Introduction
Language teachers would agree that that are many factors that influence language learning among students. According to Miller (20101), among some of the factors are the comprehensible input of the learners, the learning environment prepared by the teachers, and even the teaching strategies used by teachers. On-going research helps improve the teaching andlearning of language. The range of language research in the past can be categorised into many types. Some language researchers choose to study language teaching methodology, others prefer studies that look into the behavior of language learners. There are also some language studies that looked into the influence of the environment on language teaching and learning. The strength of a research is the how the researchers justifies the content. While many chose past studies to strengthen their literature review, there are many who base their theoretical frame work on educational psychology theories.
Educational Psychology
According to Santrock (2009), psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental process. Educational psychology is the branch of psychology that specializes in understanding teaching and learning in educational settings. There are three branches of educational psychology and they are (a) developmental, (b) cognitive and (c) behavioural psychology .
1 Developmental Psychology
Developmental psychology examines the influences of nature and nurture on the process of human development, and the processes of change in context and across time. Many researchers are interested in the interaction between personal characteristics, the individual’s behavior and environmental factors, including social context and the built environment.
2 Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive psychology is the study of mental processes such as “attention, language use, memory, perception, problem solving, creativity, and thinking”. According to Prakash (2012), when teachers understand the mental processes of their students, they can apply appropriate teaching and learning principles to suit a variety of learning sitations. The main focus in cognitive psychology is the mental processes that affect behaviour.
3 Behavioural Psychology
Behavioural psychology is a branch of psychology that focuses on the study and alteration of people’s behaviours, including their actions, emotions and thoughts. According to Farooq (2012), knowledge of behavioural psychology enables teachers to solve learning problems I the classroom. Many classroom studies are based on behavioural psychology.
Language Learning Strategies
The root of language learning lays in the six language learning strategies (Oxford, 1990).Learners use strategies when they learn a language. The strategies are, cognitive, metacognitive, memory related, compensatory, affective, or social strategies. Six groups of L2 learning strategies have been identified by Oxford (1990).
1 Cognitive Strategies
The strategies enable learners to manipulate the language material in direct ways such as through reasoning, analysis, note-taking, summarizing, synthesizing, outlining, reorganizing information. These sub-strategies help learners develop stronger schemas (knowledge structures)
2 Metacognitive Strategies
Some examples of metacognitive strategies are identifying one’s own learning style preferences and needs, planning for an L2 task, gathering and organizing materials, arranging a study space and a schedule, monitoring mistakes, and evaluating task success, and evaluating the success of any type of learning strategy) are employed for managing the learning process overall.
3 Memory-related strategies
Memory-related strategies help learners link one L2 item or concept with another but do not necessarily involve deep understanding. Various memory-related strategies enable learners to learn and retrieve via sounds (eg, rhyming), images (eg a mental picture of the word itself or the meaning of the word), a combination of sounds and images (eg keyword method), body movement (eg total physical response), mechanical means(eg flashcards), or location (eg a paper or blackboard)
4 Compensatory Strategies
Some examples or compensatory strategies are; guessing from the context in listening and reading, using synonyms and “talking around” the missing word to aid speaking and writing, and strictly for speaking, using gestures or pause words) help the learners make up for missing knowledge.
5 Affective Strategies
Affective strategies help in identifying one’s mood and anxiety level, talking about feelings, rewarding oneself for good performance, using deep breathing or positive self-talk.
6 Social Strategies
Some examples of social strategies are; asking questions to get verifications, asking for clarification of a confusing point, asking for help in doing a language task, talking with a native-speaking conversation partner, and exploring cultural and social norms) help the learner work with others and understand the target culture as well as language.
Language Learning Process
Next, teaching language is a process of discovery. Theories by Brunner and Vygotsky support language learning as a social process through the theory of social constructivism.
1- Constructivism by Brunner
Influenced by Vygotsky, Brunner (Santrock, 2009) emphasizes the role of the teacher, language and instruction. He thought that different processes were used by learners in problem solving, that these vary from person to person and that social interaction is the root of good learning. Brunner (Santrock, 2009) also builds on Socratic’s tradition of learning through dialogue. He encourages the learner to come to enlighten themselves through reflection. Careful curriculum design is; therefore, essential so that one area builds upon the other. Learning must then be a process of discovery where learners build their own knowledge. This is done with the active dialogue of teachers, as well as learners building on their existing knowledge. Brunner (Santrock, 2009) initiated curriculum change based on the notion that learning is an active, social process. This is the process where students construct new ideas or concepts based on their current knowledge. Brunner (Santrock, 2009) provides the following principles of constructivistic learning;
- Instruction must be about experiences and contexts that make the student willing and are able to learn (readiness)
- Instruction must be structured so that it can be easily grasped by the student (spiral organization)
- Instruction should be designed to facilitate extrapolation and /or fill in the gaps (going beyond the information given)
