THE LANGUAGE

LEARNING PROCESS
Some guidelines
Learning
Formal
Informal

Activity N 1
Think about your experience of learning English. How did you
learn? What effect did your English teachers and the way they
taught have on you? Have your experiences as a language
learner will affect your teaching? If so, in what way?
Learners
Learners can be passive or active
Active learners develop positive habits that allow them to
learn more quickly and effciently. For example, they:
Use new language inside and outside the classroom
Use study techniques
Look for the best way to find out what new words and
expressions mean.
Notice and analyze new language and incorporate it into the
language they use.
Monitor their own language and self-correct where necessary.



Activity N2
Look at the text below and decide what the invented words in
italics mean:

Since it was hot John took oof his thick blaggar as soon as he
came into the house. He switched on the kettle to make
himself a cup of hot cofty. He put on his homeyshoes and took
his cofty into the living roomwhere he settled down in his
bestingest armchair. He breathed a fuff of relief. It had been a
long and dirky day.
Teachers
Teachers are responsible for a large amount of waht happens
in the classroom:
What is taught
Resources used
Type and order of activities
Classroom management
Assessment
Feedback
Correction
Encourage learners to take responsibility for their own
learning and become active learners
Scaffolding
Structured support
The teacher supports the efforts of the learner, guiding them
in the right direction, until the knowledge and understanding
they have built is strong enough for the scaffolding to be
taken away.

How?
Breaking down the learning task into manageable stages.
Designing activities that build on previous activities
Helping learners see how the previous knowledge is useful to
make snse of the new knowledge.
Deciding when learners are ready to move on to the next
stage.
Activity N3
See the example provided and discuss it with your partner.
What is the teacher doing? How effective teachers scaffolding
is? Would you add anything? Would you do it differently?
What is language?
What is Language?

Language, the principle means used by human beings to
communicate with one another. Language is primarily spoken,
although it can be transferred to other media, such as writing.

The language learning process can be divided into five stages:
input
noticing
recognizing patterns and rule making
use and rule modification
automating

INPUT
INPUT is all the target language that a learner is exposed to,
both spoken and written, inside and outside of the classroom,
formal or informal.
examples: teacher, friends, newspapers, tv programmes, the
internet, etc.
NOTICING
Learners will NOTICE only some of the language they are
exposed to. Some of this will already know and some may be
knew. What the learner may notice is a gap in their learning,
or its is going to be brought by the teacher.
example: making plurals
RECOGNIZING PATTERNS AND
RULE MAKING
The learners start to notice that there is a pattern to follow
and start TO DEVELOP A RULE to themselves. For example
verbs ending in ed refer to things that happen in the past
the teacher might also tell the learners the rule and then give
a chance to use it in a writing or speaking activity, for example,
telling a short story.
USE RULE AND
MODIFICATION
The individual learner, having generated their own rule, starts
TO USE THE RULE to produce their own sentences. As the rule
does not include the exceptions of irregular verbs, they will
make mistakes. They might be corrected and MODIFY the rule
to include irregularities. Alternatively they might notice for
themselves that some verbs referring to the past do not end in
ed and modify their rule accordingly.
The teacher can have the choice of giving the learners the
whole set of rules or providing a further explanation when
irregular forms start to occur in texts.
AUTOMATING
Eventually the learner will be able to refer to the past using
both regular and irregular verbs without consciously thinking
of which ended is needed. at this point THE LANGUAGE HAS
BECOME AUTOMATIC, and englisg is used intuitively and more
like the way the native language is used.
APLICATION ACTIVITY
DEMONSTRATE THE PROCESS DESCRIBED BY USING THE
PICTURE YOU HAVE IN YOUR HANDS. REMEMBER TO FOLLOW
THE FIVE STAGES INVOLVED:
input
noticing
recognizing patterns and rule making
use and rule modification
automating

REFERENCES
LINDSAY, C & KNIGHT, P LEARNING AND TEACHING ENGLISH, A
COURSE FOR TEACHERS. OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2006
Assignment N1
Objective:
Reflect, analyze and discuss the wide range factors involving the
EFL teaching in the Chilean Context. Interview two school English
teachers and some of their students and make them the following
questions:

Teachers: What are you teaching your students now? How much of
it do they actually learn?
Students: What are you learning in the English class this year? Do
you enjoy the English class?

General Instructions.
Report your findings
Provide examples if necessary.