Learning by Doing: Cognitive Implications of Using Experiential Teaching Strategies in Young Students with Specific Learning Disabilities

Amal Tom presented on 'Learning by Doing: Cognitive Implications of Using Experiential Teaching Strategies in Young Students with Specific Learning Disabilities' at the 7th online Future of English Language Teaching Conference.

See the video recording below:

Abstract

Educators, for long, have used the Dual Route Cascaded (DRC) Model and the TRACE Model of Speech Perception to study and explain the lexical and semantic processes involved in teaching and learning languages. However, recent studies show these methods usually fit the language-learning processes of ideal learners and not learners with nominal I.Q. and intellectual abilities. These traditional teaching methods and practices, which John Dewey believed, often lead to a huge gap between the subjects and the mental capacities of the students forcing them to become passive participants in the teaching/learning process. These models also impose many limitations on the language acquisition and learning processes of pupils with intellectual and learning disabilities. However, English Language teachers and educators have inadequate and ineffective methods and practices to assist such language learners. Judit Kormos asserts that teachers and educators need to identify the obstacles and barriers that students with specific learning difficulties may face in the process of learning in order to develop effective learning strategies that could help such students gain access to new opportunities. The traditional methods being inadequate in teaching such students, educators have advocated a move that is more progressive like the experiential learning strategies, which focus on creating a classroom structure that allows students to learn in an exciting and challenging environment. This paper aims to study how teachers and educators can use Experiential Strategies like Art Integrated Learning, Multi-Sensory Learning and Jigsaw Learning to develop the English Language skills of students with specific learning disorders making the learning process reflective and multidisciplinary to cope with the challenges of the modern world.

About the presenter

Amal Tom is a research scholar at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee. His areas of interest include English Language Teaching, Communication Studies, Translation Studies and Linguistics.