FIRST AND SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND LEARNING

GROUP 551006_17

EVALUATION MOMENT: INTERMIDIATE

CONSTRUCTIVISM AS A SCHOOL OF THOUGHT

TUTOR:
JULIO CESAR TULANDE

PRESENTED BY:
NELSON HERNANDO LEGUIZAMO GARCIA
COD. 93385773

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OPEN AND DISTANCE UNAD, CEAD IBAGU

SCHOOL OF BASIC SCIENCES OF EDUCATION
BACHELOR IN TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
MARCH OF 2016

CONSTRUCTIVISM AS A SCHOOL OF THOUGHT

As well known, constructivism is a teaching philosophy based on the conception that the learning
processes are the results of the studentsown personal experiences under the concept of their
mental contruction and the knowledge they have take them into the practice to continue growing.
Every person in a classroom environment or teaching area creates their schemas to insert the new
knowledge by the simple way of practicing which induce the students to grade their progress
when they appropriate the new information. All this makes sense when the person ralizes how
much he/she adquired as input information which enables and activates new cycles in their
abilities to construct for immedate or future activities, in other words, when they make progress.
The teacher under this conception is the one who needs to be effective and be awared of how he
can be useful for his studentsprofiles because not everyone has the same abilities to make the
same progress. Also, its he who gives the necessary tools to evidence advance in his class or art
he teaches and guides and above all, it got to be accurate and effective.
Vygotsky stood out for social constructivism believing that learning and development are done
through collaborative activities related to the context of socialization and education. Humans are
to work together. We all need to be helped, especially because thats our nature and we form
groups in every stage of our lives. We give and take in all the processes. Intechange rules our
daily life, the most simple activity demands both ways: come and go. At an early age, a child is
exposed to a variety of conditions where he learns how to interact with the environment he
belongs to, he is shaped according to some condtions that lead him to create his own ideas and
concepts that will be useful for his perspective of his world.
In my experience as an english teacher, Ive had the chance to work in different public
institutions as well as private ones. The methodologies, the curriculums, the programs, the
syllabuses and the text books are designed by them and selected by them asking me to carry and
follow a program to direct the teaching activities to my groups. Ive found that public educational
institutions are harder to manage because of the quantity of students they receive in their
institutions and the quality is less than in private institutions. In this segment Im going to take
some ideas Vygotsky visualized and I will compare them with the activities I do at private
institutes Ive worked for.

There are various strategies or models to take the students into a practical activity where they will
get concepts and appropriate knowledge through practice. The following are the activities I do
when Im working with my students of private institutions:

Realia.

Its an effective strategy because the students learn through doing. The appropriation of
vocabulary takes place in the classroom by the use of real things, real places and real events. If
Im teaching vocabulary related to fruits, the ideal thing is that we take real fruits to the
environment so the students visualize and touch them. It activates the senses.
Activities:
-

Lets make a fruit salad.

Lets make a lemonade or orange juice.

Lets make some delicious breakfast.

Lets make spaghettis.

Scavenger hunt.

Its a strategy used by teachers who need to motivate the students by doing physical activities.
Most of the times, it gets the students to form groups to deal with some conditions proposed by
the teacher and the activity, too. Sometimes its necessary to stablish time because its a kind of
competition and the final idea or purpose of this activity is cooperation through L2 to discover, to
get, to see, to collect and many more.
Activities:
-

Lost and found.

Public places in a single area.

Finding things out in the nature.

Getting to know the city.

Field Trips.

They are kind of practices done by using vocabulary previously adapted that is necessary for the
activity. If the vocabulary fails or is not appropriated, the activity will not come out as programed
by the teacher. Memory is necessary and it fails. That is one disadvantage for this kind of
practices.

Activities:
-

At a restaurant.

At the airport.

At a supermarket.

At the movies.

Role plays.

Its one of the activities that introduce practice by pairs or groups by the use of scripts made by
the students themselves. It gives the chance to students to actvate reading and speaking
strategies. It also exercises the writing skills when programing this practice.
Activities:
-

Scenes of a video.

Following up secuences.

A special celebration.

Interviewing peers.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES

The Fountain Magazine (2015). Constructivism in Piaget and Vygotsky. Taken from
http://www.fountainmagazine.com/Issue/detail/CONSTRUCTIVISM-in-Piaget-and-Vygotsky.