Situated Learning in Languages

Want to learn a new language but feel daunted or unsure where to begin? You don’t need some special talent or a “language gene,” says Lýdia Machová.

Constructivism believes that learning is not only a simple accumulation of information, but more importantly, the conflict between old and new experience in a certain learning situation is a bidirectional process, and also a process of interaction between students and learning situations in order to trigger the reorganization of cognitive structures. The understanding of constructivist knowledge input can be analyzed from the four elements constituted learning: context, collaboration, conversation, and meaning construction. Just like the video said, to find an effective learning environment to stimulate your interests, you will control your ability to learn any language. Therefore, the learning environment is where learners are free to explore and learn independently. In this environment, learners can use a variety of learning resources and tools to support and promote learning. In this process, teachers act as organizers, instructors, helpers, and facilitators, using contextual elements such as situations to give full play to students’ initiative, enthusiasm, and initiative, ultimately enabling students to effectively realize what they have learned. That is the purpose of construction.

In the study of language knowledge, constructivism believes that language learning is not a simple process of information input, storage and extraction, but a process of constructing meaning between the original language and the new language knowledge (Von Glasersfeld, 2000). Language learning will reorganize the structure of the original target language as the input of language increases, forming a new system structure. And each new structure generated is involved in the next construction process, resulting in a new language structure. Therefore, the process of language learning is the process by which learners actively construct meaning. Students need to be guided to analyze and combine their preconceptions and new knowledge to shape their new concept to improve their learning process. Teaching programming concepts verify the importance of shaping students’ cognition of different understanding and develop conceptual learning process.

Reference

Mayer, R. E. (2004). Should there be a three-strikes rule against pure discovery learning? The Case for guided methods of instruction. American Psychologist, 59(1), 14-19. Available: http://apps.fischlerschool.nova.edu/toolbox/instructionalproducts/8001/EDD8001/SUM12/2004-Mayer.pdf

von Glasersfeld, E. (2000). Radical constructivism and teaching. Available at: http://www.univie.ac.at/constructivism/EvG/papers/244.2.pdf