The Internet TESL Journal
Practical Ways Brain-based Research Applies to ESL Learners
Judy Lombardi
judy.lombardi [at] csun.edu
California State University Northridge (Northridge, CA, USA)
Introduction
These are exciting times for ESL teachers. We are in the midst of a revolution
in new teaching and learning strategies, i.e.,
“…accelerated learning; action research;
applied learning; arts in education; character education; cognitive coaching;
cooperative learning; democratic classrooms; emotional intelligence; environmental
education; environments for learning; graphic tools; instrumental enrichment;
keeping fit for learning; learning styles; literacy; multicultural education;
multiple intelligences; service learning; teaching for understanding; technology
in education; thinking skills”(http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/front_strategies.html,
2002).
ESL faculty are infusing nontraditional types of instructional strategies,
from portfolios to case studies to gallery walks, into their teaching.
Brain-based and second language acquisition research has taught us, thankfully,
that the old school method--assign a chapter, take a test, and discuss the
test—will not result in quality and depth of thought. Our ESL students are
not tape recorders, waiting eagerly to receive our golden nuggets of wisdom.
Instead, they are multi-taskers who can play video games, talk on cell phones,
and listen to music, all without missing a beat.
ESL teachers who want to update, refresh, and rejuvenate their teaching should
apply mind/brain learning principles, as described by Caine and Caine (1994).
These principles can become the basis of second language teaching and learning
at the highest quality levels:
Principle 1. The Brain Is a Complex Adaptive System.
The brain can function on many levels and in many ways simultaneously. A
complex and multifaceted task, learning should be approached in a variety
of ways. For an exciting, new way to look at learning styles and strategies
for second language learners, visit Andrew Cohen’s work at the University
of Minnesota (http://www.carla.umn.edu/about/ profiles/CohenPapers/LearningStylesSurvey.pdf,
2003). In Levine’s pivotal work, A Mind at a Time (2003), he recommends transforming
a verbal into a visual task, and a visual task into a kinesthetic one. Challenging
the brain, not numbing it with overload, keeps the mind happily humming and
is essential to the ESL classroom. Activity shifting and teaching around
the wheel of learning styles stimulate thought and action in second language
learner classrooms.
Principle 2. The Brain is a Social Brain.
John Donne got it right in 1684: no man is an island. The brain likes and
responds well to social engagement and oral sharing. Witness the best-studied
of all educational strategies, cooperative learning. Structuring the task,
assigning roles and teams, sharing of materials, and requiring interdependability
of team members are all essential to quality cooperative learning in the
ESL classroom, breathing life into subjects and classes (Johnson, Johnson,
and Holubec, 1994; Kagan, 1997). Cooperative learning has an essential role
in ESL instruction, especially in regard to listening and speaking, and in
providing support mechanisms for anxious learners.
Principle 3. The Search for Meaning Is Innate.
The brain not only wants to make sense of what it learns, but also wants
to know that learning has purpose and value. Adler believes that people learn
things, when they need to know them (1998). The search for meaning extends
from deep-seated philosophical questions of the Eriksonian crisis (Who am
I? What do I want? Where am I going?) to the rationale students demand for
making sense of assignments. Simply put, the brain likes explanations. When
ESL teachers share with students the why of what they are doing, not just
the what and the how, the brain appreciates it and more deeply values the
learning.
Principle 4. The Search for Meaning Occurs Through Patterning.
When the brain encounters a new idea, it searches for prior knowledge and
experiences similar to the new concept. Effective ESL teachers use
frontloading, by integrating graphic organizers, using prediction strategies,
introducing vocabulary, conducting pair-shares, and presenting video clips,
to prepare the brain for the new knowledge to come. Helping second language
learners ground new ideas in current knowledge makes learning meaningful,
as they climb the ladder of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives.
Principle 5. Emotions Are Critical to Patterning.
The term “emotional intelligence” was coined by psychologists John Mayer
and Peter Salovey in 1990. The principle of EQ, or emotional quotient, is
described in Daniel Goleman’s pivotal work, Emotional Intelligence: Why It
Can Matter More Than IQ (1997). The premise of emotional intelligence is
that optimists with effective people skills are more successful than individuals
with only high IQs or book smarts but poor interpersonal skills. Emotional
intelligence also champions the concept of impulse control, the ability to
delay gratification for a greater reward. In the ESL classroom, a warm, supportive,
encouraging educational climate is conducive to successful learning outcomes,
i.e., using a variety of teaching strategies and creating lessons that are
engaging and exciting to second language learners.
Principle 6. Every Brain Simultaneously Perceives and Creates Parts and
Wholes.
Left-right brain research is only the beginning of understanding the way
the brain divides learning tasks between verbal and visual, analytical and
global, logical and creative. Successful ESL instructors engage learners
in tasks that require both sides of the brain to engage, e.g., using art
to teach a math lesson or music to teach physics. In ESL classrooms, crossdisciplinary
approaches embrace the multifaceted aspects of the brain and recognize the
interaction of both hemispheres in meaningful learning.
Principle 7. Learning Involves Both Focused Attention and Peripheral
Perception.
The brain absorbs direct information, but also pays attention to what Ruggiero
calls fringe thoughts (2000). Think of a bull’s eye on a target: the
brain focuses on the central target but also notices the rings around the
bull’s eye. Frequently, it is the off-handed remark, the subtext of a speech,
and the nuances of a lesson that ESL learners respond to, as the mind perceives
subtleties. The ESL instructor’s belief systems and attitudes toward subjects
also come through, no matter how well the instructor thinks they are hidden
from students.
Principle 8. Learning Always Involves Both Conscious and Unconscious
Processes.
In this iceberg principle of learning, much of what is learned lies beneath
the surface. At the surface level of awareness, ESL learners discuss and
take notes. Deeply ingrained learning comes later, when students digest what
they have learned, connect it to life experience, or apply the knowledge
to life events. To bring invisible, unconscious thought alive in the classroom,
ESL instructors use reflection and metacognition, through questioning and
application of learning. How does this knowledge apply? relate? work in reality?
Principle 9. We Have at Least Two Ways of Organizing Memory.
Theories on long-term and short-term memory have been around since the 1960s.
Caine and Caine (1994) refer to the neuropsychology of memory systems described
by O’Keefe and Nadel (1978) as taxon/locale and spatial/autobiographical.
Taxon/locale memory, motivated by rewards and punishments, recalls seemingly
unrelated information. Spatial/autobiographical memory recalls experiences
instantly, such as the shirt you wore yesterday (Caine & Caine, 1994).
These two types of memory help ESL learners record completely all their experiences,
as important and unimportant details get categorized and stored differently.
ESL instructors can attend to both types of memory by organizing activities
into meaningful parts, placing ideas in context, and infusing a range of
learning styles and multiple intelligences into classroom practice.
Principle 10. Learning is Developmental.
While the brain is hard-wired by genetics and certain environmental aspects,
the good news is that Scheibel and Diamond’s dendritic fireworks theory of
the 1980s links brain enhancement to environmental enrichment. Learning something
new actually helps the brain to grow by building new, neural pathways and
connections. ESL instructors take advantage of this research by applying
a myriad of new learning strategies to their second language learner classrooms,
including all the modalities of learning.
Principle 11. Complex Learning Is Enhanced by Challenge and Inhibited
by Threat.
At what level should we teach our ESL students? If we teach beneath them,
they are insulted and understimulated. If we teach at their level, we teach
them in their comfort zone, where they do not learn much. Teaching at a slightly
elevated level, challenging but not impossible, encourages our students to
strive. Today’s learning climate in the ESL classroom is more effective as
a partnership, not a them vs. us situation of intimidation and gamesmanship.
Principle 12. Every Brain Is Uniquely Organized.
Levine’s The Myth of Laziness (2002) chronicles the frustration and attitudinal
problems that stem from unaddressed dysfunction in learners. Gardner’s multiple
intelligences theory (1993), which challenges traditional notions of a single,
fixed IQ, emphasizes not how smart the learner is, but how the learner is
smart. Given the right kind of assistance in organizing their learning through
work plans, alternative approaches, and assignment previews, ESL students
can improve their skills and attitudes.
Summary
Today's ESL students have little patience with long-winded lecturing and
a lack of dialogue in the classroom. ESL students must be invited into the
excitement of learning, through strategies that honor the amazing power of
the brain
and the unbridled energy of the human spirit.
References
- Adler, M. (1998). The padeia proposal. New York: Simon and Schuster.
- Caine, R. and N. Caine (1994). Making connections: Teaching and the
human brain. Somerset, NJ: Addison Wesley.
- Cohen, A. (2003). Learning styles survey: Assessing your own learning
styles. http://www.carla.umn.edu/about/profiles/CohenPapers/LearningStylesSurvey.pdf.
- Goleman, D. (1997). Emotional intelligence: Why it can matter more
than IQ. New York: Bantam Books.
- Johnson, D., Johnson, R. and E. Holubec (1994). The new circles of
learning:
- Cooperation in the classroom and school. Alexandria,
VA: Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development.
- Kagan, S. (1997). Cooperative learning. San Clemente, CA: Kagan Cooperative.
- Levine, M. (2003). A mind at a time. New York: Simon and Schuster.
- Levine, M. (2002). The myth of laziness. New York: Simon and Schuster.
- New Horizons for Learning (2002). http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/front_strategies.html.
- O’Keefe, J. and Nadel, L. (1978). The hippocampus as a cognitive map.
New York: Oxford University Press.
- Ruggiero, V. R. (2000). The art of thinking: a guide to critical and
creative thought. Somerset, NJ: Pearson Longman.
- Scheibel, A. and Diamond, M. (1986). The human brain coloring book.
New York: Harper Collins.
The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. X, No. 8, August 2004
http://iteslj.org/
http://iteslj.org/Articles/Lombardi-BrainResearch.html