Operant Conditioning & Behaviorism

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guroaQRFsX4

Positive Reinforcement:
It contains some funny scenes taken from an American sitcom. It revolves about the lives of four extremely intelligent scientists or according to everyone else in their society ‘nerds’. Events take very a interesting turn when an extremely attractive ordinary girl who works as a waitress in a nearby restaurant moves next door. This particular piece of video shows how one of the scientists tries to control or ‘tame’ her behavior by testing a very interesting theory of learning that was dominant for a certain period of time in the 1960s and is still used in some of the classroom practices nowadays.

This theory is called behaviorism introduced by Pavlov and then developed by Skinner who called it operant conditioning. Its premise suggests that every stimulus has a reaction and we can control people’s behavior by operating appropriate stimulant and this could be reinforced by certain rewards when the expected reaction is induced. One of the greatest criticisms leveled against this theory is that alienates the role of the brain in people’s actions and treats human beings with impressive reasoning abilities as robots. Subsequently, it limits their abilities. However, it is still dominant in everyday practices classroom practices. Not to proffer sheer criticism or detract from its importance, but it should be wisely in parts of the lessons when learners are not completely aware of teachers’ hidden agenda against using it (Ken Beatty 2003).

Why to use it?

This is a lighthearted piece of video that invokes humor and creates a relaxed atmosphere in the classroom that relieves any kind of tension among learners, and thereby increases their motivation. In addition, it makes a great resource for a speaking lesson and some heated discussion. Not only could it be used for learners, but also for teacher training courses as a great introduction of some of the learning theories and a food for thought to what trainees’ methods of instruction. It is also a tool for reflection for teachers on their past teaching experiences. In mixed-gender classrooms, especially of teenagers or young adults, this video can spark controversy and argument about boys and girls level of intelligence or roles in life. Moreover, it gives learners the opportunity to discover and discuss their learning styles to find out whether they would like to be taught in this way or they would prefer to be treated differently. It is also an awareness-raising step towards involving them in participating in choosing their learning materials for the future.

How to use it in the classroom?

• As mentioned above, I would prefer to use it for speaking or conversation purposes. However, it could also used for teaching the second conditionals focusing on the ‘I would’ form.

• One of its advantages is that it can be used for different levels from pre-intermediate to advanced ones.

• Before watching it, learners are prompted to answer some thought-provoking questions like, ‘Do you think boys are smarter than girls?, Is there a quality in a close friend of yours, a boyfriend, or a girlfriend that you would like to change? If yes, what would you do?

• After students discuss their ideas for five minutes with teacher observation, they can look at the first 1:20 part of the video to guess what is happening and what the scientist ‘Sheldon’ is trying to do?

• At this stage, a more elaborate discussion should be stimulated and groups can compete in predicting what is going to happen.

• Students the can see the other parts of the video and a brief explanation on the part of the teacher could be made according to his or purpose, i.e. speaking, grammar, or both.

• After the students had seen the whole video, they are divided into three or four teams to explain the advantages or disadvantages of behaviorism.

• This could help them discuss meanings profoundly and get fully engaged in a relevant activity that requires their full cognitive and emotive abilities.

• In the latter stages, students’ lists are put up on the board for everyone to see, and then they can have an open class-discussion.

• As mentioned earlier, the focus of the lesson could be directed into a focus on the conditional clauses. It can also used for teacher training courses as well.

• It could be used to increase autonomy by giving learners a follow-up research activity to search the web and look for more information into Skinner’s experiment and the theories underpinning this theory of learning in groups of their choices.

Limitations:

I. It cannot be used for beginner classes because it contains some ideas beyond their levels and experiences (Dornyei 2010)

II. Teachers of limited experience or limited confidence can be threatened by this type of open-ended classroom discussion.

III. In some countries, an access to ‘You Tube’ might be blocked, or even good electronic equipment in the classroom could hamper the flow of such lesson.

IV. Teachers should always bear in mind a lesson focus to avoid falling into the pitfalls of giving a meaningful lesson just for students to have fun.

V. Technology should be carefully harnessed in order to be at the use of teachers, not for teachers to fall under the mercy of its use.

VI. A video like this of four minutes and a half is substantially long and it is strongly suggested that teachers would break it down into manageable chunks and check comprehension at each stage.

VII. Learners’ span of attention might be lost if not well-motivated in the activity at hand and teachers’ role is to maintain that attention or ‘keep them on the ball’.

Sing and learn!

Lyrics Training:
http://www.lyricstraining.com/index.php

This website is absolutely one of the most fascinating and amusing one that turns learning a foreign language into sheer enjoyment! What distinguishes this website from others is its simplicity as well as its appealing interface which can be irresistible. One of the most common complaints you would hear from learners these days is one that seems similar to this ‘Our English courses are not contemporary’. This is true to some extent in that some of the materials used in teaching do not take into consideration learners’ interests and their peculiar interests. It is very useful for reinforcing listening, writing, speaking, and grammar skills.

Why to use this website:

1)    An extensive resource of songs from the 1960s to this current day. These songs are appropriate to all ages and interests.

2)    It has appealing pictures accompanying every video clip so that each learner gets a preview of the song he or she is going to listen to.

3)    Each learner can listen to any song an infinite number of times before the actual exercise starts.

4)    Learners using this website will unwittingly be subject to a huge amount of exposure to English while they are having fun.

5)    Each song has a color-coded tag describing its level. These levels are graded from easy, medium, to hard.

6)      Once the learner has pressed the button ‘play’, the game, or learning process, begins.

7)     The game is a kind of gap-filling exercise. Each game has three levels of difficulty, namely beginner, intermediate, and expert modes. In the first one, learners have to fill only 10% of the words in the gaps, in the second 25% of the lyrics will be left empty, and in the expert levels learners have to fill in the whole lyrics of the songs.

8)     An amazing feature I have recently discovered is the translation tool to almost every possible language you can think of. In other words, you can listen, type, and see the translation of the songs simultaneously. Although this tool would look on the surface similar to an Audio-lingual mode of instruction, it is vastly different. Instead of exposing students to chunks of language that are decontextualised alongside many drilling, students’ active participation is demanded.

9)    Learners are sorely tempted to finish each song in order to check their scores, and the time it took them to finish each of these. Then, they can type in their names and the country they came from and check their ranking and timing among many other competitors from different countries all around the world.

10)  When students do not recognize what word to fill in the space, they can just move the keyboard arrows up or down in order to navigate though the song. Last but not least, the Karaoke button enables them to look at the lyrics, listen, and sing altogether. Imagine what kind of multi-skillful students we would be looking at.

11)    After a learner had finished filling in the missing lyrics, a screen will show him or her the total scores, skipped words, time taken, and time penalty and where they fit in the scoring chart.  Learners can always repeat or restart the game if they are not happy with their scores.

Some useful ideas on how to use these in the classrooms:

§  As a first step, I would elicit students’ suggestions about their favorite suggestions to involve them in the learning process. For example, you do not want a group of young teenagers listening to a black-and-white song because they will have a tenuous span of attention if any.

§  Then, I would spark a sense of anticipation by saying ‘Today, you will listen to a song by the end of the lesson if we finish earlier’

§  Next, I would divide them into two teams and play the song on a big screen for everyone to see and every group should assign turns for all its member to go out on the board and write their words.

§  The team that gets more words correct, earns more points, and thereby wins. By doing so, I would have engaged all students in the tasks and crated an interactional activity that prompted students to negotiate, suggest, and make decisions about their learning.

§  This is a great exercise for listening and writing as well.

§  If students have a tie-up or teachers want to expand the lesson, they can ask learners to make a list of the words they learnt from this activity to be put up on the wall for all other class members to see.

§  Like most of the purposeful activities using computers, this one enhances boosts students’ autonomy because all they need is log on to this website which is completely free and play the games or activities.  

Very important points to bear in mind:

·        Many of these songs use colloquial words that are not academic or standard examples of English.

·        Some of these songs could contain offensive words or slangs that might not be appropriate for some learners.

·        In my opinion, the most important factor among these is to look at contextual factors. Many learners might not engage with such songs because they are simply not relevant to their culture, or even offensive. While doing some of these, I noticed many gender-biased and racial phrases. The one and only person who can decide which of these songs to use is the teacher. Therefore, it would be helpful for teachers to thoroughly check each of these to avoid any misunderstanding.

Loudlit.org

A description of this website:

This website is called ‘loudlit.org’ and it encompasses an anthology of some prestigious and well-known works of literature. This variety gives it a great importance because it allows the teacher to adapt from different materials such as short stories, novels, poetry, historical, and children stories. It can be used in many ways to enhance the learning process and make it more motivating.

Why is it important for language teaching?

There are many reasons that warrant the need for using this website in the classroom:

ü Since this website uses works of literature, it constitutes an invaluable source of authentic texts that are not ‘tampered’ or modified for the sake of teaching. In addition, it provides learners with an opulent source of sophisticated vocabularies that will extend their inventories of these.

ü It carries an added-value characteristic because it simultaneously combines written texts with their correspondent audios. Therefore, students can listen and follow up the texts simultaneously not to mention the high quality of the accompanying records.

ü It can be used to reinforce listening, spelling, punctuation, reading, and even speaking skills.

ü One of its most appealing features is that it corresponds to different student’s needs. Thus, it is also individualized in that each student can use it at his or her own pace by pressing the pause or stop buttons or by moving the audio progression line backward or forward.  

ü It also plays a vital role in increasing students’ motivation for many reasons. First, it creates a sense of anticipation because it is divided into different chapters and each chapter into different pages. Therefore, students will be motivated to finish each page to know how the plot will develop in the next ones. Moreover, it will enhance students’ sense of achievements once they have finished a chapter or a part of a story.

ü One of the most important reasons for using this website in the teaching process as a follow-up activity for students at home. This will increase their autonomy and raise their awareness in using the computer to learn on their own. Teachers can hone this autonomy by making themselves available for learners in order to respond to any kind of inquiries they might encounter along the way.

ü Teachers can also make it more motivating by consulting with students about their favourite story or novel so that they feel as shareholders of this learning process and involved in decision-making in the classroom.

ü  To make it more challenging, teachers can set deadlines for specific chapters each week or month and to spice things up, they can turn it into a speaking activity in which students are divided into groups to discuss what they have read or understood from the stories.

How to be used in a lesson plan:

Ø The teacher can make a copy of a page of any chapter and can delete some of the words so that students can fill them in.

Ø A pre-listening activity involves a brief setting of the story context and having students guess what the words in the spaces might be in pairs. This activity falls within the task-based learning because it engages students’ cognitive skills in the tasks and subsequently they will become more engaged with them.

Ø The next step is the listening one. It allows the learners to check their predictions and make corrections to the ones they had already made.

Ø Then, students can be divided into groups in order to check their solutions together. It is recommended that the teacher create a challenge among students’ groups by giving those points for every correct answer. Each team gets one points for saying the right answer and if they do not succeed, another team wins the chance to answer. Once a purpose is created, learners’ unconscious engagement and enjoyment is automatically activated. Therefore, their cognitive, emotional, and psychological parts of the brain are proactive in achieving the tasks.

Ø Another advantage of such activities is that it can be adjusted to students’ own pace and it takes into consideration different types of learning styles. Moreover, it could be extended to a speaking, or writing activity in that learners are prompted to write a summary of what they have learnt or give a small presentation of what they understood of the stories.

Ø To enhance learners’ autonomy, a teacher can ask students to discuss the content of each story or novel once a week or a month. They could also be given the chance of talk about what they learnt and how they learnt. By doing so, learners can improve their metalinguistic skills, by talking about language learning. In addition, they will reflect and discuss their learning styles with their peers and acquire new ones.

Ø After the teacher had followed all or some of the previous steps, he or she would have maximized the opportunities that students could negotiate meanings, developed their sense of autonomy, and increased their motivation on different cognitive and psychological levels.

Limitations:    

·        Not all students might have speedy access to the internet, so the amount or homework load should be carefully planned.

·        It would be very useful if they could be allowed access to computer or multimedia rooms inside the learning institution if they have not got internet access at home.

·        One of the most important factors that should be borne in mind is good time planning. In other words, it should be clear for a teacher how much time is dedicated for each part of an activity and if it is of central importance to the overall curriculum or of peripheral importance.

·        If teachers do not put such tasks into a purposeful frame, they would be wasting precious time for their learners. As a teacher I would ask myself this question ‘How can I fit this lesson into my students’ syllabus and what skills am I looking for to develop?’

·        Finally, technology could unpredictably fail us. Therefore, it is a good idea that a teacher would check that all the equipments are working properly beforehand. A reserve plan should always be available if a website does not work for no obvious reasons.