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Reflective Journal

Submitted to:Ms Amina Gardezi

Submitted by:Ahmad Safwan Bajwa

M.phil TESL (Sem1)






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Reflective Journal of Psychology of Language Classroom Practices
This reflective journal consists of important topics which show that teaching and
learning are indispensable to each other. They are like co-joined twins .They
complement each other in class room environment and in real life situations.
Learning is often defined as relatively permanent change in behavior resulting
from practice or experience. Learning is the construction of meaning. Meaning
generation is the essence of learning. There are different schools of thoughts which
promote distinctive theories of learning. These theories are discussed below:
Behaviorism
Behaviorists believe that behaviors, good or bad are learned. Mind is considered to
be a blank slate and whatever we write on it will be reflected through our behavior.
Mechanical drills in class room environment and learning of tables in maths are
best examples of behavioral approach. Most of the time, memorization is done
without understanding. Practice plays pivotal role in the process of retention. When
I was in America, I readily fastened my seat belt, the moment I sat on the driving
seat and it was so mechanical because of daily practice. There are three types of
behaviorist theories of learning. Contiguity refers to any stimulus or response
tends to be associated in time and space. Most of the students come with blank
mind after summer vacations on first day but become normal in the upcoming
days. I can cook a specific dish after ten years, even if I have abandoned cooking.
A child consciously writes correct spelling in English class but ignores them in
science and history class. Classical conditioning involves establishing a connection
between a neutral stimulus and existing reflexes. When I was in 9th Grade, one of
my teachers loved to humiliate students and comment sarcastically. His squeaky
voice (unconditioned stimulus) always resulted in severe head ache (unconditioned
response) if he I listen to a person having same voice (neutral stimulus) even today,
I get severe headache (natural response).Operant conditioning is based on the
principles of reward and punishment. Finish your math and we will have 15
minutes of break time (Premack principle).Rewards can be taken as positive
reinforcement. Punishment is a negative reinforcement .i.e. reducing 5 minutes
break time from a disruptive student. My nephew Abdullah is not allowed to watch
cartoons, if he doesnt finish his homework. But the process of learning is much
more than reward and punishment. A teacher should not give rewards all the time
or give punishment for rude behavior. We may consider some additional
terminology related to these theories as well. Extinction: A student in my O level
class stopped passing nasty comments when I simply ignored him during class, he
started behaving normally. Spontaneous recovery: When the same student
exhibited normal behavior, I thought that he had developed positive attitude. But
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one day, he played songs on mobile and I scolded him spontaneously considering
him most insolent boy. Stimulus generalization: While attending the first lecture of
CALL & CALT, I found it difficult but after attending several lectures, I found it
very interesting. Discrimination: Most of students join Diploma in NUML to
improve their speaking skills which lays equal emphasis on all four skills but after
observing students interest, four periods per week for speaking skills are reserved
to entertain students learning goals.
Cognitive Psychology
The term cognitive is derived from the Latin verb cognoscere, which means to
know. Cognitivists believe that our brains are so complex that even the most
sophisticated and latest computers cant duplicate, even the simplest thought
process. Learning is a constructive process. It is the ability of merging your past
knowledge with your present experiences and then applying them in real life
situation. Schemas are mental frame works used to organize, rearrange and
restructure knowledge. These are building blocks of knowledge .i.e. whenever I
think about Dubai, my schemas consist of Desert Safari, Wild Vaadi, shopping
malls, metro train, sky scrapers, cruise ride, food courts as a tourist, but a laborers
schema would include hot weather, ruthless desert, machines, sweating etc.
Cognitive skills include; reasoning: It is based on perceptions and intuitions. We
make valued judgments and justify the perceptions and intuitions on logical
grounds and facts and figures. Perception: whenever a new teacher comes in the
class, we make perceptions about his temperament (klazky). It is the apprehension
of present situation in the light of past experience. Intuition: Intuition is your sixth
sense or assumption about the future events in connection with past. Last week, I
woke up with the feeling that something wrong is going to happen .My director
called me in furious mood and criticized me regarding students poor performance
in mid-term exams.
These skills can be subcategorized as; processing speed: The mind processes
the newly received data so proficiently and encourages fast thinking and learning.
The proficient readers dont read every single word and assess the meaning even if
they read jumbled sentences due to excessive reading practice. Auditory
processing: students should be exposed to various accents and intonation patterns.
They should be provided proper ear training. Initially, stories should be told in
slow pace but increase the speed gradually. Visual processing: Ability of receiving
and manipulating visual information greatly affects our LTM. Whatever attracts us
or something unusual, captures our attention and is stored in our LTM, rest is
forgotten. Memory: Memory skills fall into two broad categories. Short term or
working memory: It is crucial for learning as it deals with current experiences .In
exam days, STM is very active. Students transfer to the paper sheet, the essay or
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story that is crammed last night but after two days, they forget everything, as they
memorize it without understanding. If STM is over loaded with ideas, in times of
tension, it collapses as it happened in my Science paper of grade 7.While writing
essays or story, STM works efficiently to remember last sentence. Long term or
recall memory: It is a part of brain where information is stored for later use. We
retrieve information by making connections. The phone numbers of our dear ones
are stored in our LTM. Few quotes are stored in our LTM, and while writing
essays and participating in debates or delivering lectures, I retrieve them from my
LTM and use them by making connections. Receptive memory: This includes the
physical features of stimulus that can be recalled later. It is also called
photographic memory, whenever I got a chance to meet a new person, I keenly
watch his outfit, foot wear and accessories and can describe them even a month
later. Sequential memory: This refers to chronological order of events .Dyslexic
students fall short of this memory thats why they cant read or write the letters in
the word in a sequence. Students also find problem in learning correct order of
dates in history paper. Rote memory: Learners having strong rote memory can
learn tables, formulae, grammatical rules, holy verses easily without having any
understanding. Concentration: When a person focuses his attention for any length
of time, it is called concentration. In Pakistani classroom the concentration span in
a 40 minutes class is 8 minutes, and that too occurs in the middle. Students should
concentrate on the lesson to make it a long lasting experience .It is an act of will
and students should be given proper training to enhance this skill. Logical thinking:
It is a learned mental process. It involves sequential thoughts. Argumentative
essays and justifying the thesis statement with the help of literature review and data
analysis that illustrate logical thinking.
The information processing approach focuses the storage of information in
memory and highlights the involved process. Information is processed and stored
in three stages. Human are genetically prepared to organize and process
information in specific ways. Information perceived through sensory store (audio,
visual, tactile) is stored in short term memory. We focus on the talk that we find
interesting and filter the irrelevant material. This experience is stored in STM for a
while and is processed before becoming a part of LTM. Serial processing: When
you focus on a single area of language i.e. vocabulary or grammar or when you
focus on a single subject. Parallel processing: When you use language in all
subjects. Bottom up processing: It takes into account words, phrases, ideas and
themes in a sequence to write a structured, coherent essay or a story. Top down
processing: When you split the whole information into various components.
Concept formation: A concept is the set of rules to categorize similar ideas, events
or objects.

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Jean Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development
The first is a sensory-motor stage. This stage on average lasts until a child is
about two years old. During the sensory-motor stage, a child investigates the
world through his five senses: taste, touch, sight, sound, and smell. A child
develops an awareness that things and people exist even when the child is not
there. For example, at the completion of this stage, a child is aware that his clothes
are still in the cupboard, even when he is in his room and cannot see them. A child
will also develop some motor skills during this time. Though, children typically
have no understanding of symbolic representation. The final three stages are
operational stages. The preoperational stage takes place when a child begins and
continues to develop language and thinking skills, and characteristically lasts from
age two until age seven. The child also becomes attentive on himself and how the
world communicates to him. The concrete operational stage generally occurs
between the ages of seven and eleven. In the concrete operational stage, a child
begins to see the world with regard to others, not just the child himself. Children
also begin to develop rational thinking; they begin to realize that the way things are
associated and arranged has nothing to do with the sum of a thing. For example,
children will begin to understand that in the following pictures there are still only
five boxes in each picture, even if they are arranged differently, different colors,
size etc.,










The final stage of Piaget's theory is known as the formal operational stage. The
formal operational stage begins around age eleven and lasts all through adult life.
Both logical and abstract thinking are developed during this stage. The thought
process is ever changing. For example, I asked my niece when she was four years
old that why she eats fruits, she said, "Theyre tasty." Now she is eleven and I
asked the same question and she answered , "they're good for me" Asking a doctor
class why a person eats fruits can lead to an entire discussion on what foods you
should eat and what they do for you. During each stage we gain life experiences
and increase our knowledge through them. Piaget also believed that a child who
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hadn't completed certain developmental stages could not learn things from higher
developmental stages. For example, a child who has not learned language could
not think logically. Piaget believed that the human mind is embedded with specific
ways of doing things. For example, a baby knows how to suck his thumb without
being taught, we breathe unconsciously, and our hearts beat without being ordered
to. There are three major concepts when dealing with changing inbuilt system.
Assimilation occurs when a person perceives a new thing in terms of existing
knowledge. Accommodation occurs when you revise existing cognitive makeup
based on new information. Equilibration includes both assimilation and
accommodation and is considered the expert developmental process.
Vygotskys Socio Cultural Theory
Lev Vygotsky had a different view on cognitive development. He believes that
learning is transferred from generation to generation; that it is a result of directed
social relations in which children work with their peers and directors to solve
problems and that cognitive development could only be understood if you took
cultural and social circumstances into account. He believes that you are unable to
think until you know and understand a language. Vygotsky places considerably
more emphasis on social factors contributing to cognitive development than Piaget.
The major theme of Vygotsky's theoretical framework is that social interaction
plays a fundamental role in the development of cognition. In contrast to Jean
Piagets understanding of child development Vygotsky feels that social learning
comes first in development. He states: Every function in the childs cultural
development appears twice: first, on the social level, and later, on the individual
level; first, between people (inter psychological) and then inside the child (intra
psychological). Vygotsky's theory was an attempt to explain consciousness as the
end product of socialization. For example, in the learning of language, our first
utterances with peers or adults is for the purpose of communication but once
mastered, they become internalized and allow "inner speech". Culture also gets
prominence in shaping cognition. The thinking of a student, studying in Beacon
House, would be entirely different from a student of public school. The former
must have great exposure to latest technological advancements and have enriched
target language as compared to later, so their vocabulary must differ. Vygotsky's
theory holds the idea that the potential for cognitive development depends upon the
"zone of proximal development" (ZPD). Vygotsky theorized the Zone of Proximal
Development, which he defined as the difference between the actual
developmental level of a child and the developmental level, a child could make
with the plausible amount of assistance. He identifies this assistance as scaffolding
and believed that teachers should foster learning, independence, and growth among
students .e.g. while teaching to Grade 5, I noticed that students are able to be more
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successfully learn when they work in small groups. At that time I didnt know that
this strategy makes use of Vygotskys Zone of Proximal Development. Now I
know that it emphasizes the effectiveness of working in small groups when there is
at least one student who is more capable in communicating in the language (the
more knowledgeable other MKO). Knowing about this theory and what it proposes
has encouraged me to use specially structured small groups more often to support
the growth and learning of all students.
Gestalt psychology
Gestalt psychology is a school of thought that looks at the human mind and
behavior as a whole. The fundamental "formula" of Gestalt theory might be
expressed in this way. "There are wholes, the behavior of which is not determined
by that of their individual elements, but where the part-processes are themselves
determined by the intrinsic nature of the whole. Have you ever noticed how a
series of flashing lights often appears to be moving, such as neon signs or strands
of Christmas lights??? According to Gestalt psychology, this apparent movement
happens because our minds fill in missing information. This belief that the whole is
greater than the sum of the individual parts led to the discovery of several different
phenomena that occur during perception. Gestalt psychology says that you take
different things and give different meaning to it. In academics we could see that
sometimes you give questions to students which are quite subjective and different
people attempt them differently. Moreover we cannot ignore the individual
differences. What Gestalt psychology says is that depending on individual
difference we behave differently and give different meanings to the same situation
within the same time period. For instance, if I scold two of my students, one starts
crying and the other is quite. As I leave the classroom, the student who is crying
starts saying that my teacher hates me and is biased to me. However, the other one
who is still composed says very gently that he is my teacher and he must have
scolded me for my betterment. So, you see two different people, same situation,
and same experience but have behaved differently. Gestalt theory of perception is
also based on our understanding of all bits in pieces working in unison. We have a
general perception that all politicians are corrupt but some may be honest .I always
think that all students of my certificate class are less intelligent but sometimes I
come across very intelligent students as well.
Batesons Levels of Learning
Level 0 is a direct experience. I had to teach connotations to my certificate
students. To explain the connotations, associated to black color, I showed them a
picture, in which some women wearing black dress were crying in a funeral
ceremony. I told them that a black color connotes mourning. Level 1 represents
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generalizations from basic experiences. So, my students got an idea that whoever is
weeping in a black dress must be in state of mourning. Level 2 contextualizes and
elaborates the experiences by making comparisons and giving choices. I told my
students that black color is not restricted to mourning but it connotes horror, magic,
suspense, glamour, formal wear. Similarly Christians wear black dress on funerals
but Hindus wear white, where as there is no color restrictions for Muslims
Motivation
Motivation is a way of explaining how people are aroused by an event, how they
direct their behavior towards the event, and how they sustain that behavior for a
given length of time (Ball).However in educational contexts, its students
eagerness, need, craving and obligation to take part in, and be successful in, the
learning process (Bomia). Motivation is your fortitude to perform specific tasks or
to excel in life. Instrumental motivation focuses on learning L2 for practical
purposes i.e. getting good job or passing exams. I was doing my job as a school
teacher but I resigned from my job and did M.A ELT to become a university
lecturer. Similarly I took admission in M.Phil. TESL and sacrificed my lectures as
a visiting faculty for better future prospects. Integrative motivation deals with
learners positive attitudes to appreciate target language culture and
communicating with native speakers of that language. French culture always
fascinates me and its my dream to visit Paris someday, thats why I learned
French after doing MA English.
Dornyei model of motivation: It leads to three dimensions of integrative
motivational subsystems. Interest in L2 culture and people, cherishing broadened
view and neglecting provincialism i.e. Sindhi, Punjabi belts desire for new stimuli
and challenges overlapped with instrumental subsystem. Levels of motivation:
Level 1 refers to integrative or instrumental motivation and extrinsic or intrinsic
including sense of achievement. Level 2 refers to increase or decrease in
motivation after some time. Class room experiences, learners personality and
interactive influences change motivation level. When I got admission in F.sc, my
motivation was high, but because of large classes, orthodox teaching methodology
and non-supportive peer attitude I lost my interest in F.sc, although I tried to be
persistent but couldnt accomplish my goal. Teacher Specific Motivational
components: Teachers, personality, attitude, competence, fluency, proficiency,
confidence, teaching style are the prime driving force in learning new language.
My 7th grade English teacher Mrs. Kamaal developed language interest in me and
her pleasant personality, command over language and friendly attitude greatly
influenced my learning. My maths teacher was so strict, so as a result I used to hate
that subject. Course specific motivational components: Interesting, authentic and
relevant materials promote learners involvement. Audio and visual aids enhances
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learners concentration to great extent. The motivating, attainable, striking,
challenging, slightly unpredictable tasks, catering to learning styles should be
designed. Success in tasks enhances your ego satisfaction and promotes self-belief,
which results in catering positive attitude towards learning. If learners find
difficulty with task, it should be simplified. Group Specific Motivation: goal-
orientedness, norm and reward system, group cohesion, class room goal structures
and group goal contribute towards collaborative and effective learning. Class room
climate give rise to competitive, cooperative and individualistic learning. In MA
ELT, we enjoyed peer learning more as compared to teachers lectures. Most of us
were professional teachers and we shared our experiences. We supported the
healthy competition, focusing our individual and multiple intelligences. Our exams
result proved the worth of group cohesion and peer learning. Examinations and
motivation are inter related. Success in exams results in excessive self-trust,
whereas failure leads to lack of motivation, pessimism and dejection.
Learning Styles
Learning depends upon two things, the individuals style and his aptitude towards a
particular thing and how he is trained in learning. Most of my students like to study
in groups because they believe that they learn more by discussions, rather than rote
learning. We acquire language through our environment, society and they develop
our general schemata. According to Keefe, learning style is the composite of
characteristic cognitive, affective and physiological factors that serves as relatively
stable indicators of how a learner perceives, interacts and responds to the learning
environment. The concept of visual (seeing), audio (hearing) and kinetic (moving/
touching) enhance the learning process because we as teachers could motivate our
students, by creating a learning environment through these aids. Yesterday, one of
my students, who is a lecturer in Superior University was mumbling during his
paper. He said that he could not write even a single word without
speaking(auditory learner), whereas my nephew Bilal learns by constantly
moving(kinesthetic learner).Some students can clarify the concepts only with the
help of visuals(visual learners).Kolb gave a very precise point when he says that
learning is a process, whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of
experience .e.g. I always encourage my students to share their experience in the
classroom, the other day I was teaching my students The Black Cat by Edger
Allen Poe, and the concept of superstition came, all the students discussed the
various strange superstitions that they ever came across, now that they have their
own superstitions in their culture, they are in a positions to compare them with the
Western ones. Learning process occurs in a cyclic form where a learner first
experience a stimuli, then he reflects upon it, think over it and then acts
accordingly. So, if a task-based approach is incorporated within the syllabus by
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bringing new activities in the classroom, the students would react to the stimuli
according to their schemata. The way they feel and think would influence their
learning process. Kolbs definition of learning suggests concrete experience,
reflective observation, abstract conceptualization and active experimentation.
Having said all this about learning he goes on to say about style, which he
elaborated in diverging, assimilating, converging and accommodation. If the
educators emphasis on these steps instead of the traditional approaches, it would
help in teaching and learning process, and the teachers could encourage the
students by utilizing audio, visual aids, experiences and discussion in the
classroom.
Classroom Interactions
Classroom interaction is a major variable effecting SLA in formal setting. The
traditional teaching style consists of disordered lecture, exchanges and is teacher-
centered. The new approach emphasizes on the interaction between teachers and
the learners, therefore involving everyone in active learning. For that matter the
teacher should be aware of what to ask the students, how he must carry with the
task, how to give feedback, and how he reacts to the errors committed by the
students .e.g. I always ask my students about what they think about the topic,
before giving them the details about it, some students do not like this approach but
I think that through brainstorming and classroom interaction students develop
confidence in sharing their ideas with the teacher and the other students as well.
The teacher should encourage individual talk, group talk, pair talks etc. Now the
question is what type of interaction gears the learning process of L2? Van Lier
suggested that small talks, instructions, interviews and substitution drills could
trigger the interaction in the classroom. Other than these, one could interact about
language, content related to syllabus, tasks, organizational and social topics. When
dealing with tasks, the teacher should pay attention to pre-task, while-task and the
post- tasks. The purpose behind classroom interaction is that more learners learn at
the same time, learners are less anxious with peers, they can correct and learn from
the experiences of other students and above all the teacher can access the students
talk. As teacher is a guide, he controls the class, and if positive environment is
created in the classroom, the students should give vent to their cognitive abilities.
Students learn more in collaborative environment. I asked my ELT4 class to design
audio visual aids, as their mid-term project. Some of them got personal conflicts,
but they helped each other in a tremendous way. They designed posters, flipcharts,
flash cards, wall charts and recorded documentaries. They gave power point
presentations and prepared a consolidated document for their written paper and the
result of this collaborative effort was amazing.

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Second Language Acquisition and Learning
We subconsciously acquire L2, concerning least with the grammatical rules of the
language but develop a feel for correctness. On the contrary, we deliberately learn
the grammatical structures and rules of L2 and perform tedious drills. We feel
weary of being incorrect. But this obsession with correctness hampers fluency and
creativity and promotes rote learning. To err is human and one learns by making
mistakes. There are some hypotheses regarding language acquisition. The natural
order hypothesis suggests the sequence involving nonverbal production, one or two
words responses, and short phrases, complete statements including arguments,
justifications and proficient speech. The monitor hypothesis refers to conscious
editor, which monitors our language in terms of grammatical correctness and
selects the language according to situation. Monitor over users lack fluency. One
of my students in certificate class is so conscious about tenses that he loses his
confidence while speaking and forgets the topic. The affective filter hypothesis
shows that self-confidence and motivation are at peak, when affective filter are low
due to relaxation. On the other hand, due to anxiety, affective filters become low
resulting in STM collapse. In my Discourse analysis paper, I was very tense and
couldnt attempt the question about contrastive analysis because of tension. The
moment I left the class, I realized that I knew its answer very well The input
hypothesis states that a language acquirer must receive input which is slightly
higher than his level, input +1. Input is a language to which learner is exposed
in the form of speech or reading material. I always select bit challenging listening
or reading texts for my students, which stimulate their thinking and inferential
abilities, but they are still comprehensible. Intake represents the significant part
that is stored in memory. Saliency and frequency of item is important in becoming
intake. Interaction also plays pivotal role in negotiating meanings. Output
hypothesis refers to production, focusing on syntactical patterns after getting
semantic ones. Socio cultural view of language gives prominence to environment
and social interactions. My maid can speak English well because she plays with
children at home and watches English cartoons with them. In this way she has
acquired language without formal learning.
Learner Autonomy
Holec defines autonomy as the ability to take charge of ones own decision. It is
also a capacity for detachment, critical reflection, decision making, and
independent reaction (Little).Autonomy is a process and not product. It cant be
gained overnight. It is a gradual shift from the teacher centered environment to
learner centered environment. It is not the learning without teacher, but learning
with the support of teacher. Here, the teacher works as facilitator, counselor or
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resource, contradicting his traditional authoritative role. Students are involved in
the process of decision making, that enhances their self-efficacy and give them
sense of achievement and learning satisfaction. In my Advance diploma class at
NUML, I always ask my students to decide the mode of class. They show their
preferences for different topics in the form of presentations, discussions, lectures or
assignments. Whenever they got difficulty, I provide my support. They are
satisfied with their progress. This autonomous learning and decision making power
has positive results. I encourage my students to bring their own materials in class
.i.e. newspapers, video recordings, travel brochures, stories, posters, and leaflets
etc, anything that can be used in speaking skills class to generate discussion.
Autonomy refers to students involvement in planning, monitoring and evaluating
their learning. I ask them to make diaries to note their daily progress and evaluate
it at the end of session. Autonomous learning flourishes in collaborative and
interactive environment. I ask the students to participate in group projects, pair
wok, to write collaborative essay on blog or join chat rooms to foster autonomy
.On the other hand, I always answer their phones and e-mails, when they need
guidance .Every class is a mixed ability class and teachers come across various
learning styles, so teachers should gradually build individual and collaborative
autonomy, keeping these facts in minds. I never criticize my students and focus on
fluency, rather than accuracy in the first month of my speaking classes. I note
down errors and politely mention and correct them at the end of class. When they
got confidence, I gradually shift control to them and involve them in selection of
topics or ask them to bring the topics, they want to discuss in the class and decide
the mode of class themselves. They are greatly motivated in this way and show
encouraging results by monitoring and evaluating their progress. But sometimes
this idea of autonomy doesnt work. Most of the students in NUML come from
peripheries and are products of GTM, so they prefer teacher centered classes. In
my last speaking skills class, a 55 years old school teacher showed his disliking for
group discussion and said that teacher should force the students to give individual
presentation to maintain traditional class room environment. The curriculum of
Forman Christian College shows more autonomy on the part of learner as he can
select his subjects, teachers and timings as compared to NUML.
When I was assigned the task of writing reflective journal, I considered it as a
tedious and a boring job. But it turned out to be a wonderful journey to recollect
my memories and to connect my teaching and learning experiences to various
theories of eminent scholars and philosophers. This document will help to reshape
my future teaching practices in a significant way. Last but not least, I have really
enjoyed this course and I want to pay my heartfelt gratitude to MS Amina Gardezi
for her constant support, involvement and devoted teaching.

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References
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Nunan, D. 2003. Practical English Language Teaching. Singapore: The McGraw-Hill companies
Ur, P.1996. A course in language teaching: Cambridge University Press
The Internet TESL Journal, 2000, What is Learner Autonomy and How Can It Be Fostered, 6
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