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Rusudan Gogokhia, Doctor of Education, Associate Professor European University, Tbilisi, Georgia
Manana Shelia, Doctor of Education, Associate Professor Sokhumi State University, Tbilisi, Georgia
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN VERBAL LEARNING
Аннотация
Иностранный язык - одна из главных потребностей современного глобального мира. Знание иностранного языка улучшает навыки студентов, увеличивает их познавательные и аналитические способности.
Данная статья рассматривает стратегий, индивидуальные различия, используемые в вербальном процессе обучения. Лексика учащиеся является широкой, они наслаждаются языком, повторяют термины вслух, обрабатывают новые понятия, сотрудничают с однокурсниками, участвуют в обсуждениях и т. д.
Средства обучения предназначены для формирования знаний, умений, управления познавательной деятельностью учащихся. Внедрение в учебный процесс вербальное обучение даёт возможность организовать учебную и познавательную деятельность на более высоком уровне. Вербальное обучение, как правило, связано с запоминанием и сохранением перечня слов, когда передача и получение новых знаний идет преимущественно посредством слова.
Ключевые слова: вербальное обучение, запоминанием и сохранением перечня слов, ассоциативного обучения, последовательное обучение.
As is known language is a medium of communication. Learning a foreign language draws learners' focus to the world of language, its history and structure.
Knowledge of foreign language is one of the basic needs of today's globalized world that improves learners' skills, enhances their cognitive and analytical abilities.
In order to optimize the learning process, classroom experiences should be directly related to student interests. Students are more likely to retain newly learned information when the content is associated with strong positive emotion(s).
The motive and interest plays a great role on teaching a foreign language these two components are major factors of development of cognitive activity. Motivation is the psychological feature that arouses a learner's action toward a desired goal.
In order to conduct language teaching successfully it is necessary to use effective methods focusing on contemporary approaches having advantages to sustain students' interest in the language learning process.
All learning involves activities. Active Learning includes a range of teaching and learning activities. Active learning was first defined by Bonwell and Eison (1991) as "anything that involves students in doing things and thinking about the things they are doing' (emphasis added).
Active learners prefer learning in a group, they listen to information, convey it, share with group-mates, discuss, explain and this way of learning makes them to remember information easier.
As it is known there are different types of learning: 1. Motor learning; 2. Verbal learning; 3. Concept learning; 4. Discrimination learning; 5. Learning of principles; 6. Problem solving; 7. Attitude learning; Learning style is the way in which each learner begins to concentrate on, process, absorb, and retain new and difficult information (Bjork, McDaniel, Pashler, & Rohrer. 2008).
This paper deals with the strategies, individual differences used in verbal learning process. Verbal learners' vocabulary is broad, they enjoy language, repeat terms aloud, process new concepts, collaborate with group-mates, etc. The involvement of learners' in active teaching process requires engage learners in higher level thinking, they participate in discussions and internet lesson activities.
During the last time study of verbal learning and memory has grown. Verbal learning is the process of actively recalling of verbal material, building associations between a stimulus and a response, including organizational processes of using stimulus material by the learner that acquires ability to form new associative habits.
Verbal learning was first studied by German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus focusing on the processes of association building and recall, which shaped his experiments with verbal material. A. Lowe states that Hermann Ebbinghaus found that words around the beginning and end of the list were more readily recalled than those around the middle; he characterized this as the "serial position effect" (manifests as a "serial position curve" on a graph). (Lowe, 2012)
The awareness that the acquisition of verbal learning skills varies from individual to individual has heavily influenced recent trends in both educational psychology and teacher education, as both researchers and educators strive to develop optimal techniques to improve the verbal learning skills of their students. (Pashler, 2008). [105-119].
The study of verbal learning can be divided into three distinct areas: serial learning, paired-associate learning, and free-recall; each of these approaches attempts to determine how the organization of information impacts upon the learner's ability to remember and reproduce information over the short and long term.
The serial learning considers learning a list of items according to the order in which the items appear in the list. Learners are involved in the learning of a list of verbal items (for example, words
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or syllables). Typically, learners can effectively memorize the words at the beginning and end of the list, but struggle more with remembering words in the center of the list. A useful strategy that can be used while remembering such lists of words is to build associations between them. Some learners choose different ways of remember words. They learn better by writing, others learn by reading or listening. One of the examples of serial learning is when learners are given the following task: name the counties of England in an alphabetical order at the beginning of the list (Avon, Bedfordshire, Berkshire...) and at the end (Yorkshire, Yorkshire East Riding, Yorkshire North Riding, West Riding) to learn the Presidents of the United States in order. Recall of the list is more exact with the names of the counties at the beginning and at the end of the list.
Such experiments have been widely used in tests of short- and long-term memory. Serial learning is memorizing a list of words in a particular order.
Another type of verbal learning is referred to pair associate learning. It happens when people read pairs of words, or other verbal stimuli, then get to see just one item of a pair and have to say what the other is. This type of learning is largely used in education, especially in learning foreign languages. Learners learn vocabularies as pairs of words and build associations between the items of a pair. Paired-associate learning lists a stimulus and response item together, such as sea - blue. The stimulus word is sea and the learner remembers the response word blue. The learner is given the following task: performing of grouping words aimed at the development of random access memory. The task is performed when studying different topics, for example - «The Seasons": Read words and to each of them name words or the phenomena related to the seasons. Write the couples of words. Define them: e. g. spring - green; summer - bright; autumn - harvest; winter - snow, etc.
Free verbal learning is a type of learning, when the learner organizes, uses the information by memory, learns lists of items regardless of their order and sequence. This type of learning is free recall. For example, the learner reads about 20 words aloud, pronouncing also new words. The learner writes as many items from the list as possible. For example clusters of words - to remember shopping list related to clothes: shirt, dress, anorak, coat, tie, skirt, blouse, etc. - (Writing as many items from the list as possible) the subject may use a clustering strategy - grouping items according to their similarity or the number of letters in them. This procedure is called a free recall.
The coding concept is one of the important causes, if not the most important cause, of the extraordinary advance in knowledge and theory of human memory in the last 10 years, and its introduction and development is the most important product of research in these 10 years. (Melton, 1973). [508]
There are various types of codes in verbal learning. We will demonstrate two types: verbal and visual codes.
In case of verbal code learners of language with prevalence verbal (verbal, acoustical) memories are more susceptible to the sound party of a word. Involuntarily they are occurred by rhymes, puns, etc. It will be useful for them to remember about such kind of word list. For instance, examples of perfect rhyme - a perfect rhyme is a case in which two words rhyme in such a way that their final stressed vowel, and all subsequent sounds, is identical: e.g. full - wool, wall- fall, snow -
go, sight - light, rose - dose, right - might, etc
Visual learners work out information giving in visual modes including film, picture, slide or diagram. Different criteria are used, for example, the topic related to colours and shades of colours. Stickers or a series of slides with different colors and shades suit to present the material. In current time learners prefer studying foreign languages with digital or computerized material. During the use of visual code videotapes, CDs, You tube videos, or video podcasts are presented.
Felder & Solomon (2007) explained that visual learners remember best what they see--pictures, diagrams, flow charts, time lines, films, and demonstrations. They tend to find diagrams, sketches, schematics, photographs, flow charts or any other visual representation of course material that is primarily verbal very useful to learn. They use concept maps listing key points, enclosing them in boxed or circles, drawing lines between concepts to show connections. They color code notes with highlighter so that everything relating to one topic is the same color.
Differences in verbal learning are obvious. During verbal learning learners study most efficiently from listening to group-mates, getting information or reading texts.
Verbal learners prefer learning through words and giving explanation of things. They read information or texts loudly, ask a variety of questions, make explanations in writing or orally, they discuss in a group and give short or full answers. This time, we give the learners to read the myth The Land of God. The task is the following 'Read the passage and answer the questions' - the problem with reading comprehension.
After the creation of the heavens and the earth God asked all the peoples of the Earth which part of land they wanted to live and divided their homelands according to their wish.
When God distributed the Earth among the people, Georgians were late because of their traditional feast, and by the moment of their arrival the entire world had already been divided.
The Georgians apologized for being late and the tamada - the toastmaster at a traditional Georgian feast - just said that the Georgians had spent the whole time praising his handiwork. God found this answer so pleasing that he decided to give a small land to Georgians that he had reserved for himself. God said to Georgians: 'Go and live in my paradise, and have my blessing' According to God the land was an unimaginable beautiful and all people would admire and cherish it forever.
Georgia, the cradle of viticulture and land of the Golden Fleece is also called as the Eden of Georgia. Georgia's position at the eastern end of the ancient Silk Road that joins Europe and Asia explains its prominence in myths and legends. The mythical beauty, rich history, traditions, cultural heritage and the hospitable people make Georgia a global treasure.
Who created the world? What did God do after the creation of the world? Why were the Georgians left without piece of land? What does the Georgian word tamada mean? Why did God decide to concede his little plot of land to the Georgians? What kind of country is Georgia? Questions require the learner to identify the most prominent theme (main idea) in a passage (e.g., 'What is this myth, legend, story about?"), derive the meaning of words, etc.
Learners can process texts; purpose for reading is immediate recall and reading to retain
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information. In case of immediate recall they read to use information in an immediate work situation. Learners aim is to understand the information and remember it briefly.
Texts of cognitive character can also raise learners' interest and promote them to enrichment of their lexical fund.
Kucer notes that reading is a complex and purposeful sociocultural, cognitive, and linguistic process in which readers simultaneously use their knowledge of spoken and written language, their knowledge of the topic of the text, and their knowledge of their culture to construct meaning with text. (Kucer, 2005) When a learner reads English texts, she/he can improve vocabulary, grammar and writing skills at the same time.
In the end it is noteworthy to note that verbal learning is the process of acquiring, retaining and recalling of verbal material. At a broader level, verbal learning includes the processes of organizing the stimulus material by the learner and the related changes in the learner's behavior.
Verbal learners are able to express opinions, explain problems, and make solutions to problems through words. They also enjoy using language creatively, through fiction and poetry and even through contemporary art in some cases.
Based on above mentioned psychologists' opinions and teaching practice many different learning strategies and current innovative methods should be used in verbal learning to achieve successful purposes.
References
1. Bonwell, C. C., & Eison, J. A. Active learning: Creating excitement in the classroom (ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Rep. No. 1).Washington, DC: The George Washington University, School of Education and Human Development. 1991.
2. Ebbinghaus, H. Memory: A contribution to experimental psychology. New York: Dover Publications. 1964.
3. Felder, R. Richard Felder on learning styles. Retrieved February 24, 2018, from http://onteachingonline.com/oto-4-richard-felder-on-learning-styles/. 2011.
4. Hurlstone, M. J., Hitch, G. J., & Baddeley, A. D. Memory for Serial Order Across Domains: An Overview of the literature and Interview for the Future Research Psychological Bulletin, 140(2), 339-373. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0034221. 2014.
5. Kucer, S.B. Dimensions of Literacy: A conceptual base for the teaching of reading and writing. (2nd edition) Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. p.128. 2005.
6. Lowe Alec. A Special Place in Our Minds: Examining the Serial Position Effect "The Huron University College Journal of Learning and Motivation: Vol. 50: Iss. 1, Article 6. 2012.
7. Melton Arthur W. The concept of coding in learning-memory theory. Memory & Cognition 1973, Vol. 1,No. 4,508-512
8. Pashler, H., McDaniel, M., Rohrer, D., & Bjork, R. Learning styles: Concepts and evidence. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 9(3): 105-119. 2008.
