Brain Plasticity
The human brain is amazing. With the right kinds of experiences
and sustained engagement we can learn to do wonderful things.
Other kinds of experiences—like those that lead us to feel afraid of
looking stupid in front of our peers—can result in our brain
actually shutting down its best learning centers.
What is one of your greatest
learning experiences? What
factors contributed to your
success?
As teachers, we want to help each student make the most of
their brain. Doing so will require each of us to learn a lot more
than we presently know and continue to do so throughout the
course of our lives. Every day neuroscientists, teachers, and
others are discovering new ways to facilitate learning. It’s an
exciting time to be alive and involved in helping learners to
succeed. We welcome you to this adventure and hope to learn a
great deal from you as we become a community of learners
seeking to become more effective designers of learning
experiences!
Case Study: Tim Doner
Tim Doner had the opportunity to study French from the third grade on and
began Latin in the seventh grade. But he was not particularly good at language
learning. It was like any other school subject. He just did his homework.
Neither of his parents were bilingual and he wasn’t exposed to other
significant bilingual role models. Language learning didn’t excite him.
At age twelve Tim had some experiences outside of school that resulted in his
beginning to experience language learning in new ways. At fourteen he
enrolled in BYU’s 2010 Arabic STARTALK camp. He was not a particularly
outstanding language learner, except in one thing: He enjoyed performing for
his fellow students. Here is a routine he practiced and practiced and recorded
toward the end of the camp:
http://vimeo.com/13476672
Case Study: Tim Doner
During the camp Tim was particularly impressed by two people: an Arab T.A.
who spoke English very well and one of his teachers (a native speaker of
English). Both tutor and teacher spoke three languages well. These camp
experiences were the catalyst that launched Tim on a passionate languagelearning journey. In spite of a demanding academic-year schedule, over the last
three years he has made significant progress in learning 20+ languages, some of
them quite well, as you can see here:
http://polyglotpal.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_17.html
Note: Tim has worked mostly with tutors and on his own in pushing on with
Arabic. He’s never been to the Middle East.
What lessons can you learn from Tim
about fully engaging and acquiring
significant ability in Arabic?
DNA or a Learned Skill?
Many teachers and students fail to see important lessons we can learn from Tim,
because they dismiss him as an exception. They are convinced that he was born with a
rare gift for learning languages after puberty. Our experience with Tim and a recent
interview we did with him suggest that his success is actually the result of: 1) intense
focus; 2) lots of hard work acquiring basics and practicing tasks relevant to his interests;
3) finding joy in the journey. As a result of these factors, Tim has become a very
talented language learner. Over the years we have witnessed how some learners—even
one who seemed to have almost no natural talent for language learning, who was one
of the worst in his classes in the beginning—turned into some of the best learners we
know.
Now please read at least the first half of this article on mindset:
http://www.awaionline.com/2011/06/is-your-mindset-keeping-you-from-yourpotential/
What implications do you see from highly
successful learners like Tim for helping other
learners succeed in learning Arabic?
Implications of Brain Plasticity for
Learners and Teachers of Arabic
Our understanding of how the brain works has changed a great deal in the last two
decades. New tools now allow us to look much more closely at what is going on in the
brain. These insights are making it possible to help people in ways we never
imagined, including some who have experienced massive strokes. We now know that
our brains are able to change, to adapt, to learn new skills to a far greater degree
than we previously believed possible. Watch this brief video summarizing research on
brain plasticity and note the far-reaching implications for language learning (don’t get
bogged down in the physiology, just look for useful insights to help you better
understand how to help your students):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Vo-rcVMgbI&NR=1&feature=endscreen
From what you’ve learned about mindset and
brain plasticity so far, what are some specific
things you feel that you could do as a teacher of
Arabic to help your students make more of their
brain power?
The better we are at designing a learning experience that captures students’
attention and motivates them to practice a lot the more likely it is that significant
learning will be the result. Consider the following example and as you do please
note in particular how the teacher has constructed the experience to get and keep
students' attention and keep them practicing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4rk5zfKrgM&feature=share&list=PLEF6AD005
CCBFFAC1
High quality language programs
provide learning experiences that light a
fire in students and show them how to
effectively and efficiently move forward in
their quest for acquiring skill in using
Arabic. As we have seen, students can also
do this for themselves.
What have you learned? How will
you use this in the future?
Think about examples of programs you
have seen provide this type of
significant learning experience (Arabic,
French, Math, Economics…)?
Case Study: Belal Joundeya
On March 8 Belal Joundeya, one of our former teacher trainees who now teaches
in BYU STARTALK camps, presented at NECTFL to a standing-room-only crowd
(http://www.nectfl.org/sessions-lets-make-language-learning-active-fun). He and
his students are a stunning success story. He showed video of classroom activities
he does with children K-8. This is one teacher who has taken his training to heart
and is excelling at creating student-centered learning experiences.
Case Study: Belal Joundeya
When asked what influences were most important in his transformation as a
teacher he named two: 1) our webinar held on June 22nd, 2011: “Student Anxiety
and Motivation during Intensive Language Study Abroad,” led by clinical
psychologist and author Dr. Madeline Ehrman who recently retired after 35 years at
the Foreign Service Institute’s School of Language Studies where she was Director of
Research Evaluation & Development. The webinar focuses on sources and
symptoms of student anxiety during study abroad and tools for program directors,
teachers and mentors to assist them in becoming effective self-regulating learners.
2) Kirk Belnap discussing the following quote and its implications with STARTALK
teacher trainees: “We won’t meet the needs for more and better higher education
until professors become designers of learning experiences and not [just] teachers.”
(Spence, 2001, quoted in Fink, 2003).
Case Study: Belal Joundeya
The idea of designing significant learning experiences that help students to fully
engage, to pay rapt attention has transformed Belal’s practice. Recently he called us to
excitedly report on his students' STAMP test scores. They went from Novice Mid to
Intermediate Mid during the 2012/13 academic year. He said it was a result of his
giving them “can do” statements, regularly reviewing progress with them, and seeing
them catch fire and really push themselves. Watch this conversation he led recently
with these high school students who have studied Arabic for four, five and six years
(most of their progress has come in the last year as they’ve caught the vision of shortterm goal setting):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h_Vctyb2dM
Reflecting on these results, what do you feel you could do to
help your students more rigorously and more effectively pursue
acquiring real proficiency in using Arabic?
Case Study: Ryan Gregg
Case Study: Ryan Gregg
When we interviewed Ryan in Jerusalem in 2011 he was a volunteer at
Shevet Achim, an NGO that brings in children with congenital heart defects
from around the Middle East in order to receive life-saving medical
treatment otherwise unavailable to them. Ryan’s responsibilities at that
time included giving tours of the historic building in Hebrew
(Ryan giving tour in English).
Case Study: Ryan Gregg
He is now an accomplished language learner, but this is a recent
development. He found little success or interest in studying Spanish in
high school, but a trip to Israel when he was 18 aroused his curiosity and
learning Hebrew eventually became a passion. The path to proficiency in
Hebrew, however, was anything but smooth. At first he was doubtful of
his ability to learn even the alphabet, but he found joy in the journey,
pushed through some hard times, learned how to learn a language, and
went on to become one of Hebrew University’s star students.
Case Study: Ryan Gregg
Ryan’s drive to learn Hebrew has resulted in him developing strategies at
various stages that have helped him learn the language both in connection
with organized classes and on his own. He always carries a notebook with him
and records new words that he later studies. Recognizing that he was too
dependent on seeing Hebrew written, he has worked to strengthen his ability
to understand and make connections through listening to Hebrew both in the
news and conversations, as well as in poetry readings. He has learned to
embrace that fact that he will occasionally make embarrassing mistakes and
use such experiences as a tool for pushing forward in acquiring fluency in
Hebrew. Listen to him speak for himself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3nYEM6in20
You’ll find more at:
http://nmelrc.org/success-stories-ryan-gregg
To understand better why these students may have made more progress
than is typical for students at this stage of study, read Kirk Belnap’s “Towards
Deep Learning,” the final article in the February 2011 AATA newsletter.
What brain plasticity insights help to explain the greater progress students
make in content courses?