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Pedagogical Science
Vlasenko L., Sulima I.
National University of Food Technologies (Kiev,
Ukraine)
LANGUAGE AND LEARNING
Theorists also argue that there is a relationship
between language and knowledge. Dance (1982) contended that human capacity to
use speech, to talk and listen, leads to the development of human
conceptualization, which is necessary for the development of intellect,
understanding, and knowledge.
Language does more than package or represents
something; it embodies an individual’s understanding of the world (Langer,
1942; Stewart, 1986). Knowledge, then, is socially constructed rather than
individually received. Sprague (1992) argued that individuals interested in
instructional communication have focused too much on the role of teacher talk
in the classroom. She contended that student talk facilitates learning of all
subjects and should therefore, be understood by teachers and researchers as
well. Vygotsky (1981), a prominent Russian scholar, contended that mental
processes and communication are inextricably intertwined. That is, the ability
to learn and think is connected to communication processes. One of Vygotsky’s
major contributions was the zone of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1978). The
zone of proximal development is the distance between independent problem
solving ability and the potential development that can be accomplished through
adult guidance or in collaboration with more skilled peers. Communication,
therefore, is the mechanism through which these developmental processes occur.
According to Forman and Cazden (1998), communication
with more competent peers, teachers, and tutors requires individuals to
reconcile different perspectives on an issue or problem and as a consequence
experience cognitive growth. Negotiation is one of the communication activities
that influences cognition. (Azmitia, 1998; Miller, 1987). As individuals move
from childhood to adulthood, they must learn to manage situations involving
alternative viewpoints. Negotiation requires individuals ot engage in arguments
that reveal strengths and weaknesses of a perspective.
Think about the way in which students deliberate on
classroom projects.
The tension fueled from these exchanges must be
resolved. Learning a new perspective or developing a new insight is one way the
tension in resolved. Knowledge, then, is not passively received, but emerges
through interaction with peers and teachers.
The relationship between learning and language is at
the core of constructivist approaches to education. Constructivism is
predicated on the belief that learners construct their own meaning from
interaction with texts, problems, materials, students, teachers, and other
features of the learning environment (Arends, Winitzky, & Tannenbaum,
2001). Students are not empty vessels to be filled with some type of
intellectual fluid. Each student comes to the educational environment, steeped
in experiences, competencies, and beliefs. Communication processes play a
significant role in the way instructional processes are managed.
Listening
The final aspect of the communication process that we
wish to discuss in listening. Meanings are intimately tied to listening
ability. Students who are distracted do not focus on main ideas and have
difficulty following instructional messages. Wolvin and Coakley (1993) provided
a useful typology of listening consisting of five major functions.
According to Wolvin and Coakley, discriminative listening is
distinguishing among auditory and visual stimuli. This type of listening
undergirds all other forms of listening. In the classroom, teachers and
students must sort through a wide range of auditory stimuli. Students talking,
shuffling papers, snapping gum, the squeak of chalk, are among the sounds that
are processed in the classroom context.
Discriminative ability is fundamental to musicians,
auto mechanics, parents and teachers. Each must determine the significance of
certain sounds and how to respond to them. The musician learns how to
coordinate certain tones and blend them into melodies. The mechanic listens to
the “ping” in an engine to determine why it isn’t running smoothly.
Parents learn to differentiate cries for attention
from cries of fatigue. Students and teachers must sort out a multitude of
stimuli as they negotiate the meanings of instructional material.
Listening for comprehension
builds on discrimination of stimuli to an understanding of the
message. Many of the educational processes engage this listening function.
Students listen to lectures, student reports, classroom discussions, announcements,
and the admonitions of teachers.
Successful comprehension requires that listeners avoid
an evaluative attitude about the topic being discussed or the speaker. A
student, who does not like history, may have difficulty attending to a lecture
on the Revolutionary War. Listening is made particularly difficult then the
listener does not like the speaker. It is easier to attend to messages from
people we like and tune out messages from people we dislike.
Listening is facilitated when the listener can identify
the speaker’s main ideas. As we have observed, in any instructional context, a
multitude of messages are shared. Listeners must learn to discard extraneous
information and focus on that which is most relevant to the instructional task.
Comprehension is difficult in diverse classrooms where
there may be vast differences in vocabulary. Students may hear many words but
not know what they mean. Finally, comprehension requires listeners to store
information in short-term memory, rehearse it, and move it into long-term
memory so that it can be retrieved later.
Therapeutic listening, according to Wolvin and Coakley (1993) requires that the
listener help the speaker solve problems. To fulfill this function, the
listener serves as a “sounding board” so that the speaker can identify ways to
define and solve a problem. Teachers often play this role when they listen to
the difficulties students have at home, or the struggles they have with friends
at school. In these contexts, the teacher attempts to empathize with the
speaker and show understanding.
However, when students are experiencing more serious
emotional difficulties, they should be advised to consult with professionals
who are trained in counseling.
Critical listening requires the listener to render a judgment about the
information received. This skill is invoked in several ways. When a speaker’s
purpose is to persuade, a listener must make a judgment about the validity and
strength of evidence. Effectiveness in this situation requires listeners to
understand the way in which persuasive arguments are structured and supported.
Teachers put on their “critical” listening hats when they listen to student
accounts for late work or a problematic pattern of behavior. They also model
good listening when they help students process good arguments from more
problematic ones. Students must learn that criticizing an argument does not
mean criticizing the person.
The final function that Wolvin and Coakley (1993)
discussed is appreciative listening.
Listening to music, the sounds of a mountain stream, of a favorite
television program are examples of appreciative listening. This type of
listening is subject to individual tastes and standards. Conduct a survey
of your class and identify the different music forms that students like.
There are numerous circumstances that make effective
listening difficult. One is that listening is always part of an interpersonal
relationship. I have frequently heard teachers ask students, “Are you
listening?” What they are really saying is that the students are not doing what
the teachers want them to do. It is easier for participants to listen to
individuals they respect and like and tune out and counter-argue with
individuals they do not like. In addition to these relational features, there
are other blocks to effective listening worth mentioning:
• Preoccupation:
Listeners feign attention while they think about other things. Students may
grin and nod, exhibiting attentive behaviors, while thinking about what they
want for lunch.
• Noise:
As we noted earlier in this chapter, internal and external noise can distort
instructional messages and interfere with the creation of meaning.
• Information
overload: Listeners process information better in manageable chunks.
When students receive too much information, too quickly, they may tune the
teacher out.
• Boredom:
Listeners easily tune out a speaker who is monotone, slow paced, and uses no
vocal variety.
• Selection:
Listeners will tune into information they perceive is relevant and tune out
information they believe is irrelevant. These choices are based on personal
tastes and attitudes.
• Counter-argument:
Listeners listen to those features they can refute. As a consequence, they may
miss other important features of communication.
• Language
competency: Listening is difficult when listeners do ot understand the
language being spoken. This is especially true when speakers are continually
translating the messages they hear.
Listening is often treated as an independent category
of the communication process. We believe that listening is part of a host of
behaviors that are used to make sense out of instructional material. Cooper and
Simmonds (1999) contended that effective listeners are actively involved in the
communication process. One effective strategy is to paraphrase another person’s
message. The goal of paraphrasing is to capture the content and feelings of the
other’s response. A student who feels that an assignment is too difficult may
blurt out, “I don’t get it, this isn’t clear.” A teacher might paraphrase this
statement by saying, “You seem anxious about this assignment.”
Another strategy that Cooper and Simmonds discussed is
perception checking. The
purpose of this technique is to assess another’s thoughts, feelings, or
perceptions. According to Cooper and Simmonds, perception checking
involves three ideas: (1) referencing the sensory data leading of a
conclusion; (2) the conclusion that has been drawn; and (3) a question asking
the other if your conclusion is accurate. For example, a teacher may have
a student athlete who has been late with homework and inattentive in
class. The teacher may be concerned that the student is spending too
much time on the athletic field and not enough time studying. In probing
this situation, a teacher may ask this student if she understood the
assignment that was due.
There are other ways to facilitate effective
listening, however. We want to emphasize that listening is part of an on-going
interpersonal relationship that is established and maintained. Effective
listening involves more than implementing a few techniques. Good listeners and
good communicators are sensitive to a host of behaviors that are involved in
the communication process. As your knowledge of this process increases, so will
your communication ability.
Summary
Over the years, researchers have come to appreciate
the complexity of human communication. Early theoretical approaches were linear
and simplistic. Contemporary orientations are complex and circular.
Communication processes are negotiated among participants
as they act upon the meanings they construct and share. Verbal and nonverbal
behaviors are the mechanisms through which instructional sense making is
achieved. Contemporary theorists also emphasize the powerful relationship
between learning and communication. How we come to understand instructional
material is a function of communication.
References
1. Dance, F. E. X. (Ed.) (1982). Human
communication theory. New York: Harper & Row.
2. Forman, E., & Cazden, C. (1998). Exploring Vygotskian perspectives
in education: The cognitive value of peer interaction. In D. Faulkner, K.
Littleton, & M. Woodhead (Eds.), Learning
relationships in the classroom (pp. 189–206). New York: Routledge.
3. Wolvin, A. D., & Coakley, C. G. (1993). A listening typology. In A.
D. Wolvin, & C. G. Coakley (Eds.), Perspectives
on listening (pp. 15–22). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
4.
Arends, R. I., Winitzky, N. E.,
& Tannenbaum, M. D. (2001). Exploring
teaching (2nd ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill.