Constructivism

- The Learning Scenario:

I originally studied at the faculty of languages and translation at my University. I had to learn how to make conversations in English in order to achieve fluency, which is a vital skill for us as translators. The professor would tell us first about a specific situation. Then, he would ask us about what would we say in that specific situation. After that, he would divide us into couples and ask us to make a conversation in English about the same situation. He would then come and try to facilitate the discussion and give us various ways to express what we want to say. He would also have more fluent students mentor the less ones.

• Why this is an example of Constructivism:

This is a clear example of constructivism as:

1. we take a very active role in the learning process.

2. The instructor builds upon the learner's experience to generate more ways for self-expression.

3. The instructor also uses some scaffolding devices such as the flashcards and the mentors.

- Skills in ZPD:

• Different forms of expressing what we want to say at different levels and contexts. This is in the zone for development as we initially had the basic vocabulary to make a conversation and we had our own experiences in these situations to build upon.

- A Scaffolding Strategy:

1. Prepare several flashcards for each couple to give them hints about how they can approach different scenarios for different perspectives. For example: if the situation was coming late for work. Then you might have a flashcard for the context of speaking to a colleague, a context of speaking to a manager that you know informally, and a context of speaking to a manager that you have to talk to formally. The flashcards would also have different terms for different contexts.

- Social Constructivst Strategies

1. Bring tutors from a more senior class to mentor each couple and provide them with motivation, feedback, areas to improve, and an encouragement of trial and error.
2. Record the conversation of every couple and ask the students to analyze their performance and give 3 recommendations to each other about how they can make their conversation much better and effective.