2011/07/10

Title: The Brain, the Self, and the Successful Learner

Speaker: Chuck Sandy

A common approach in language education is banking language for use at some unknown point in the future. Sandy believes this approach is just not working and must be changed. While institutions don’t seem to be interested in our individual classes, we must be. He encouraged the audience to “Be the Change”, one class at a time. One change should be to view language as a toolbox; language for the here and now communication of that classroom, in order to break the cycle of failure many of our students come to our classes with. Students learn what they want to learn, and to increase learning, the classroom must be viewed as a community where everybody has something to contribute. He gave us examples where his students share their personal stories and how this sharing led to a community where everyone in it became cool. His textbook series, Active Skills for Communication, written with Curtis Kelly, is designed to help students say what they want to say about themselves and their lives through a series of pair/group work activities engaging students’ emotions, cares and dreams.