ESCUELA DE POSTGRADO

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE EDUCACIN

ENRIQUE GUZMN Y VALLE

MASTERS PROGRAM IN ECUCATION SCIENCES

MAJOR: TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

LINGUISTICS APPLIED TO THE TEACHING OF FOREIGN

LANGUAGES

ABSTRACT
Developing thinking skills in students requires specific instruction and practice rather
than application. Students should apply their previous knowledge in order to get new
ones or strengthen them and teachers should address analysis, evaluation and
synthesis using advance organizers to encourage and help pupils to operate at higher
levels of abstraction.
Cognitive structures help students retain information in long term and subsumptions
provide them to build new concepts using basic structures.
Knowledge is organized in a hierarchical fashion. The most general ideas forming the
apex, and more particular ideas and specific details subsumed under them. Learning
occurs as potentially meaningful material enters the student's mind and interacts with
appropriate subsuming concepts. Learners who have well-organized cognitive
systems tend to efficiently retain information. On the other hand, learners who have
poorly organized cognitive systems tend to rapidly forget information.
The teacher provides appropriate advance organizers; present the new material in an
organized fashion, provides sufficient practice (drill), and guides the student through a
problem solving situation that utilizes higher order thinking skills. If the teacher is
successful applying them, so students can take the correct way to improve their
knowledge.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Ausubels contributions to learning psychology.
2. Learning Theory
2.1. Metaphor
2.2. Cognitive Structure
2.3. Hierarchy
3. Meaningful verbal learning.
3.1. Reception
3.2. Discovery
4. Advanced organizer.
4.1. Comparative organizers
4.2. Expository organizers
4.3. Progressive differentiation
5. Subsumption theory.
5.1. Correlative subsumtion
5.2. Derivative subsumption
5.3. Superordinate learning
5.4. Combinatorial learning
5.5. Anchoring
6. Retention and forgetting
6.1. Retention
6.2. Forgetting

1. Ausubels contributions to learning psychology.

Ausubel, whose theories are particularly relevant for educators, considered
neo-behaviorist views inadequate. Although he recognized other forms of
learning, his work focused on verbal learning. He dealt with the nature of
meaning, and believes the external world acquires meaning only as it is
converted into the content of consciousness by the learner.
Ausubel, D., Novak, J., & Hanesian, H. (1978) Ausubel believes that learning
of new knowledge relies on what is already known. That is, construction of
knowledge begins with our observation and recognition of events and objects
through concepts we already have. We learn by constructing a network of
concepts and adding to them. Concept map, developed by Ausubel and
Novac, is an instructional device that uses this aspect of the theory to allow
instruction of material to learners; it is a way of representing relationships
between ideas, images, or words.
Ausubel also stresses the importance of reception rather than discovery
learning, and meaningful rather than rote learning. He declares that his theory
applies only to reception learning in school settings. He didnt say, however,
that discovery learning doesnt work; but rather that it was not efficient.
2. Learning Theory
2.1.

Metaphor

Ausubel views knowledge as representing an integrated system. Ideas are

linked together in an orderly fashion. The human mind follows logical rules for
organizing information into respective categories. Mind, metaphorically, is like
a Chinese puzzle box. All the smaller boxes, ideas and concepts, are tucked
away inside of larger boxes. "Cognitive structure," Ausubel (1960) contends, "is
hierarchically organized in terms of highly inclusive concepts under which are
4

subsumed less inclusive subconcepts and informational data". Subsumption is

the central idea running through the whole of Ausubel's learning theory. The
big boxes in the mental pyramid subsume the small boxes. Subsumers
constitute the general categories around which we organize our thinking.
Subsumption allows us to absorb new information into our cognitive structures.
Teaching and learning, therefore, are largely matters of erecting cognitive
structures (scaffolding) to hold new information. By placing information into its
proper box, we are better able to retain it for future use. Similarly, forgetting
occurs when the smaller boxes (being made of less durable cognitive stuff) fall
apart and become incorporated into the larger boxes.
2.2.

Cognitive Structure

Ausubel (1963a) emphasizes the learner's cognitive structure in the acquisition

of new information. Present experience is always fitted into what the learner
already knows. "Existing cognitive structure, that is an individual's organization,
stability, and clarity of knowledge in a particular subject matter field at any
given time, is the principal factor influencing the learning and retention of
meaningful new material". A cognitive structure that is clear and well organized
facilitates the learning and retention of new information. A cognitive structure
that is confused and disorderly, on the other hand, inhibits learning and
retention learning can be enhanced by strengthening relevant aspects of
cognitive structure. Putting the mind in order is one of the principal objectives
of all education. Having a clear and well organized cognitive structure, Ausubel
(1968) believes, "is also in its own right the most significant independent
variable influencing the learner's capacity for acquiring more new knowledge in
the same field".

2.3.

Hierarchy

How is knowledge organized? Ausubel's and Robinson's (1969) theory of

learning assumes the existence of a Hierarchical structure of knowledge.
Fields of inquiry are organized like pyramids, "with the most general ideas
forming the apex, and more particular ideas and specific details subsumed
under them". The most inclusive ideas--those located at the top of the
pyramid--are the dominant and most enduring elements in the hierarchy. They
possess a longer life span in memory than do particular facts or specific
details, which fall at the base of the pyramid. "Learning occurs as potentially
meaningful material enters the cognitive field and interacts with and is
appropriately subsumed under a relevant and more inclusive conceptual
system" (Ausubel, 1963b, p. 25). Thus new information is organized under
higher level concepts already existing in the learner's mind.
3. Meaningful verbal learning
Ausubel, D. (1963). This theory focuses on meaningful learning. According to
his theory, to learn meaningfully, individuals must relate new knowledge to
relevant concepts they already know. New knowledge must interact with the
learners knowledge structure.
Meaningful learning can be contrasted with rote learning. The latter can also
incorporate new information into the pre-existing knowledge structure but
without interaction. Rote memory is used to recall sequences of objects, such
as phone numbers. However, it is of no use to the learner in understanding the
relationships between the objects.
Because meaningful learning involves recognition of the links between
concepts, it has the privilege of being transferred to long-term memory. The
most crucial element in meaningful learning is how the new information is
integrated into the old knowledge structure.

Accordingly, Ausubel believes that knowledge is hierarchically organized; that

new information is meaningful to the extent that it can be related (attached,
anchored) to what is already known.
Meaning is created through some form of representational equivalence
between language (symbols) and mental context. Two processes are involved:
3.1.

Reception

Which is employed in meaningful verbal learning? Verbal reception learning is

not necessarily antithetical to higher order thinking, though the method has
been characterized as "parrot-like recitation and rote memorization of isolated
facts" (Ausubel, 1963). The problem stems from the widespread confusion
"between reception and discovery learning, and between rote and meaningful
learning" (p. 15). Reception learning is not invariably rote; likewise, discovery
learning is not always meaningful. Either one--reception learning or discovery
learning--can be rote or meaningful. Everything depends upon how the
knowledge is treated. If the learner merely memorizes the material (even if the
conclusions have been arrived at by the discovery method), then, says
Ausubel (1961), "the learning outcomes must necessarily be rote and
meaningless". Reception learning or discovery learning may promote either
rote or meaningful consequences. One does not inherently infer the other.
3.2.

Discovery

Which is involved in concept formation and problem solving? Thus discovery

learning, just like reception learning, may be either rote or meaningful. The
whole question of rote learning versus meaningful learning depends upon
whether or not the new information is integrated into the learner's cognitive
structure.

Ausubel's work has frequently been compared with Bruner's. The two held
similar views about the hierarchical nature of knowledge, but Bruner was
strongly oriented toward discovery processes.
(J. S. Bruner, 1964) Bruner referred to these three systems of processing as
enactive, iconic, and symbolic, and defined them as follows:
Enactive representation By enactive representation I mean a mode of
representing past events through appropriate motor response
Iconic representation Iconic representation summarizes events by the
selective organization of percepts and of images, by the spatial, temporal, and
qualitative structures of the perceptual field and their transformed images.
Symbolic representation A symbolic system represents things by design
features that include remoteness and arbitrariness. A word neither points
directly to its referent here and now, nor does it resemble it as a picture.
Ausubel gave more emphasis to the verbal learning methods of speech,
reading and writing.
Supporters of discovery learning declare that this type of learning is where real
knowledge is obtained, where conservation of memory is ensured, and where
subverbal awareness is first encountered (Langford, 1989). Bruner is a leading
advocate of discovery learning and has said that the most meaningful learning
takes place when it is motivated by the students own curiosity and uncovered
by individual or group exploration.
Ausubel contends that those who stand behind discovery learning and criticize
expository teaching are missing most important point. That is, whether the
method of learning is discovery or reception does not determine the
meaningfulness of the material.

4. Advanced organizers
(Ausubel, 1963) The most controversial and noteworthy method Ausubel has
introduced is "advanced organizers." These are not merely previews of the
subject material that is to be presented. Advanced organizers are more
general, abstract concepts that will provide the great context to which the new
information can be subsumed and anchored. For example, before introducing
a lesson on brown bears a teacher might have her students read a history and
geography of Admiralty Island. By providing this advanced organizer, students
may have a better chance of organizing the information regarding the brown
bears habitat, territorial patterns, and nutrition.
These organizers are introduced in advance of learning itself, and are also
presented at a higher level of abstraction, generality, and inclusiveness; and
since the substantive content of a given organizer or series of organizers is
selected on the basis of its suitability for explaining, integrating, and
interrelating the material they precede, this strategy simultaneously satisfies
the substantive as well as the programming criteria for enhancing the
organization strength of cognitive structure.
(Fitzgerald, 1962) Advance organizers are believed to have different results for
good versus slow learners. Because most good learners already have the
ability to organize new information, the organizers have little additional effect.
But for slow learners, Ausubel and Fitzgerald believe that organizers are
extremely helpful as this group of students needs additional help structuring
their thinking.
Organizers are not to be confused with introductory remarks or brief overviews,
which are "typically written at the same level of abstraction, generality, and
inclusiveness as the learning material". Organizers are abstract ideas
presented in advance of the lesson. They represent a higher level of
abstraction, generality, and inclusiveness than the new material. Ausubel
(1960) believes organizers can be used to assist learners in assimilating new

information. Organizers help to bridge the gap between what is already known
and what is to be learned. "The learning and retention of unfamiliar but
meaningful verbal material can be facilitated by the advance introduction of
relevant subsuming concepts". Organizers are particularly useful when
learners do not already possess the relevant concepts needed in order to
integrate new information into their cognitive systems.
4.1.

Comparative Organizers

Comparative organizers activate existing schemas and are used as reminders

to bring into the working memory of what you may not realize are relevant. A
comparative organizer is also used both to integrate as well as to discriminate.
It integrates new ideas with basically similar concepts in cognitive structure, as
well as increase[s] discriminability between new and existing ideas which are
essentially different but confusable similar Ausubel, 1968.
4.2.

Expository Organizers

Expository organizers are often used when the new learning material is
unfamiliar to the learner. They often relate what the learner already knows with
the new and unfamiliar material. This in turn is aimed to make the unfamiliar
material more plausible to the learner.
4.3.

Progressive differentiation

According to Ausubel, the purpose of progressive differentiation is to increase

the stability and clarity of anchoring ideas. The basic idea here is that, if you're
teaching three related topics A, B, and C, rather than teaching all of topic A,
then going on to B, etc., you would take a spiral approach. That is, in your first
pass through the material, you would teach the "big" ideas (i.e., those highest
in the hierarchy) in all three topics, and then on successive passes you would

10

begin to elaborate the details. Along the way you would point out principles
that the three topics had in common, and things that differentiated them."
5. Subsumption theory
Ausubel's theory is concerned with how individuals learn large amounts of
meaningful material from verbal/textual presentations in a school setting (in
contrast to theories developed in the context of laboratory experiments).
According to Ausubel, learning is based upon the kinds of superordinate,
representational, and combinatorial processes that occur during the reception
of information. A primary process in learning is subsumption in which new
material is related to relevant ideas in the existing cognitive structure on a
substantive, non-verbatim basis. Cognitive structures represent the residue of
all learning experiences; forgetting occurs because certain details get
integrated and lose their individual identity.
Ausubel's (1960) learning theory is built around the concept of subsumption.
(In his later writings, he came to prefer the word "assimilation.") When a new
idea enters consciousness it is processed and classified under one or more of
the inclusive concepts already existing in the learner's cognitive structure.
(Little boxes, metaphorically, art into bigger boxes.) "New meaningful material
becomes incorporated into cognitive structure in so far as it is subsumable
under relevant existing concepts". Subsumers provide a basic structure around
which information is organized. They are the intellectual linchpins holding the
system together. "Subsumption," Ausubel (1962) inform us, "may be described
as facilitation of both learning and retention".
To subsume is to incorporate new material into one's cognitive structures.
From Ausubel's perspective, this is the meaning of learning. When information
is subsumed into the learner's cognitive structure it is organized hierarchically.
New material can be subsumed in two different ways, and for both of these, no
meaningful learning takes place unless a stable cognitive structure exists. This
existing structure provides a framework into which the new learning is related,

11

hierarchically, to the previous information or concepts in the individual's

cognitive structure.
When one encounters completely new unfamiliar material, then rote learning,
as opposed to meaningful learning, takes place. This rote learning may
eventually contribute to the construction of a new cognitive structure which can
later be used in meaningful learning. The two types of subsumption are:
5.1.

Correlative subsumption

New material is an extension or elaboration of what is already known.

5.2.

Derivative subsumption

New material or relationships can be derived from the existing structure.

Information can be moved in the hierarchy, or linked to other concepts or
information to create new interpretations or meaning. From this type of
subsumption, completely new concepts can emerge, and previous concepts
can be changed or expanded to include more of the previously existing
information. This is "figuring out".
Ausubel is a proponent of didactic, expository teaching methods. From this
perspective, expository (verbal) learning approaches encourage rapid learning
and retention, whereas discovery learning (Bruner) facilitates transfer to other
contexts.
5.3.

Superordinate learning

In this case, the pupil already knew a lot of examples of the concept, but
he/she did not know the concept itself until it was taught to them. Imagine that I
was well acquainted with maples, oaks, apple trees, etc., but I did not know,
until I was taught, that these were all examples of deciduous trees. In this

12

case, I already knew a lot of examples of the concept, but I did not know the
concept itself until it was taught to me. This is superordinate learning.
5.4.

Combinatorial learning

The first three learning processes all involve new information that "attaches" to
a hierarchy at a level that is either below or above previously acquired
knowledge. Combinatorial learning is different; it describes a process by which
the new idea is derived from another idea that is neither higher nor lower in the
hierarchy, but at the same level (in a different, but related, "branch"). You could
think of this as learning by analogy. For example, to teach someone about
pollination in plants, you might relate it to previously acquired knowledge of
how fish eggs are fertilized.
5.5.

Anchoring

The major concepts (subsumers) in cognitive structure act as anchoring posts

for new information. The availability of anchoring ideas facilitates meaningful
learning. Antecedent learning usually performs this function. "If this ideational
scaffolding is clear, stable, and well organized," Ausubel and Fitzgerald (1962)
assert, "it is reasonable to suppose that it provides better anchorage for new
learning and retention than if it is unclear, unstable, and poorly organized". The
cognitive stability provided by anchoring ideas helps to explain why meaningful
learning is retained longer than rote learning. Meaningful learning is a chored;
rote learning, is not.
A major instructional mechanism proposed by Ausubel is the use of advance
organizers. Ausubel emphasizes that advance organizers are different from
overviews and summaries which simply emphasize key ideas and are
presented at the same level of abstraction and generality as the rest to the
material. Organizers help to link new learning material with existing related
ideas. Ausubel indicates that his theory applies only to reception (expository)

13

learning in school settings; he distinguishes reception learning from rote and

discovery learning.
6. Retention and forgetting
6.1.

Retention

What is the best way of improving the retention of information once it has been
learned? Ausubel's (1962) views of retention are linked to his larger theory of
subsumption. Subsumers, anchoring ideas, help to facilitate learning and
retention. Retention is influenced by three factors: "the availability in cognitive
structure of relevant subsuming concepts at an appropriate level of
inclusiveness; (b) the stability and clarity of these concepts; and their
discriminability from the learning task". Learners who possess well organized
cognitive structures tend to retain information effectively. Conversely, learners
who have poorly organized cognitive systems tend to forget information rapidly.
"`rhus," concludes Ausubel (1968), "it is largely by strengthening relevant
aspects of cognitive structure that new learning and retention can be
facilitated". One way of improving retention is to introduce appropriate
subsumers prior to presenting the new lesson.
6.2.

Forgetting

Why do we forget information we labored so painstakingly to learn? Ausubel's

answer lies in his theory of subsumption. Just as subsumption explains how
information is retained, so it also explains why forgetting occurs. New
information is stored when it becomes anchored to a larger subsuming
concept. Reciprocally, this same information is forgotten as it becomes
progressively absorbed into its cognitive host. Forgetting is complete when the
information can no longer be separated from its subsuming concept. Ausubel
(1963) refers to this process as "obliterative subsumption." When the
"obliterative stage of subsumption begins, the specific items become

14

progressively less dissociable as entities in their own right until they are no
longer available and are said to be forgotten" (Forgetting is complete, says
Ausubel (1968), when the new information is "reduced to the least common
denominator capable of representing it, namely, to the anchoring idea itself".

REFERENCES
ARTICLES
15

1. Ausubel D. (1963). The psychology of meaningful verbal learning.

2. Ausubel (1978) Educational psychology
3. Ausubel, D. (1960). The use of advance organizers in the learning and
retention of meaningful verbal material.
4. Ausubel, D. (1968). Educational psychology: A cognitive view.
5. Ausubel, D. P. (1962). A subsumption theory of meaningful verbal learning and
retention.
6. D., Novak, J., & Hanesian, H. (1978)
7. J. S. Bruner (1964)
8. Langford (1989) Educational Psychology: An Australian Perspective.
WEB LINKS
1. http://www.lifecircles-inc.com/Learningtheories/constructivism/ausubel.html
2. http://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/subsumption-theory.html
3. http://ww2.coastal.edu/dsmith/edet720/ausubelref.htm
4. http://theoryfundamentals.com/ausubel.htm
5. http://ocw.utm.my/file.php/21/6._Ausubel_Deductive_Theory.pdf
6. http://itls.usu.edu/~mimi/courses/6260/theorists/Ausubel/aususc.html

PERSONAL APPRAISAL
I would like to star with this Ausubel thought:

16

The most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already
knows. Ascertain this and teach him accordingly (Ausubel, 1968)
I agree with Ausubel because is very important what learners have as previous
knowledge in order that they can improve the information they acquired during their
lives.
David Ausebel mentions that the knowledge that the student has in its cognitive
structure related to the topic learned is the most important factor for optimal learning.
Another important factor is the preconceptions (spontaneous knowledge of
something) they can determine the success or failure in learning; the preconceptions
are rooted in the cognitive structure.
Students learn by meaningful learning. It means that pupils incorporate new
information to the cognitive structure of the student. This will create assimilation
between the knowledge that the individual possesses in its cognitive structure with
the new information, so this facilitates learning.
The knowledge is not as well as in the mental structure, it has taken a process
because in the learners mind there is an organizational network of ideas, concepts,
relationships, information, linked between. And when it reaches new information, this
can be assimilated to the existing conceptual structure, which, however, will be
modified as a result of the assimilation process.
A major instructional mechanism proposed by Ausubel is the use of advance
organizers. Ausubel emphasizes that advance organizers are different from
overviews and summaries which simply emphasize key ideas and are presented at
the same level of abstraction and generality as the rest to the material. Organizers
help to link new learning material with existing related ideas.
A primary process in learning is subsumption in which new material is related to
relevant ideas in the existing cognitive structure on a non-verbatim basis. Meaningful
learning results when new information is acquired by linking the new information in
the learner's own cognitive structure.

17

In conclusion, learners should use their previous knowledge to gat new ones, but they
need to focus on what they are learning and how because sometimes students can
store information in short term or long term, this depends on students attention and if
they like what they will learn. Teachers play an important role in students learning
because they have to use materials, realia, and cognitive resources to help them and
facilitate learning. Ausubels theory focus on learning by linking experiences and new
information that students can acquire during life.

18