Article today
TITLE: AN EXAMINATION OF THE POSSIBLE BENEFITS
OF TWO BRAIN-COMPATIBLE STRATEGIES FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING IN CHANCO,
CHILE*
Jorge Correa Rodríguez **
Mauricio Véliz Campos ***
* Autor: Chileno, Magíster en Enseñanza de Inglés como Lengua Extranjera. Universidad Andrés Bello, Concepción-Chile. jorgecorrear@hotmail.com
***Coautor: Chileno, Dr. TESOL and
Education. Universidad Católica Silva
Henríquez y UNAB.
mveliz@ucsh.cl
mveliz@ucsh.cl
Introduction
Since prehistoric times, human beings have
felt the need to confide with their peers, looking mainly for security, support
and emotional attachment, motivated for just one reason, to survive. Besides,
human beings had the need to move from one place to another to escape from
dangers threatening their survival. It is therefore possible to think that
physical movement has been a significant part of our history and evolution.
Movement keeps us alert.Let’s take the above into practice and into our
teaching reality: the classroom. In some classes, for various internal,
external, environmental and student-related factors, only some of these natural
survival instincts mentioned above are implemented and encouraged in the
learning process. Conversely, it is common to observe students listening
passively to the teacher, seated for over an hour, unable to move and forced to
pay attention for more than 20 minutes.
After reflecting upon these factors that
affect or facilitate learning in the classroom, it would be a good self-analysis
exercise of our teaching practices to be able to imagine one-moment learning as
a real ‘threat’ to the survival of our students. Thus, it would not be strange
to think that the instinctive search for help and protection in others to
survive would be the only natural and biologically accepted way in our brain to
cope with this threat. It is for this reason that we as teachers should reflect
on the real and positive effectiveness of peer learning, inclusion of physical
movement and the role of attention span on the basis of a survival-based
assumption.
Context of the study
This research aims to examine the possible
benefits that brain-based compatible strategies have in two groups of students
from a public High School in Chanco, a small seaside town in the Maule region
of Chile, when learning English as a foreign language.
Brain-compatible
Learning
In order to illustrate that
brain-compatible learning is not necessarily a new trend or a set of
strategies, a brief historical description is presented as follows.
In 1862, Broca found real evidence to
connect language learning with specific areas of the brain, (LePointe, 2012).
Years later, Wernicke was also able to find supplementary evidence linking
language learning to the brain. These results showed that specific parts of the
brain have specific functions linked to language learning. All these results
led to the brain lateralization theory, which has been significant for the
relevant field over the last 30 years.
In 1983, Hart dubbed the brain as ‘the
organ of learning’. It was one of the first steps to focus learning research on
the biological processes the brain engages in when learning new information, in
this case learning a second language. The relevance of this statement is that
the brain, as any organ, has physical processes that can be enhanced by setting
the proper conditions when learning anything.
If educators teach their students, they
are making changes in their students’ brains. Therefore, it would not be
strange to think that educators need to be aware of the new findings
neuroscience can provide in order to make learning in students more appropriate
and natural for them.
According to Caine & Caine (1994),
‘Although all learning is brain based in some sense, to us brain based learning
involves acknowledging the brain’s rules for meaningful learning and organizing
teaching with those rules in mind. That is when we are teaching to the human
brain’ (p.4). The authors imply that
educators need to know more about how the brain processes information inside
the learner’s brain. If they do it, then, educators will be facilitating
learning.
Jensen (2008) claims that ‘brain-based
education is the engagement of strategies based on principles derived from an
understanding of the brain’ (p.4). The author stresses the importance of
managing brain learning processing information when planning teaching to
improve learning. On the other hand, Zull (2002) advocates for ‘(…) creating
conditions that lead to change in a learner’s brain. We can’t get inside and
rewire a brain, but we can arrange things so that it gets rewired.’
He goes on to say that ‘if we are skilled,
we can set up conditions that favor this rewiring, and we can create an
environment that nurtures it’ (p.5). Thus, the aim of this research is to
examine two variables that might influence learning, to promote a more natural
way of acquiring information. These two definitions can be summarized as
follows: When learning, teachers need to promote and use strategies in the
classrooms by setting the right and natural conditions the brain needs for
learning.
Methodological framework
In order to establish the possible effects
that the inclusion of physical movement and attention-span have when learning
English, a quasi-experimental design was selected. This methodology is
understood as the research method which lacks the random assignment of the
participants of the study compared to the experimental method.
According to Cohen and Manion (2007), ‘the
field or quasi-experiment in
the natural setting rather than the laboratory, but where variables are
isolated, controlled and manipulated’ (p. 274). In this case, an English
classroom is the setting in which this research is conducted.
Thus, this
quasi-experimental study was designed as pre and post-test control group model.
In order to maintain a reasonable level of objectivity the experimental and
control groups were selected keeping in mind that they need to share similar
characteristics in relation to age, context, level of English and gender.
One group of
students is defined as the experimental group and the other as the control
group. Both classes are tested using pre and post-tests before and after the
experiment.
A quantitative
approach is used as a way of gathering the information. It is considered more
appropriate because of the experimental nature of this research. The researcher
will compare two similar groups using an independent variable to test its
impact on a dependent variable.
The treatment
As explained
earlier, two similar groups of students are part of this study. During the
research process, the experimental group is treated with a brain-compatible
learning approach, while the control group is given a traditional
teacher-centered teaching approach with a great deal of teacher talking time.
In order to establish whether the use of physical movement and the role of
attention-span theory a pre and post-test format was administered.
The pre-test
was applied before the intervention began, after which came the treatment proper,
which spanned two weeks after which a post-test, containing exactly the same
tests items, was applied.
The aim of this
research is to compare the results from the post-test, which includes the
contents covered in the classes learners received during the time the
experiment was conducted. The control group is taught using to a traditional
teaching approach, mainly teacher-led.
The
experimental group received a brain-compatible approach of learning, in which
micro-classes of 15 minutes are presented to the students; the same content in
both groups was selected to be taught in order to isolate the variables as much
as possible in the experiment.
Apart from the
micro-classes, learners are instructed through the use of gestures or mimicry,
including physical movement within the class.
Movement was included through the implementation of some ‘power teaching’ strategies. These
strategies were taught during the first semester to the students.
Micro classes
have a five minute break to re-start the students’ attention-span. The idea is
to facilitate the brain’s processes that promote the acquisition and
consolidation of knowledge acquisition.
The time allocated to present the unit is
eight hours. Each group has four hours of 90 minutes a week, divided in two
hours a day. The specific procedure implemented is described below.
Limitations
This research
encountered some limitations that are briefly outlined below:
Time: This
research was carried out during the second semester, specifically in November, which
is why the researcher had to apply the treatment only in two weeks as the
academic year was almost over, which may have had an impact on students’ level
of engagement.
This is the
first year the main researcher taught the students; he met them only the first
semester of this year as students came from two different primary schools in
Chanco. In such primary schools students did not have specialized EFL teachers.
The research
was halted for one week during the experiment due to various extra-curricular
activities the school had and the presidential elections. During that week only
the experimental group received two hours of treatment.
Results
Pre-tests Results
The pre-test was applied before the intervention was
performed in both groups. The main objective was to identify the actual level
of knowledge students had in relation to the teaching point taught before both
brain-compatible strategies were implemented in the experimental group.
The results in both groups showed that most of the
students were not able to identify past continuous structures, namely how to
use operators was and were with the corresponding pronoun or
subject, the (-ing) ending in verbs,
how to transform sentences into negative, interrogative or affirmative forms.
Post-tests Results
The results of the post-test are presented in the same
way the pre-test. The post-test was applied after the intervention was
performed in both groups.
The main objective was to identify how much learning
had taken place throughout the unit after brain-compatible strategies were
implemented in the experimental group.
The results in the experimental group showed that most
of the students were able to identify past continuous structures, namely how to
use the operators was and were with the corresponding pronoun, the ing ending in verbs; how to transform
sentences into negative or affirmative in the above mentioned tense.
In the reading section most of the students were able
to answer the questions; as well, in the listening part, most of them answered
correctly. In the control group most of them were not able to recognize these
structures and had difficulty dealing with the skills, specifically listening.
The results showed that most of the students obtained
a score over 4.0 in the experimental group. These results are presented below,
wherein a comparison between both groups is made.
It is important to mention that three students were
absent during the application of the post-test: Two students from the
experimental group and one student from the control group.
Do
brain-compatible learning strategies improve the learning of a foreign
language?
After analyzing the results in both groups
it can be observed that in the experimental group most of the students obtained
a score over a 4.0 (equivalent to the pass mark in Chile, on a scale of 1.0 to
7.0), while in the control group fewer students obtained a score over a
4.0.
As shown earlier in Table 9, the results
illustrate that it is possible to think that brain compatible learning
strategies improve the learning of a foreign language.
At this point, it would be reasonable to
explain that the researcher is aware that these two brain-compatible learning procedures
produce an observable effect on the experimental group but it is unknown which
of the two variables specifically improved learning more significantly, or
whether it was a mixture of them that enhanced learning in students from the
experimental group.
Does the inclusion of physical movement improve the learning of a foreign
language?
After analyzing the results in the
post-tests in both groups, it is possible to observe that there is an evident
improvement in the scores in the experimental group. It is therefore reasonable
to argue that the inclusion of physical movement to improve the learning of a
foreign language does occur.
On the other hand, in the control group,
in which the students did not have the presence of this variable, fewer
students got high scores.
Graph 7 shows the results in which it can
be observed that the inclusion of physical movement improves the learning of a
foreign language. On the contrary, in the control group the mean scores were lower;
the absence of this variable in that group might have led to those results.
Does
attention-span relate to learning efficiency in first year secondary students
learning a foreign language?
The relationship between the
attention-span and learning efficiency can be observed in the experimental
group wherein the mean scores were higher and the standard deviation was lower,
in stark contrast with the control group. It can be inferred that there is a
connection between this specific variable and the learning of a foreign
language. Once again, it is unknown if the specific impact of this variable
really affected the learning of a foreign language or if it was just the
mixture of both variables.
Conclusions
At the end of the study and after analyzing the
results the researchers are able to observe that the results showed some
interesting findings. It is possible to think that there is a positive and
effective relationship between the two variables selected for this study: The
inclusion of physical movement and the role of attention-span when learning a
foreign language in high schools students.
It would be also advisable to conduct new research
using other brain compatible strategies such as sleep effects, foods, emotions,
social brain, to name some.
This research is a quantitative study; nevertheless it
was observed that students from the experimental group showed higher levels of
commitment and participation in classes, qualitative features that are not
accounted for in the present investigation. For further research, a qualitative
intervention should be advisable to be included in order to identify student’s
impression and feelings towards the implementation of these brain-compatible
strategies in the experimental group and also to get information about
student’s perceptions within the control group.
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