Understanding Yourself as a Facilitator of Learning - Research Paper Example

Understanding Yourself as a Facilitator of Learning My personal belief towards life-long learning is that peer encouragement helps better to formulate a strong base of foreign language learning during adulthood rather than the conventional mechanism of teacher-student participation. Correspondingly, when I had to assist my adult learners, I focused on interactive sessions more than instructive sessions. Thus, I used English as the main language to often interact with them through social websites or within the classroom environment.

I also encouraged learners speaking among themselves in English, which not only increased their confidence level but also gave me an opportunity to rectify them informally. This improved their cognitive level of effectiveness (Pappamihiel, 2002).I also had to serve as a facilitator in group discussions organized within the classroom environment when we used to communicate with each other in English but formally. Learners, in such an environment had a feeling of being watched and judged, which often made them nervous as well as over conscious, hindering their level of confidence.

In addition, with one learner performing outstandingly in comparison with others, the slow learners used to get demotivated at certain instances. As the process used to affect learners’ confidence level massively, especially for the slow learners, I would term this process as ineffective lacking emotional and cognitive value attribution (Koulouriotis, 2011).Suggestively, I believe that interactive informal or semi-formal teaching method will be more effective for the adult learners who tend to obtain classes on English as their second language.

Techniques that allow round-the-clock learning and learning through experiences will be most helpful I believe. It will not only ignite cognitive betterment and emotional strength for the non-English speakers but will also motivate life-long learning among them that will ensure in developing their respective skills continually, even after the conclusion of their courses. If given an option, I would never use the traditional text interpreting strategy for the learners, which makes the entire learning process ethically critical as well as often discouraging being highly monotonous in nature.

In addition, such methods do not provide adequate opportunity to the learners to share their views that would in turn permit effective assessment of their cognitive and emotional developments. Therefore, I will try to avoid the mechanism in my learning approach (Cumming, 2001). ReferencesCumming, A. (2001). Learning to write in a second language: Two decades of research. International Journal of English Studies, 1(2), 1-23.Davies, P. (2009). Strategic management of ELT in public educational systems: Trying to reduce failure, increase success.

The Electronic Journal for English as a Second Language, 13(3), 1-22.Koulouriotis, J. (2011). Ethical considerations in conducting research with non-native speakers of English. TESL CANADA JOURNAL/REVUE TESL DU CANADA, (5), 1-15.Pappamihiel, N. E. (2002). English as a second language students and English language anxiety: Issues in the mainstream classroom. Research in the Teaching of English, 36, 327-355.BibliographyCho, E. H., & Larke, P. J. (2010). Repair strategies usage of primary elementary ESL students: Implications for ESL teachers.

The Electronic Journal for English as a Second Language, 14(3), 1-18.Gilakjani, A. P., & Ahmadi, S. M. (2011). The effect of text familiarity on Iranian EFL learners listening comprehension. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 2(4), 783-789.