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In previous articles we talked about the macro vision of adult learners and how they all tend to move through the same patterns of learning albeit at different speeds. They all have to grasp the same concepts thoroughly in order to move through the levels. But that said, any teacher who has spent over 10 minutes in an adult learning environment will no doubt be aware of the huge differences in motivation, aspiration and fears that are unique to each student. These differences are why teachers will never be out of a job. They also challenge teachers to constantly reevaluate their methods and how they are being applied to their students.

Auditory Learners

Visual Learners will do best in a visual environment. (Today technology has taken visual aids in the classroom to the next level.)

Kinesthetic learners are students respond and assimilate well to touching or manipulating objects. (These students respond well to Total Physical Response methodologies (TPR)

All these types of learners will respond better to different stimuli. What’s more all of us have widely different attributions.

And what do we mean by attribution in this context? It is different to the everyday sense of an attribute meaning a quality that someone possesses. In the pedagogical sense it is taken to mean a student’s perceptions of the causes of their behavior and actions. In other words ‘attribution to learning’ is the combination of a number of attitudes and beliefs built up over the years to new things we are learning. Teachers come across students in each class and rapidly classify them as having a ‘negative attitude’ or a ‘positive attitude’. All too often teachers fail to address what they mean by ‘negative attitude’ and also fail to address the problem of changing that attribution. How can we do that? Firstly by allowing students to identify that certain aspects of their learning is within their control. Have a look at the following chart which illustrates the point neatly. As teachers we want students in our class to increasingly attribute their success or shortcomings to the factors in yellow.

Students who engage a teacher and attend a regular classroom learning environment whether online or in a traditional classroom are far more likely to have their attributions fall into the yellow section of the grid. Teachers help their students by compounding a positive message of attribution. Instructors should be experts in the material and also professionals at convincing students that their success or failure is due to and Internal / Effort explanation. And students who feel they have control over their learning outcomes are much more likely to persevere in the face of setbacks and are far less likely to be prone to despair and other negative attributions. Remember that learning is innate but the way you learn has itself to be taught. Enter the teacher.

To give an example, a smoker may attribute his smoking to the fact that his parents smoked heavily. Or he may attribute it to stress in his life. If he attributes it to stress then there is a chance he can find alternatives to coping with that stress (something that is inside his control). But if he attributes it to his parent’s smoking (which is outside his control) he may never quit. Likewise with language learning we encounter many attributions which are negative in terms of achieving student’s goals. We’ve all met students who believe that they are poor language learners. You’ll hear other students say they believe they are successful learners. And there are people who believe they can never learn anything properly. But I would like to share something else with you. The key factor is not your ability or what you believe about your ability right now. The key factor is knowing that you can control the important elements that direct your language learning. This gives you confidence.

As we have seen humans ‘hardware’ is designed for the assimilation of new language. Left alone in a foreign country without formal instruction you would eventually find that you could communicate with others. But obviously we want to take things a little further than that. And to achieve that is a long term goal that is easier to grasp at if the negative attributions are not in the way. Attribution retraining helps our students to:

1. concentrate on the tasks rather than becoming distracted by fear of failure

2. respond to frustration by retracing their steps to find mistakes or figuring out alternative ways of approaching a problem instead of giving up

3. attribute their failures to insufficient effort, lack of information, or reliance on ineffective strategies rather than to lack of ability (Brophy 1986).

There has been a lot written about the approach to student attributions. There are thousands of activities spanning hundreds of theories on how best to approach the issue. At ULearn we take the issues of student attribution seriously. However that seriousness manifests itself in a laid back environment in which adult learners can feel at ease. Through personal assessments and feedbacks, weekly tests, competitive games in pairs and groups and other layered learning activities we allow students to break the ice and find out more about their own learning attributions.

In this regard ULearn’s mission is the development and improvement of a space where student start to gain a positive mental feedback loop. This means that students start to learn with a positive mindset. Teachers frame the students self-assessment and peer assessment very clearly in terms of items within the students control (Effort / Difficulty of task). This positive reinforcement is central to maintaining an enjoyable place to learn English.

So the last message I would like to leave you with is to just relax. Learning the guitar I was once told is all about relieving stress. Things that are automatic and rapid happen without thought and without any stress. Language learning is no different. Through the experience of our teachers we have found that EFL students make better, faster, progress in the long run if they are given sufficient time to absorb new input and are not pressured to complete work or meet performance expectations right away. Nurturing confident learning is the key. The effect of stress on learning has been termed “downshifting.” As students are put under more pressure the domain of higher thinking & the learning centres in the brain, (situated in the neocortex) begin function less efficiently, and sometimes shut down entirely leading to a “mental block.” So what better than to sit back, relax and listen to the sound of success? If you start to worry about it you really will be doing yourself no favours at all. A relaxed student is a successful student. So kick back and relax – let your brain do the work.

Learn more about ULearn English school Dublin, by visiting ULearn’s site and blog. Once there you will find free content, lessons and video about ULearn’s approach to creating the best English course Dublin