I'm going to store all of my lecture notes here while I'm studying to get my master degree in TESOL.
I want to spread my annoyance for this master program to as many people as possible.
And I want to prove to myself that learning does not have to be too serious, it's possible to use cute and silly doodles to make the learning process more enjoyable. I'm going to incorporate my fangirl brain-cell into my study process.
Since I am too dumb to remember a lot of information and big words, I make these lecture notes to summarize my professors' powerpoint slides so that I can actually learn something.
So I used myself as a test subject for an experiment.
I know using chatgpt is not good in the long term but I must know how bad it actually is. Yeah, I'm just dumb and stubborn like that.
1/ I used chatgpt to make the content for my presentations and summary assignments.
2/ I used chatgpt to summarize the reading material and then turn it into a note for my group presentation.
The results?
Well, using chatgpt did help me complete my assignment way faster. It was indeed convenient. Just a click and a few prompts and you will get short and concise notes for your learning. Chatgpt can summarize a long research article and pick out the parts you need.
But
You will barely remember anything after a day or two.
Last term, I printed out my reading materials, read them all, and made some notes in a traditional way. It was very tedious and tiring but it helped my retention A LOT.
I still remember the framework for communicative competence and why Chomsky (1959) rejected the Behavioural view about language ability.
This term, it was a mess. Chatgpt studied, not me, I barely studied. And the presentation I did using the notes chatgpt made for me was not good at all.
Only after I wrote down all the theories and concepts into my notebooks and printed out the materials to read that I was able to remember and learn something. The presentation I did using the note I made by myself received much better feedback from the lecturer, because I actually understood what I presented.
Yeah, chatgpt and genAI are convenient. I won't deny that. But if your current self chooses convenience over putting real effort, your future self will pay a price.
Age: this will particularly affect topics chosen and types of learning activity, such as the suitability of games or role play.
Interests: as with age, this may help in the specification of topics and learning activities.
Level of proficiency in English: teachers will wish to know this even where their classes are based on a ‘mixed proficiency’ principle rather than streamed according to level.
Aptitude: this can most usefully be thought of as a specific talent, in this case for language learning, as something that learners might show themselves to be ‘good at’, perhaps in contrast to other subjects in a school curriculum. (It can be measured by formal aptitude tests, although they are not very frequently used.) The relationship between aptitude and intelligence is not clear, and is certainly not direct.
Mother tongue: this may affect, for instance, the treatment of errors or the selection of syllabus items – areas of grammar or vocabulary and so on.
Academic and educational level: which help to determine intellectual content, breadth of topic choice or depth to which material may be studied.
Attitudes to learning, to teachers, to the institution, to the target language itself and to its speakers. This is directly related to the following point.
Motivation, at least in so far as it can be anticipated. Obviously a whole range of factors will affect this.
Reasons for learning, if it is possible to state them. With school age pupils this may be less significant than with many adult learners, where it is often possible to carry out quite a detailed analysis of needs.
Preferred learning styles: which will help in the evaluation of the suitability of different methods, for instance, whether problem-solving activities could be used, or whether pupils are more used to ‘rote learning’, where material is learned by heart.
Personality: which can affect methodological choices such as a willing acceptance of role play and an interactive classroom environment, or a preference for studying alone, for example.
Language learning time should be invested wisely in activities that result in real language acquisition. Clear learning goals and an understanding of personal learning styles can help the learner to use language learning time strategically.
Brown’s 12 Principles of Language Teaching and Learning -> here.
