What steps might you take to help LD students become independent learners?
What is independent learning?
Students who are actively involved in deciding what and how they acquire are typically more engaged and motivated.
That'due south non surprising, because contained learners are extremely focused on their personal learning objectives. According to Philip Candy , independent learning is "a process, a method and a philosophy of pedagogy whereby a learner acquires knowledge by his or her own efforts and develops the ability for enquiry and disquisitional evaluation."
In the context of language learning, independent learners tin can recognize their learning needs, locate relevant data about language and develop the required language skills on their own or with other learners.
In that location are many advantages of encouraging independent learning amongst your students:
- Increased recognition of strengths, weaknesses and progress
- Higher levels of confidence
- More than motivation
- Better direction of learning
- Improved performance
Non simply volition these benefits help your students while learning English, merely they'll also be beneficial for them at school, university and even in their day-to-mean solar day lives.
How tin can I aid my students?
Some of your students may already be contained learners, notwithstanding, the vast majority will need your back up to go more autonomous.
Here are seven ways you can assistance.
- Make learning goals clear
Sharing learning goals with your form helps students run into what they're aiming for and they'll besides be able to assess whether they've achieved information technology afterwards or not. This can be done at the beginning of a lesson or series of lessons, or even as a lesson progresses.
Although many teachers ready the goals themselves, if you want to create a really independent learning experience, elicit them directly from the students. A elementary question could exist "What practise you lot call up this activity is helping you get better at?"
- Personalize learning goals
Another thing to consider is setting unlike goals for different learners, depending on their strengths and weaknesses. This will be much easier if the students are setting their ain goals. For example, when doing a task focused on the speaking paper in an examination course, ane pupil'south objective might exist to give more extended answers, while another might want to utilise more than discourse markers.
- Focus on the process besides as the goal
Once your students have set up their goals, they need to starting time thinking about how they'll reach them.
One way to assist them get on runway is to provide them with a set of 'success criteria', which acts like a roadmap for the different tasks they need to complete. If your students sympathize what they need to exercise to be successful, they'll progress much faster and exist more than motivated when they see how far they've come.
If one of your student's goals is to improve their grammatical accuracy in the C1 Avant-garde speaking exam, for example, you could give them a rubric (like the one below) which they tin use to assess their own performance.
Keep your assessment categories equally positive every bit possible (eastward.g. solid , good and acing it ) and link information technology to the official exam criteria where possible.
- Provide opportunities to reflect on learning
Students should constantly exist encouraged to reflect on their performance and whether they've met their learning goals. This will help them become more aware of their strengths, weaknesses and the progress they're making. Recognition of progress will help build confidence and motivation.
Opportunities for assessment and reflection don't need to take a lot of time. Spending two minutes at the terminate of the form asking students questions like ' What can you do meliorate now than at the start of the lesson? ' volition assistance learners develop important meta-cognitive skills.
- Offer feedback on learning
Instructor feedback also helps students develop the skills needed to get more contained. Offering feedback in a supportive and sensitive manner, making positive observations alongside any criticism.
Effective feedback should allow learners to sympathize where they currently are in their learning, where they're heading and how they'll go in that location.
- Encourage peer feedback
Feedback shouldn't but come up from the teacher. Yous should likewise go students to evaluate each other's progress during and afterward an activity. Peer feedback is not only advantageous to the student receiving it, only there are likewise many reflective benefits of giving feedback to someone else.
- Transfer learning decisions to students
It's incommunicable for students to become independent learners if you lot make all the decisions for them. Giving students the opportunity to make decisions nearly their learning volition requite them a greater level of autonomy. Nonetheless, this should be a gradual process and not all students will exist ready to take 100% control from the start.
Showtime with small decisions get-go and ask questions such every bit:
- Do you want to do the job alone or in pairs?
- Would you lot like to employ a gear up of useful phrases for support when doing the speaking job?
- Would y'all prefer to discuss questions about this topic or another?
This devolvement of responsibility built up over time will help learners to go more independent.
How does Aureate Experience help my students become more independent learners?
Independent learning is peculiarly relevant when preparing students for exams. Studying for a qualification such equally the Cambridge B2 First or C1 Advanced requires a lot of work and motivation, and the more autonomous our students get the ameliorate.
Aureate Feel 2nd Edition contains a number of resources that will assistance you develop contained teens.
Clear learning goals and models for success
Learning goals for each skill are outlined at the beginning of each unit in both the Pupil'due south Book and Teacher's Book. These draw what the educatee will be able or be ameliorate able to exercise at the cease of the lesson.
An contained learning section
At the end of each unit there's a defended section to assistance students become more independent learners. The tasks help students to sympathise the do good of self-reflection and encourage them to give better feedback to peers. They help students – and you – to understand themselves better as learners. They also prompt a greater understanding of strengths and weaknesses that then helps students set realistic, useful, personalized goals.
A focus on procedure
To help students identify expert practise in speaking and writing tasks, the Student'due south Book provides model answers and tasks that encourage students to clarify the answers to better sympathize how to complete them successfully. Analysis focuses on approach, content and language. The Speaking file and Writing file requite farther tips on the procedure and how to achieve success in speaking and writing exam tasks.
Meliorate it sections in Writing lessons
In each Writing lesson, the Amend it section helps students to review work and make improvements. Scaffolded tasks aid students to develop the skills they demand to do this effectively.
Projection work
In each unit in that location is a group projection. These assist students to develop artistic skills, make decisions about the learning procedure and how they consummate the project.
Resources for cocky-report
There are a number of resources to help learners achieve their goals. These can exist used in class if the teacher wants to allocate office of a lesson to self-report or they can be used at home. They include:
- A Wordlist at the end of each unit of measurement in the Pupil's Volume
- An Extended Vocabulary department at the back of the Educatee's Volume
- Speaking, Writing and Grammar File sections at the back of the Student's Book
- The Workbook
- Online Practice activities
- Flipped classroom tasks in the Teacher'southward Volume
For more than information nearly Gold Experience 2nd Edition visit the website , download a sample or contact a local sales representative .
Source: https://www.english.com/blog/seven-ways-to-develop-independent-learners/
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