Tag Archives: student-centred

COGNITIVE APPROACH TO LEARNING

16.1.2026 Raimo J Leave a comment

Learning is directly linked to the amount of thinking in our own brains. If we are feeling good doing that, success will follow.

Let’s face the reality. No-one who really wants to learn a foreign language wants to learn it in a behavioristic environment if they have observed any modern lessons. What I am trying to do in these articles is to give language teachers a practical window to communicative language teaching (CLT) by combining the cognitive and constructive approach to teaching. I have a separate article on behaviourism for those who wish to look at those ideas.

Once again using CLT is a question of beliefs. Not just any beliefs, but beliefs which have been verified in practice over many decades.If the teacher believes the principles below are valid and puts them in practice, the lessons are bound to appeal to the students. But we teachers need to justify why we are using a particular method and what the beliefs behind it are.

If the students see that you are devoted to teaching and helping them, they will realize you really have thought the things through and they rely on you guiding them or at least give you a chance to show where the new method is taking you.

Cognitive approach of learning

In applying the cognitive approach of learning we believe that every student has to develop any new idea in their own minds and connect it with the knowledge they already have. Nobody really knows how learning takes place but we agree on the idea that the brains have to be activated properly. Listening to the teacher talking to the whole class does not necessarily lead to learning and memorization. Learning is a complicated intellectual process where each individual has to be active.

Well, how do we activate the brains then?

Traditionally the activation has been done by the teacher’s presentation followed by questions. This is still valid with young pupils and in some other subjects than languages.

The older the students get and the more they master the language, the more should we rely on giving them problems to solve or questions to be answered in groups. The answers they give do not matter that much. The process in discussing the question in the target language and finding possible answers to it is what matters.

The process is more important than the outcome. Learning takes place during the process, as a by-product of all the activities.

“But, … my students are not able to do any of that”, you might say. You may be right but all the things suggested below are possible AFTER you have dealt with the textbook chapter with its vocabulary and ideas first.

My basic philosophy in CLT is based on three premises:

Insist on your students working on textbook chapters very hard, go through the chapters systematically using mainly student-centered approaches. Get them talking! See my articles on how to do it.
Aim at having free discussion sessions at the end of lessons or unit and apply modern pair and group work techniques teaching all language skills.
Teach the students how they can learn better, justify your views and suggestions and rely on the fact that language and life skills will be a by-product of this approach.

In some classes following Point 1 will work miracles and Point 2 may succeed with a little bit of differentiation. To sound convincing in Point 3 you have to have your own ideas clear in your mind. Very many of my articles touch upon Point 3, too. Be patient at first and be pleased with modest progress and presentations. You will see the difference in a few months. Rome was not built in a day. Neither can you change your teaching over night.

“Ok, but where do I find the time to do all that?”, you ask me. By doing three things:

Make the students study the chapter at home in advance so that they understand the content. This will speed up the activities in the lesson.
Most activities should be oral with very little writing. Instead of silencing the students let them talk and ignore the mistakes they make at this point.
Be brave and skip the chapters in the textbook you or the students do not find stimulating. It is a blessing, in most countries, that we teachers are allowed to choose the materials for teaching.

IN a few weeks or months it may be interesting for you to test how capable your students are in doing a more challenging CLT task in groups.

After the ‘compulsory’ orientation engage the students in doing one of tasks below. Or use a task of your own. In a couple of minutes they are working in groups learning more than you could ever do using some other method. Smiling, forgetting they are at school at all. Believe me, I have experienced it thousands of times.

The influence of positive emotions and attitudes to learning is overwhelming.

The students will learn …

through a process of observation; they are given sample sentences and they have to figure out the grammatical rule on the basis of them instead of the rule be given to them
by linking old memories and experiences to new ones; we link the formulation of comparative forms of adverbs to that of advjectives and make conclusions OR collect all information we have on Australia so far and then make questions that we want to find an answer to
by using creative critical thinking; how can we develop public transport in our town and which obstacles we might encounter (having first studied texts about the topic)
by working on concepts and categorization; developing mind-maps is ideal; central word, for example, energy and the mind-map is developed in groups and presented to others later on
by filling in information gaps; a story is divided in two and your pair asks you questions to find out what is missing in his/her part of the story
through problem solving; how can we save energy in ordinary households or how can we improve recycling in our town

One of the big changes in my teaching in the ‘revelation days’ in the 1990s was to observe the time I spend talking to the whole class, which little by little led to a situation where I restricted my speaking only to maybe 10 minutes in a 75-minute lesson. How? By re-organizing the lesson the way I explain in the articles under ‘The structure of a textbook-based lesson’.

My own experiences of learning languages

By now you must have realized that the Cognitive Approach is much more student-oriented than the Behavioristic one. It also gives the teacher a lot of freedom to try out creatively what works in his/her classes and adapt the style of teaching accordingly.

Teachers who use this philosophy also understand that language lessons are not the only places where languages can be learnt. So, we need to encourage our students to make use of all media in the target language, speak English fearlessly to strangers, read magazines and books in English or do anything else that improves their language skills.

My first memory and source of motivation of learning English properly was when an American choir visited my home town Oulu in the 1960s. I had been studying English for a couple of years but understood only a few words in the songs. However, the songs sounded so beautiful that I started to find English songs myself and finally ended up recording pop songs from Radio Luxemburg, writing down the lyrics and singing along with the tape.

By the time I went to senior high school at the age of 16 I knew hundreds of English songs and I had even learnt most of the English grammar subconsciously thanks to the songs. Somehow I knew how to write unknown words even if I had never seen them. This ‘voluntary project’ also increased my English vocabulary drastically.

After one grammar exam I was terribly disapponted with myself because I had changed the active sentences differently from the others and I thought I had made a mistake. I was surprised when the teacher pointed out that my way of doing it was also right even if it had never been taught to us. Some other teacher in those days might have marked my version wrong because it had not been taught.

It was something like this: My aunt sent us Christmas presents. >> We were sent Christmas presents by our aunt. (taught at school) / Christmas presents were sent (to) us by our aunt. (my version). What I am trying to say is taht some of your students know much more English than you know thanks to their hobbies or interests.

Unfortunately I had no chance to enjoy the benefits of the Cognitive Approach in English lessons over the twelve years I studied it. We never spoke freely in class and I wrote only one ‘essay’ which had to be a joke. It took more than two weeks to get them back marked because other teachers kept on reading them. Frankly speaking, now that I look back my own English lessons were a joke in itself.

Yleinen

Getting students to design vocab tasks, Points 1 – 10

16.1.2026 Raimo J Leave a comment

Activate your students to design vocab tasks at home or at school. You will be amazed how enthusiastic and creative the students get in doing so.

We teachers need to give space for the creativity of our students. letting the students design exercises for others is an excellent opportunity for that. Let me move on to give practical tips what you can do in class to get the students more involved in learning new words.

Of course we need to check the tasks before they are published not to embarrass the designer. Of course there will be a lot of variation in the quality of the tasks and of course there will be mistakes in the tasks.

Nevertheless, the benefits are undeniable. All we teachers need to do is to check the tasks, maybe suggest some improvements and above all find a way how the answers can be checked: the task designer provides the correct answers or the pair or group does not even need one.

The whole point in this is that the students will learn at least the words they are working on. Besides, they become more curious and motivated to solve problems designed by others than doing workbook exercise.

“Good for you but I do not have time for any of this”, I hear you thinking. That is exactly what I thought before I started teaching my students how to design vocab tasks. It takes some time at first but in the long run it is rewarding.

Besides, who says I can’t skip chapters in our textbook and exercises in the workbook. No-one. I know best what my students need and appreciate doing.

Practical vocab task hints for the students and the teacher

Link the new word with a picture or photo. At the beginning of the year decide on the vocab themes of the year (fruit, housing, traffic etc.) Give each pair a topic for which they find 10 – 15 pictures in the internet, get them on one page and write the words at the bottom of the page. Then they send the file to you to be used later with a certain chapter.
Link the new word to your mother tongue. Using mother tongue in exercises is perfectly ok if the class cannot cope tasks in English only . Still, teachers should maximize the use of English in lessons.
Write the unknown words of the chapter on a paper and make up a mindmap or a story. The mindmap may consist of key words of the chapter or anything else as long as it makes the student think hard. The story may be oral only and done in group by each one taking turns sentence by sentence. The leader of the group helps the slower ones patiently. There will be a lot of laughter, believe me!
Associate the new word with another (funny) word, story or setting. Explain to your pair how the association works for you. My sample associations/images: ‘Rainbow trout’ a fish has rainbow colours on its back when it surfaces from water. ‘Roundabout’ it is round and may be found in the middle of nowhere in Britain. The reasons for the associations are very interesting to listen to and visualize. You will be surprised!
Record a word list on your phone ( word in mother tongue – 1 sec pause – word in English. Listen to the list many times. My wife’s favourite way to learn and remember words. She used to listen to the recording while cycling to evening classes. Excellent for auditive learners.
Make word lists on paper (mother tongue – English), cover up the other side and say the words aloud or write them down before checking. Many textbooks have these lists ready-made. I myself used this method and mumbled the words at the same time.
Make or have a look at a word list (mother tongue – English). Then make an exam for yourself or others. The students are very surprised when you suggest this kind of exam. They think it is too easy which is not the case. They seldom get full points but they learn many words when writing the exam. My grading: one letter wrong >> half a point, two letters wrong >> zero points.
Say or write a sentence where you use the new word. Words learnt in isolation is not ideal and that is why I use this technique before we even listen to the chapters.
Tell a story where you use the new words. (Humour is the best medicine!) This is one of my students’ favourites since they always come up with fascinating stories in a couple of minutes. Every now and then we record the stories, I get them on Whatsapp and then later on we listen to them. For example, 30 students, 1 min / group, 8 groups >> 10 – 12 min
Make two-sided word cards and use them in a self-made game. This one requires an article of its own. I often combine it with cultural knowledge on the English -speaking words.

Colour photos are excellent sources for vocabulary learning and story telling because they stir imagination in a positive manner. This photo is from Central Park, New York City. I finally visited the city in 2016 having talked about it for 40 years. I actually thought I would not like the city but I was wrong. I’m looking forward to another visit.

N.B. Look at Points 11 – 22 in my next article.

Communicative teaching (CLT), Modern group work

MODERN CLT GROUP WORK METHODS

31.10.2025 Raimo J 1 Comment

Student-centered lessons are vital in communicative language learning. I have earlier introduced my ideal model for dealing with textbook chapters. However, there are some special group work techniques or methods that are extremely effective and increase student motivation by offering another kind of approaches to the learning process.

They are typically practical extensions to what we do in class, roads leading to deep-level learning. Teaching the students not only linguistic skills but other skills needed in life, too.

‘Work stations’ lessons, Task-based and Inquiry-based lessons and Co-operative group work are ideal types of lessons if you need to introduce new effective and motivating methods in class.

I will introduce these techniques here by giving a general definition and deal with them in the following articles separately. In the long run I hope to be able to present a practical video on each of these techniques.

Any of these techniques is effective and ideal as a CLT lesson since the students are using English actively in groups and the teacher is in the role of a facilitator of learning. Learning takes place in a relaxed atmosphere without pressure and many other skills are enhanced in addition to learning English.

N.B. I have added lots of phrases to be used when you are giving instructions to the students on these techniques. See ‘Class instructions in pair and group work’ .

Work station technique

The teacher organizes the students in 4-5 groups that have different kind of tasks. Each group works for 8 -10 minutes at their table, checks the answers and moves on to the next table with different tasks. (Times depend on the length of lessons, of course). I recommend the use of work station approach in ordinary textbook lessons and in exam revisions, 10 minute bursts with a change in tasks.

Task-based learning

Task-based learning (TBL) is typically a group or pair activity where the target language is used in roleplay type of ‘real-life’ situations or to enhance the learning of some grammatical structure to achieve some communicative purpose. TBL is an excellent method in teaching everyday situations such as ‘at the airport’ and ‘at a restaurant’ but also when the focus is on some grammatical structure.

Inquiry-based learning

In principle inquiry-based learning (IBL) means that student groups use critical thinking and try to answer a question or solve a problem by using the target language every step of the way. For example: Which fruit and vegetables do you eat in your family and why? What does a healthy diet look like?

Co-operative learning

Co-operative learning is the most demanding form of group work for the teacher to arrange. It means first having an inquiry based group work followed by mixing the groups.

These new groups will have one member from each previous groups. Then each student explains the others what they learnt in their old group. In the end if time allows, everyone will go back to their first group to summarize what they have learnt.

This method may seem daunting but trust me. When you have done it once, it is ok. Just a little more planning and organizing. For example: What are the benefits and dangers with various sources of energy? What should you take into account if you are applying for a summer job?

I can hear you asking ‘Where do I find time to use any of these techniques? Yes, I used to think that way too. The reality is that most of our lessons are spent on dealing with textbook chapters. Nevertheless, if you follow my advice on how to speed up the process with the chapters or even skip some of them, you will find time for these techniques too. Any of these lessons are appreciated by the students.

Communicative teaching (CLT), Historical perspectives

ASSESSMENT OF and FOR LEARNING

31.10.2025 Raimo J Leave a comment

The quality of the student-centred learning process (AfL) is actually more important than the final results of the exams (AoL).

If you test and use the results to give grades, it is AoL. If you test and use the result to help the students, it is AfL. But AfL is much more …

Assessment for learning (AfL) consists of all the measures that the teacher and the students take while learning in order to make learning more pleasant, relaxing and effective. The best teachers have always done it automatically using formative tests, continuous assessment and personal feedback as a tool.

What the CLT researchers have done is that they have laid the scientific foundation for AfL to balance the over-rated importance of constant grading and exams (AoL).

Assessment of learning (AoL) refers to the traditional ways of evaluating students using summative exams, mostly at the end of the learning period.

In brief, the concept of AfL

was developed from formative and continuous assessment
but is more focused on the process of learning, learning styles and strategies
emphasizes the students’ role in assessing themselves and others
favours student-centered methods and feedback that enhances learning.

In short, using assessment of AoL

means checking towards the end of the course to what extent the goals of the course have been reached
This type of testing is discussed at the end of each skill area under the left-hand side menu topics ‘Vocabulary’, ‘Speaking’, ‘Pronunciation’, ‘Listening’, Reading comprehension’ and ‘Grammar’.

AoL and AfL compared

Assessment of Learning	Assessment for Learning
AoL 10% of teaching time	AfL 90 % of teaching time

N.B. The percentages above simply indicate which kind of assessment I personally consider vital.

The focus is on final results, summative exams and giving grades.
The student is classified: excellent – good – satisfactory – bad.
AoL takes mostly place at the end of the learning period in an examination marked by the teacher. Little analysis of what may have gone wrong.
AoL means strict teacher-centred control, individual (not pair / group) accomplishments are valued.
Little attention is paid to ways of learning and development of skills, mainly the content of the course is tested.

The focus is on the learning process and ways to enhance learning.
The student is compared with his/her previous performance.
AfL takes place all the time, done by the teachers or other students, not to give a grade but to guide the learning process, individual needs are taken into account
AfL is more like giving guidance and positive feedback to others continuously, the teacher in the background
A lot of time is spent on learning strategies and how to improve language skills, knowledge of the content is tested but the ‘side products’ of AfL are recognized.

You may wonder if you should be worried about not always knowing if you are applying AfL or AoL. No, definitely not.

The borderline between AoL and AfL can, in fact, be a line drawn on water. Wise teachers have always, at least subconsciously, done both for the benefit of their students.

How come? For example, if you have a practice lesson before the examination and the exam is analysed afterwards when the papers are returned to enhance learning, AoL and AfL are intertwined, in my opinion, in an ideal manner. Any AoL exams that make the teacher realize that the goals were not reached and some remedial actions are required, turn the original AoL exams into AfL exams simultaneously.

Over the last fifteen years more and more attention has been paid to the process of learning which we teachers are trying to make as smooth and effective and enjoyable as possible. These measures are what we call ‘Assessment for Learning’ and they are utilized from the beginning of the course till the end until it is the time for the summative exam.

In the past learners of foreign languages were terrified of making mistakes and the fear of embarrassing yourself in front of others prevented learners from being fully engaged in learning. Thanks to the ideas of communicative learning teachers realized the message getting through to the listeners/readers was more important than the accuracy of the language. Application of CLT and AfL principles is a highly recommended combination in any language class.

No-one makes mistakes on purpose (unless they are joking). If the message is understood, the mistakes do not usually matter at all. We make mistakes even in our mother tongue. Why should we worry about them when learning a new language?

In the end, the success of our language lessons is measured in how well our students cope with the language in real life, not which grades they were granted.

The next two articles deal with the tools you can use in class to apply the principles of AfL.