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How Do Our Virtual Environment Foster Learning

The document discusses how virtual learning environments can foster language learning. It outlines four key characteristics of learning - having a purpose, coming through experience, being multifaceted, and being an active process - and describes how each can be achieved in an online classroom. The author argues that online synchronous lessons allow for active, collaborative language practice and development, similar to an in-person classroom. References to research are provided showing online students may retain more material compared to a traditional classroom.

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Jonathan Acuña
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1K views5 pages

How Do Our Virtual Environment Foster Learning

The document discusses how virtual learning environments can foster language learning. It outlines four key characteristics of learning - having a purpose, coming through experience, being multifaceted, and being an active process - and describes how each can be achieved in an online classroom. The author argues that online synchronous lessons allow for active, collaborative language practice and development, similar to an in-person classroom. References to research are provided showing online students may retain more material compared to a traditional classroom.

Uploaded by

Jonathan Acuña
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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A Kindergarten, Bogotá, Colombia

Picture taken by Jonathan Acuña (2017)

How do Our Virtual Environment Foster


Learning?
An answer for LLO Lead Teacher Rob Boyle

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano, M. Ed.

Head of Curriculum Development Senior Language Professor


Academic Department School of English
Centro Cultural Costarricense- Faculty of Social Sciences
Norteamericano Universidad Latina de Costa Rica

Sunday, September 13, 2020


Post 377

An online instructor mentor at Laureate Languages Online (LLO), Mr. Robert


Boyle, put out a thought-provoking question I felt like mulling over it for some
time before giving it an honest answer coming from my teaching experiences at
LLO, my expertise in education, and after feedback sessions with Rob. I have been
working with bellows and anvil and hammers to shape my current way of teaching
that has produced positive results in learners I have taught in various projects at
LLO, and much of what has been my active learning as an online instructor is due
to his modeling of virtual teaching. And virtual teaching has parallel features when
compared to regular teaching.
How do our virtual environment foster learning? Well, it is important to
remind ourselves that learning is “a process of obtaining knowledge to change
human behavior through interaction, practice and experience” (iEduNote, 2017).
And learning is not just meant to happen in brick-and-mortar spaces where there
is a cohort of students assigned to an instructor; the same can happen in virtual
scenarios. Though many skeptical educators will wager their heads against the
possibility of learning in an online environment, especially when it comes to
language learning, the fact is that students construct their knowledge of the new
language in participatory learning environments successfully.

Bearing in mind the four basic characteristics of learning by the


OSHAcademy (2015) in F2F or now in virtual spaces, they can be explained as
follows when it comes to learning English within an online environment.

[1] Learning When learners enter a language class, they have a


has a purpose. purpose to fulfill. Like-minded students will agree that in
their case they study English because it can help them -later
on in their professional life- to attain opportunities that
monolingual individuals cannot aspire. English opens doors!
“The learner’s goal or purpose is of chief importance in
the act of learning” (OSHAcademy, 2015). As online
instructors we must relate learning material and classroom
production tasks to the learner’s goals. We must make
students long to have sight of their future in class because
of their language training.

[2] Learning In the planning on an online (or F2F) class, the


comes instructor gets to include learning tasks that are extracted
from experience (schemata) in the real world. The
through reproduction of these simulations in the virtual class
experience. prepares them to face situations they already have (or will
have) to face in real life. The online English class does
provide a replica of real-life scenarios to practice the
language!
As virtual instructors we must provide learners with real
experiences that are meaningful and appropriate to the
content of a lesson. A strong link between reality and the
class production activities needs to be created. We do not
just want to reproduce, e.g., a template conversation (in
low levels) but to see how they can modify it to serve their
purposes in the class activity or future conversations in the
real world.

[3] Learning is “An instructor who thinks his job is only to train a
multifaceted. student’s muscle or memory is wasting his own and his
student’s time” (OSHAcademy, 2015). The online English
classroom also provides learners chances to be exposed and
learn more than the language. Living the experience of
learning a language virtually, along with the interaction with
peers, results in positive changes in the way students see,
think, feel, and react to distance learning. Learning English
virtually is a multifaceted experience!

Based on Li & Lalani (2020), “some research shows that


on average, students retain 25-60% more material when
learning online compared to only 8-10% in a classroom.” If
this statistical fact can be transferred to the virtual English
classroom, the way a class is structured (planned) will allow
for meaningful sets of practice. “If the lesson time available
for the activity is seen as a container, then this should be
filled with as much ‘volume’ of language as possible” (Ur,
1996). And this volume will bring practice of social and soft
skills along with content rehearsal.

[4] Learning is Learning English across a full gamut of activities linked


an active to real-life scenarios turns it into an active process. Learning
process. triggers a change in behavior because of the classroom
simulations and experiences in preparation to real-life
scenarios; all this is active learning through collaborative
language tasks. All these activities in the online English
classroom are to sprout up and bring life and success to
students.
“Learners who are really engaging with the language
must be attentive; loss of attention means loss of learning
time” (Ur, 1996). Learning cannot be dimensioned as
passive or using lower-thinking skills; it is for this reason
that Bloom’s Taxonomy must be inverted to structure
collaborative, active tasks that go beyond remembering and
understanding. As stated by Lewin (2020), just listening to a
teacher involves lower order thinking skills.

Learning in virtual scenarios may be a great fit for the instructor and for
the students. Online synchronous lessons literally put language learning in the
palm of a learner’s hand because it can foster student English language
development. At LLO our virtual environment does provide room for active,
collaborative learning along with the four basic characteristics of learning and
their corresponding features and nuances when we think of language learning.

References
iEduNote. (2017). Characteristics of Learning (Explained). Retrieved September 14, 2020, from
iEduNote.Com: https://www.iedunote.com/characteristics-of-learning

Lewin, L. (2020, September 1). El Aula Invertida. Escuela para Directivos en Laurate Languages. Buenos
Aires, Argentina: ABS International.

Li, C., & Lalani, F. (2020, April 29). The COVID-19 Pandemic Has Changed Education Forever. This is
How. Retrieved September 14, 2020, from World Economic Forum:
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/coronavirus-education-global-covid19-online-digital-
learning/

OSHAcademy. (2015). Characteristics of Learning. Retrieved Setiembre 14, 2020, from OSHATrain.Org:
https://www.oshatrain.org/notes/characteristicsoflearning.html

Ur, P. (1996). A Course in Languge Learning - Practice and Theory. Cambridge GB: Cambridge University
Press.

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