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(Perspectives, a Journal of TESOL-Italy - Vol. XXI, No. 2/Vol. XXII, No. 1, Spring 1996) Identifying
learning styles, and relating them to teaching styles,
can help improve the quality of communication in the
classroom. This paper aims to discuss four main issues:
Reshaping the curriculum: the role of motivation (Perspectives, a Journal of TESOL-Italy - Vol. XXV, No. 1-2, Spring-Fall 1999) Reforming a curriculum can be a good opportunity to reconsider some "hidden" factors like learners' beliefs, values, attitudes - and motivation. This paper discusses the various subtle ways in which teachers and institutions can influence a student's willingness to learn, through the role of the feedback they give, the features of the tasks they set and the impact of individual beliefs.
Developing strategic competence: towards autonomy in oral interaction (Perspectives, a Journal of TESOL-Italy - Vol. XX, No. 1 June 1994) Strategic competence - solving communication problems despite inadequate command of the linguistic/sociocultural code - is an important feature of both L1 and L2 interaction. Teaching approaches will have to ensure that students consider authentic situations where strategies play a significant role; become aware of strategies through observation and discussion; and face problem-oriented, open-ended interactive tasks which require strategy use to negotiate meanings and intentions.
Teacher Support and Teacher Challenge in Promoting Learner Autonomy (Perspectives, a Journal of TESOL-Italy - Vol. XXIII, No. 2 Fall 1997) Promoting autonomy means helping students find their own personal balance between dependence (on such factors as the teacher and the textbook) and self-regulation. If we become more aware of the degree to which we support and challenge learners in our management of tasks and interaction, we can then better evaluate our teaching style, the activities we use, and our students' motivational profiles.
Cloned by the computer? New technologies, learner profiles, old and new strategies (Paper given at the 19th British Council Italy Annual National Conference for Teachers of English, Bologna, 23-25 March 2000) New technologies and individual differences: what impact can man-machine interaction have on cognitive styles and learning strategies? An Italian version is available.
Probing the hidden curriculum: Teachers´ and students´ beliefs and attitudes Paper given at the British
Council 18th National Conference for Teachers of English The “hidden curriculum”, made up of beliefs and attitudes about language and learning, ultimately affects the success of any educational reform. This paper tries to describe the nature of these beliefs, explain their role in teaching and learning, and suggest ways in which they can be investigated and monitored. An Italian version is available.
Documenting the curriculum: Process and competence in a learning portfolio Paper given at the British
Council 20th National Conference for Teachers of English Recent debates on curriculum change have tended to emphasize the end-product (competence) rather than the process which makes that product achievable. The idea of a language portfolio, put forward by the Council of Europe, is a good opportunity to develop a self-standing learning portfolio, evidence of both students´ competence-in-progress and of their emerging personal profile as language learners.
Language awareness - learning awareness in a communicative approach: A key to learner independence (Perspectives, a Joumal of TESOL-Italy - Volume XVIII, Number 2, December 1992) Learner awareness refers to both the content of learning (i.e. the linguistic and cultural input) and to the process of learning (i.e. the cognitive and metacognitive strategies used by learners and their beliefs and attitudes towards language and learning). Raising students' awareness and integrating it into the EFL syllabus will be a necessary step towards learner (and teacher) independence.
Implementing language and cross-curricular portfolio projects: Some pedagogical implications (Perspectives,
a Journal of TESOL-Italy - Vol. XXVII, No. 2, Spring
2001 Implementing a portfolio project can be an example of promising innovation in learning, teaching and assessment if it prompts us and our students to set clear targets, set up, carry out and assess meaningful learning experiences, and build up and regularly update learner profiles.
Learning strategies, teaching strategies and new curricular demands: a critical view Perspectives, a Journal of TESOL-Italy, Vol. XXIX, No. 2, Fall 2002 New curricular demands, with their emphasis on competence and performance, prompt us to investigate the role that learning strategies can realistically play in the learning/teaching process, both from a cognitive and from an affective-motivational point of view. Learners should not just be "trained" to use strategies - rather, students and teachers should engage in a mutual effort to negetiate their own specific contribution to learning tasks.
Learning strategies: bridging the gap between competence and process A Powerpoint presentation with notes for reflection and discussion Learning strategies have long been recognised as a key tool to empower students and promote learner autonomy. Recent debates on school reform, however, invite us to clarify the place that strategy instruction may have in a new curriculum, with special regard to the concept of “competence” and to the interaction between “process” and “product”. Thus it is important to investigate the role that strategies can play in the learning process, both from a cognitive and from an affective-motivational point of view. Teachers also need to become conversant with the ways and means to implement strategy instruction in the classroom. An Italian version is available.
Learning styles across cultures Powerpoint presentation with full text or text only (Perspectives, a journal of
TESOL-Italy, vol. XXXIV,
n. 2. Learning styles are as much affected by cultural factors as all other areas of individual differences. Such factors, while shaping individual identity, should not lead to undue generalizations or even stereotypes. Within multi-cultural educational institutions, possible clashes between learning and teaching styles can only be dealt with through processes of awareness raising, mediation and negotiation.
The challenge of plurilingual education: Promoting transfer across the language curriculum Powerpoint presentation with full text or text-only with bibliography and webliography A plurilingual curriculum is responsible for promoting the transfer of knowledge, beliefs/attitudes and skills across languages, so that learners can both profit from their previous L1 and L2 experiences in learning an L3, and, conversely, feedback their new L3 competence into their L1 and L2. This means (re)discovering the potential of cross-curricular language education, and, for teachers of English in particular, highlight transferable elements in the areas of language awareness and learning awareness.
A few notes on modularity in language teaching.
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