Acquisition Of Skills Not Acquisition Of Content

Learning is not the acquisition of content, but the acquisition of skills with which to learn this content.

This is an excerpt from a "presentation" that was recently presented in a group of mentors and I thought it wise to blog it. With the acknowldgment of my co-presenter Victoria Parisi, I added this to my blogspot. It may be useful to some of you who visit this site who speak the same language and the same path like we do.

Helping Adults Succeed...

There are three ways in which we can make modifications our programs to encourage learners; include eliminating affective barriers, making the material relevant and motivating and encouraging the use of learning strategies.

Affective factors such as motivation and self-confidence are very important in language learning. Many learners "fear failure" more than their younger counterparts, may be because they accept the stereotype of previous unsuccessful attempts to learn. When such learners are faced with a stressful, fast-paced learning situation, fear of failure only increases. Others may also exhibit greater hesitancy in learning. Thus, mentors must be able to reduce anxiety and build self confidence in the learner.

Activities which include large amounts of oral repitition, extensive correction or an expectation of error-free speech will assist the learner active participation. On the other hand, providing opportunities for learners to work together, focusing on understanding rather than producing language and reducing the focus on error correction can build learners' self-confidence and promote the process of learning. Mentors should emphasize the positive-focus on the good progress learners are making and provide opportunities for them to be successful. This success can then be reinforced with more of the same.

Adults studying a foreign language are usually learning it for a specific purpose: to be more effective professionally, to be able to survive in an anticipated foreign situation, or for other instrumental reasons. They are not willing to tolerate boring or irrelevant content or things that may stress the learning of grammar rules that are out of context. They need materials designed to present structures that will be of immediate use to them in a context which reflects the situations and its functions. Visual Aids and activities that incorporate relevant experiences will surely succeed with the majority of adult learners.

Adults have already developed learning strategies that have served them well in other contexts. They can use these strategies to their advantage while on the process of learning. We should be flexible enough to allow different approaches to any learning task. Adults best learn through a visual channel.


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Taken with Ian, a practice teacher from Macquarie University, NSW. 2005

Ian, isn't it nice to see your first Ss? Congratulations! Well done! You've done it with flying colours. The passage above may be useful to add to your culminating report. You may want to include this.