase from which the student will emerge naturally.
d) No, they are not important to the learner.

6) In the classroom I attach great importance to:
a) explaining grammatical structures clearly.
b) drilling the students.
c) making the students communicate with each other.
d) the student’s personal relationships.

7) In my classroom the students usually:
a) sit in rows facing me.
b) practise hard in groups or in the language lab.
e) perform communication tasks in small groups or pairs.
d) express their own feelings and wishes to each other.


*What’s your score?

What do these answers mean? To find out you must now add up how many answers you had that were (a), how many were (b) and so on. If you have more (a) answers than any other, you have a strong tendency towards a ‘cognitive code’ theory of learning; if more (b) answers, you believe in an ‘audiolingual’ theory; (c) answers show a strong tendency towards a ‘communicative’ theory, and (d) answers a ‘humanistic’ theory. These four labels try to capture four of the main learning theories though of course many others are possible.

*What are these four theories?

(A) COGNITIVE CODE Grammar-translation method/ Monitor model
(grammar rules and vocabulary)

(B) AUDIOLINGUAL Audiolingual method/ Structural syllabus (patterns)

(C) COMMUNICATIVE LEARNING Communicative approach/ Notional-functional syllabus
(functions)

(D) HUMANISTIC THEORY Community Language Learning/ The Silent Way/TPR
(topics)

These theories are not necessarily mutually exclusive since any classroom may contain a mixture of all four. At the moment, research about second language learning simply confirms the complexity of the process; all of these learning theories have something to be said for them, and all of them are incomplete.
The point that comes out of the research is the sheer complexity of the teaching situation. First, there are the learner’s motivations, preconceptions, mental abilities and so on — everything the learner brings with him. Then there are the strategies that the learner uses in the learning situation — how he tries to communicate, to comprehend and produce sentences, to learn the language and so on; finally there are all the teaching factors — the group size, the materials, the teaching techniques and many others. If we’re really going to find out how people learn a second language, all of these have to be taken into account.

The trouble with the four learning theories is that they only tackle particular aspects of this complex process. Cognitive code learning looks at learners of a certain type using one single strategy for language learning, that is, say, conscious understandings. Audiolingual theory concentrates on another learning strategy of mechanical habit-formation. Communicative theory looks at the communication strategies the learner uses to the exclusion of everything else. And the humanistic theory assumes that the learners have the goal of self-development.

None of them have caught the whole of second language learning; what we eventually are going to need is a far more complicated theory that will include the best aspects of all of them. Only then can we base teaching on an adequate theory of learning.

Curso de profesores de español ELE| 0 | Daniel Andújar Longán

No hay comentarios