WORLD LEARNING

NATIONAL EXAM FOR MY LITTLE SISTER, MARNI

2008-03-14T11:38:00.002+08:00

Pagi2 tambah semangat, liat adik2 SMU makin giat belajar, UN 2008 makin dekat. NGgak ada yang bisa saya lakukan selain support dengan membagi link soal-soal UN agar bisa di download, dipelajari, dan harapannya.. semoga semua sukses! Link kali ini dapatnya dari http://ujiannasional.web.id/UN/
SEMOGA BERMANFAAT… (maaf, baru cek ternyata butuh login…. cape de.)

PLEASE klick this site

http://greensand.wordpress.com
http://ujiannasional.web.id/UN/

your best regard

Armin Ade
Jogjakarta

DIPTA

2008-01-06T17:43:00.000+08:00

Hello Dipta,
nice to see you. I havent heard from you for along time, let me know how is your going now?

EDUCATION

2007-08-11T09:21:00.000+08:00

Indonesia Table of Contents

The character of Indonesia's educational system reflects its diverse religious heritage, its struggle for a national identity, and the challenge of resource allocation in a poor but developing archipelagic nation with a young and rapidly growing population. Although a draft constitution stated in 1950 that a key government goal was to provide every Indonesian with at least six years of primary schooling, the aim of universal education had not been reached by the late 1980s, particularly among females--although great improvements had been made. Obstacles to meeting the government's goal included a high birth rate, a decline in infant mortality, and a shortage of schools and qualified teachers. In 1973 Suharto issued an order to set aside portions of oil revenues for the construction of new primary schools. This act resulted in the construction or repair of nearly 40,000 primary school facilities by the late 1980s, a move that greatly facilitated the goal of universal education.

Primary and Secondary Education

Following kindergarten, Indonesians of between seven and twelve years of age were required to attend six years of primary school in the 1990s. They could choose between state-run, nonsectarian public schools supervised by the Department of Education and Culture or private or semiprivate religious (usually Islamic) schools supervised and financed by the Department of Religious Affairs. However, although 85 percent of the Indonesian population was registered as Muslim, according to the 1990 census, less than 15 percent attended religious schools. Enrollment figures were slightly higher for girls than boys and much higher in Java than the rest of Indonesia.

A central goal of the national education system in the early 1990s was not merely to impart secular wisdom about the world, but also to instruct children in the principles of participation in the modern nation-state, its bureaucracies, and its moral and ideological foundations. Since 1975, a key feature of the national curriculum--as in other parts of society--had been instruction in the Pancasila. Children age six and above learned its five principles--belief in one God, humanitarianism, national unity, democracy, and social justice--by rote and were instructed daily to apply the meanings of this key national symbol to their lives. The alleged communist coup attempt in 1965 provided a vivid image of transgression against the Pancasila. Partly to prove their rejection of communist ideology, all teachers--like other members of Indonesian bureaucracy--swore allegiance not only to the Pancasila, but to the government party of functional groups.

Inside the public school classroom of the early 1990s, a style of pedagogy prevailed that emphasized rote learning and deference to the authority of the teacher. Although the youngest children were sometimes allowed to use the local language, by the third year of primary school nearly all instruction was conducted in formal Indonesian. Instead of asking questions of the students, a standard teaching technique was to narrate a historical event or to describe a mathematical problem, pausing at key junctures to allow the students to fill in the blanks. By not responding to individual problems of the students and retaining an emotionally distanced demeanor, the teacher is said to be sabar (patient), which is considered admirable behavior.

Nationally, the average class size in primary schools was approximately twenty-seven, while upper-level classes included between thirty and forty students. Ninety-two percent of primary school students graduated, but only about 60 percent of those continued on to junior high school (ages thirteen through fifteen). Of those who went on to junior high school, 87 percent also went on to a senior high school (ages sixteen through eighteen). The national adult literacy rate remained at about 77 percent in 1991 (84 percent for males and 68 percent for females), keeping Indonesia tied with Brunei for the lowest literacy among the six member nations of the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

In the early 1990s, after completion of the six-year primary school program, students could choose among a variety of vocational and preprofessional junior and senior high schools, each level of which was three years in duration. There were academic and vocational junior high schools that could lead to senior-level diplomas. There were also "domestic science" junior high schools for girls. At the senior high-school level, there were three-year agricultural, veterinary, and forestry schools open to students who had graduated from an academic junior high school. Special schools at the junior and senior levels taught hotel management, legal clerking, plastic arts, and music.

Teacher training programs were varied, and were gradually upgraded. For example, in the 1950s anyone completing a teacher training program at the junior high level could obtain a teacher's certificate. Since the 1970s, however, the teaching profession was restricted to graduates of a senior high school for teachers in a primary school and to graduates of a university-level education course for teachers of higher grades. Remuneration for primary and secondary school teachers compared favorably with countries such as Malaysia, India, and Thailand. Student-teacher ratios also compared favorably with most Asian nations at 25.3 to 1 and 15.3 to 1, respectively, for primary and secondary schools in the mid-1980s when the averages were 33.1 to 1 and 22.6 to 1 for Asian-Pacific countries.

Islamic Schools

The emphasis on the Pancasila in public schools has been resisted by some of the Muslim majority. A distinct but vocal minority of these Muslims prefer to receive their schooling in a pesantren or residential learning center. Usually in rural areas and under the direction of a Muslim scholar, pesantren are attended by young people seeking a detailed understanding of the Quran, the Arabic language, the sharia, and Muslim traditions and history. Students could enter and leave the pesantren any time of the year, and the studies were not organized as a progression of courses leading to graduation. Although not all pesantren were equally orthodox, most were and the chief aim was to produce good Muslims.

In order for students to adapt to life in the modern, secular nation-state, the Muslim-dominated Department of Religious Affairs advocated the spread of a newer variety of Muslim school, the madrasa. In the early 1990s, these schools integrated religious subjects from the pesantren with secular subjects from the Western-style public education system. The less-than 15 percent of the school-age population who attended either type of Islamic schools did so because of the perceived higher quality instruction. However, among Islamic schools, a madrasa was ranked lower than a pesantren. Despite the widespread perception in the West of resurgent Islamic orthodoxy in Muslim countries, the 1980s saw little overall increase in the role of religion in school curricula in Indonesia.

In general, Indonesia's educational system still faced a shortage of resources in the 1990s. The shortage of staffing in Indonesia's schools was no longer as acute as in the 1950s, but serious difficulties remained, particularly in the areas of teacher salaries, teacher certification, and finding qualified personnel. Providing textbooks and other school equipment throughout the farflung archipelago continued to be a significant problem as well.

Higher Education

Indonesia's institutions of higher education have experienced dramatic growth since independence. In 1950 there were ten institutions of higher learning, with a total of 6,500 students. In 1970 there were 450 private and state institutions enrolling 237,000 students, and by 1990 there were 900 institutions with 141,000 teachers and nearly 1,486,000 students. Public institutions enjoyed a considerably better student-teacher ratio (14 to 1) than private institutions (46 to 1) in the mid-1980s. Approximately 80 to 90 percent of state university budgets were financed by government subsidies, although the universities had considerably more autonomy in curriculum and internal structure than primary and secondary schools. Whereas tuition in such state institutions was affordable, faculty salaries were low by international standards. Still, university salaries were higher than primary and secondary school salaries. In addition, lecturers often had other jobs outside the university to supplement their wages.

Private universities were operated by foundations. Unlike state universities, private institutions had budgets that were almost entirely tuition driven. Each student negotiated a one-time registration fee--which could be quite high--at the time of entry. If a university had a religious affiliation, it could finance some of its costs through donations or grants from international religious organizations. The government provided only limited support for private universities.

Higher education in the early 1990s offered a wide range of programs, many of which were in a state of flux. Nearly half of all students enrolled in higher education in 1985 were social sciences majors. Humanities and science and technology represented nearly 28 percent and 21 percent, respectively. The major degrees granted were the sarjana muda (junior scholar; roughly corresponding to a bachelor's degree) and the sarjana (scholar or master's degree). Very few doktor (doctoral) degrees were awarded. Few students studying for the sarjana muda actually finished in one to three years. One study found that only 10 to 15 percent of students finished their course of study on time, partly because of the requirement to complete the traditional skripsi (thesis). In 1988, for instance, 235,000 new students were admitted for sarjana muda-level training and 1,234,800 were enrolled at various stages of the program, but only 95,600 graduated.

Discussion about how to improve Indonesian higher education focused on issues of teacher salaries, laboratory and research facilities, and professor qualifications. According to official figures, in 1984 only 13.9 percent of permanent faculty members at state institutions of higher learning had any advanced degree; only 4.5 percent had a doctorate. Since doctoral programs were rare in Indonesia and there was little money to support education overseas, this situation improved only slowly. Despite these difficulties, most institutions of higher education received large numbers of applications in the late 1980s and early 1990s; in state institutions less than one application in four was accepted. One of the most serious problems for graduates with advanced degrees, however, was finding employment suited to their newly acquired education.

The University of Indonesia, founded in Jakarta in the 1930s, is the nation's oldest university. Other major universities include Gadjah Mada University (Indonesia's oldest postindependence university, founded in 1946) in Yogyakarta; Catholic University and Institut Teknologi Bandung, both in Bandung; and the Institut Pertanian Bogor in Bogor. In the early 1990s, there also were important regional universities in Sulawesi, Sumatera Utara, Jawa Barat, and Irian Jaya.

Teaching listening to the first years students

2007-07-19T16:21:00.000+08:00

Brown defines teaching as showing or helping someone to learn, instruction, guiding in the study of something, providing knowledge and causing to know or understand. In the other words teaching is guiding and facilitating learning, enabling the learners to learn, improve their skills and attitudes.

Byrne (1981: 42) states that listening is a process of orally grasping and decoding the signs a listener directly hear. In a listening process a listener understands and translates the messages addressed to her into meaning in her mind. Listening is an internal process that can not be directly observed.

Students should master certain elements of language in order to listen success fully. The elements are sounds, vocabulary, grammatical structure, and pronunciation. By mastering those elements the learning will have a good listening skill. Students can improve the listening skill including understanding keywords of finding background knowledge to help complete their understanding by listening again and again.

Development of listening skill.
In the teaching of listening there are three elements in the process of developing listening skills. They are:

Access to ward

In order to comprehend a sentence the students have to work out what the words mean. The mind has to relate the words that are heard to the information that is store about them in the mind of their meaning.

Parsing

Parsing is how the mind works out the grammatical structure and meaning of sentences and hears. The process of parsing can be bottom up or top up. Bottom up is building the sentences up in our mind bit by bit, putting the sounds into words. The words are in phrases and phrases into whole sentences. Top Down means that starting from the whole sentences and breaking it down into smaller and smaller bits.

Bottom up listening activities.

The learners are focused on the individual element of the building blocks of the language. Decode oral utterance by discriminating between individual sound, identifying different stress, rhythm, and intonation pattern. The students are gradually moved from sound to word to sentence to text.

Top Down listening activities

In top down activities, the listening get general view of the listening passage by b absorbing its overall view. The meaning is not only stated in the message but also in the listener’s mind. The listener uses her own concept in understanding the message. She decides that the message she hears in certain words.

Memory processes of cognition

Memory processes in listening are connected to bottom up and top down. All comprehension depends on the storing and processing of information by the mind.

Top Down Approach

Students use their background knowledge about the topic, the text and the context in predicting and confirming their understanding in top down approach. The lesson starts by encouraging students to actively construct the meaning of the speaker using incoming sounds as clues. The listeners use their prior knowledge of the context and situation which the listening activity takes place in order to make sense of what they hear in the reconstruction process. Schema theory is related with top down approach. Schema theory is based on the notion that prior experiences lead to the creation of frameworks that make sense of new experiences.

The sound language listening is an active process involving background schema. The top down approach emphasizes the importance of the activation of learners’ knowledge and experience in understanding task.

There are three stages of teaching listening by using top down process:

Pre-listening activity.

It is to prepare students activities their background knowledge, experience, and explain difficult vocabulary items. Pre-listening activities help students make decision about what to listen for and to focus attention on meaning while listening. Teachers prepare the students for what they will hear and what they are expected to do. First, the students need to bring to consciousness their knowledge of the topic, and their knowledge of now information is organized in different texts. Second, the purpose of listening must be established in order that the students can find out the specific to anticipate what they might hear by using all the available in formation.

Example: the teacher can use a topic of warm up activities such as “have you ever visited Borobudur Temple?” what did you do in Borobudur Temple?”

While-listening activity.

It is to focus student’s attention on key ideas in the text. The students develop the skill of eliciting message. During the listening activity, the students monitor their comprehension and make decision about their strategy. The teacher can help the students develop their skills of eliciting messages. For instances are:

Listen to a dialogue and decide where the conversation took place or happened.
Listen to a dialogue and decide what the people are talking about.
Listen to a dialogue and decide how many questions you hear.

Post-listening activity

it is to ensure the student’s comprehension of the messages. It consists of extensions and development of listening task. Students need to evaluate the results of decisions made during a listening task. Class discussion on the approach by students can stimulate reflection and evaluation. The students about the effectiveness of the strategies they use.

The discussion of teaching listening using top Down Approach is expected to provide some contribution to improve the teaching of English at Senior High School.

Syllabus

2007-07-18T00:36:00.000+08:00

Syllabus is a document with an outline and summary of topics to be covered in a course. It is often either set out by an exam board, or prepared by the professor who teaches the course, and is usually given to each student during the first class session. A syllabus usually contains specific information about the course, such as information on how, where and when to contact the lecturer and teaching assistants; an outline of what will be covered in the course; a schedule of test dates and the due dates for assignments; the grading policy for the course; specific classroom rules; etc.
Within many courses concluding in an exam, syllabi are used to ensure consistency between schools and that all teachers know what must be taught and what is not required. Exams can only test based on information included in the syllabus.
The common plural form syllabi is sometimes considered a hypercorrection, as we do not know that syllabus is a second-declension Latin noun, simply because there are not enough classical uses of the term to definitively discern its declension. If, as the vast majority of Latin nouns ending in "-us", "syllabus" belongs to the second-declension, the plural would be syllabi; if fourth, the plural would again be syllabus. For this reason, syllabi, syllabus, and syllabuses are all commonly accepted. However, the word syllabus originally comes from a mis-transliteration by Cicero, who mis-copied the word σιττύβας (accusative plural of σιττύβα, meaning label or title page) as syllabos, making any Latin-ized plural form technically incorrect.
The syllabus serves many purposes for the students and the teacher such as 1) ensuring a fair and upfront contract between the instuctor and students such that there is mimimal confusion on policies relating to the course, 2) setting clear expectations of a) material to be learned, b) behavior in the classroom, and c) effort of student's behalf to be put into the course, 3) providing a roadmap of course organization/direction 4) relaying the instructor's teaching philosophy to the students, and 5) providing a marketing angle of the course such that students may choose early in the course whether the subject material is attractive.
Many items can be included in a syllabus to maximize course organization and student understanding of expected material such as 1) grading policy (grading scale optional but helpful), 2) locations and times (classroom location/time, instructor office hours and location, teaching assistant office hours and location), 3) other contact information for instructor and teaching assistant such as phone or email, 4) materials required and/or recommended such as textbooks, assigned reading books, calculators (or other equipment), lab vouchers, etc 5) outside resources for subject material assistance (extra-curricular books, tutor locations, resource centers, etc), 6) important dates in course such as exams and paper due-dates 7) tips for succeeding in mastering course content such as study habits and expected time allotment, 8) suggested problems if applicable 9) necessary pre-requisites or co-requisites to current course, 10) safety rules if appropriate, and most importantly 11) objectives of course.
The syllabus must be clear and organized in its presentation of course objectives and the grading break-down should leave no confusion or doubt in the student's mind as to how she or he is scoring in the class. A helpful syllabus should encourage rather than intimidate students from the course and should provide a broad overpanning of subject significance as well as illustrate connectiveness of material relevance through the lecture schedule.
Retrieved from "

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syllabus"

Where They Are and Why They Work

2007-07-15T09:06:00.000+08:00

Users' Guide to Adopting a School Uniform Policy
The decision whether to adopt a uniform policy is made by states, local school districts, and schools. For uniforms to be a success, as with all other school initiatives, parents must be involved. The following information is provided to assist parents, teachers, and school leaders in determining whether to adopt a school uniform policy.
Get parents involved from the beginning
Parental support of a uniform policy is critical for success. Indeed, the strongest push for school uniforms in recent years has come from parent groups who want better discipline in their children's schools. Parent groups have actively lobbied schools to create uniform policies and have often led school task forces that have drawn up uniform guidelines. Many schools that have successfully created a uniform policy survey parents first to gauge support for school uniform requirements and then seek parental input in designing the uniform. Parent support is also essential in encouraging students to wear the uniform.
Protect students' religious expression
A school uniform policy must accommodate students whose religious beliefs are substantially burdened by a uniform requirement. As U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley stated in Religious Expression in Public Schools, a guide he sent to superintendents throughout the nation on August 10, 1995:
Students may display religious messages on items of clothing to the same extent that they are permitted to display other comparable messages. Religious messages may not be singled out for suppression, but rather are subject to the same rules as generally apply to comparable messages. When wearing particular attire, such as yarmulkes and head scarves, during the school day is part of students' religious practice, under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act schools generally may not prohibit the wearing of such items.
Protect students' other rights of expression
A uniform policy may not prohibit students from wearing or displaying expressive items -- for example, a button that supports a political candidate - so long as such items do not independently contribute to disruption by substantially interfering with discipline or with the rights of others. Thus, for example, a uniform policy may prohibit students from wearing a button bearing a gang insignia. A uniform policy may also prohibit items that undermine the integrity of the uniform, notwithstanding their expressive nature, such as a sweatshirt that bears a political message but also covers or replaces the type of shirt required by the uniform policy.
Determine whether to have a voluntary or mandatory school uniform policy
Some schools have adopted wholly voluntary school uniform policies which permit students freely to choose whether and under what circumstances they will wear the school uniform. Alternatively, some schools have determined that it is both warranted and more effective to adopt a mandatory uniform policy.
When a mandatory school uniform policy is adopted, determine whether to have an "opt out" provision
In most cases, school districts with mandatory policies allow students, normally with parental consent, to "opt out" of the school uniform requirements.
Some schools have determined, however, that a mandatory policy with no "opt out" provision is necessary to address a disruptive atmosphere. A Phoenix, Arizona school, for example, adopted a mandatory policy requiring students to wear school uniforms, or in the alternative attend another public school. That Phoenix school uniform policy was recently upheld by a state trial court in Arizona. Note that in the absence of a finding that disruption of the learning environment has reached a point that other lesser measures have been or would be ineffective, a mandatory school uniform policy without an "opt out" provision could be vulnerable to legal challenge.
Do not require students to wear a message
Schools should not impose a form of expression on students by requiring them to wear uniforms bearing a substantive message, such as a political message.
Assist families that need financial help
In many cases, school uniforms are less expensive than the clothing that students typically wear to school. Nonetheless, the cost of purchasing a uniform may be a burden on some families. School districts with uniform policies should make provisions for students whose families are unable to afford uniforms. Many have done so. Examples of the types of assistance include: (a) the school district provides uniforms to students who cannot afford to purchase them; (b) community and business leaders provide uniforms or contribute financial support for uniforms; (c) school parents work together to make uniforms available for economically disadvantaged students; and (d) used uniforms from graduates are made available to incoming students.
Treat school uniforms as part of an overall safety program
Uniforms by themselves cannot solve all of the problems of school discipline, but they can be one positive contributing factor to discipline and safety. Other initiatives that many schools have used in conjunction with uniforms to address specific problems in their community include aggressive truancy reduction initiatives, drug prevention efforts, student-athlete drug testing, community efforts to limit gangs, a zero tolerance policy for weapons, character education classes, and conflict resolution programs. Working with parents, teachers, students, and principals can make a uniform policy part of a strong overall safety program, one that is broadly supported in the community.

taken from
http://www.ed.gov/updates/uniforms.html

30 THINGS WE KNOW FOR SURE ABOUT ADULT LEARNING

2007-05-20T08:48:00.000+08:00

A variety of sources provides us with a body of fairly reliable knowledge about adult learning. This knowledge might be divided into three basic divisions: things we know about adult learners and their motivation, things we know about designing curriculum for adults, and things we know about working with adults in the classroom.

read more:
http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/adults-3.htm

LEARNING GRAMMAR

2007-05-18T19:22:00.001+08:00

The word grammar has been used so far to refer to an spect of how a language, in this case English, is conventionally used. I.e. to the structure or system of a particular language. But it is a slippery word, and is also used to refer to the way that system is described by linguistics, as in “Chomskyan grammar, systemic functional grammar, and to the internal mental representation of the language that an individual has built up, as in the learner’s grammars’.
Theoretical linguists concern themselves with finding and describing the patterns in the use of a language. The say they fix and then describe the language depends on their theoretical views about language use and their objectives. Chomskyan linguists aim to describe language as it is internalized in the mind / brain, rather than as it is produced by speakers.
Cognitive psychology suggests that our brains or minds work always with a limited amount of intentional capacity (or mental attention) that is available to concentrate on getting a task achieved. When that task is communicating an idea of message through the foreign language, then it seems that finding the right words takes up attention early on, but that, once those words or chunks are well known, using them takes up less capacity, a and attention is freed for grammar.
Applying these empirical findings to even younger learners suggests that rote learned chunks of language will make up a substantial part of early learning, and that learnt chunks also provide a valuable resource for developing that help learners notice words inside chunks and how other words can be used in the same places may help with the development of grammar.
Communicative approaches no grammar needed
A form of CLT (Communicative Language Teaching) that is based entirely on listening to comprehensible input is Total Physical Response (TPR), and variation on TPR is found in many young learner course books. In this method as developed by Asher (1972), students listen to command in the foreign languages and respond only through movement and action e.g. getting up and sitting down, turning round, putting things on shelves.
Developing the grammar of a foreign language is a long and complicated process; luckily young learners have a long time ahead of them with the language. There is no need to rush into technical rules and labels that will confuse. For their ultimate success, it seems likely to be far better to give children a sound basis in using the language while encourage curiously and talk about patterns and contrasts in and between language, a nd introducing grammatical metalanguage slowly and meaningfully.

By Armin

LEARNING WORDS

2007-05-18T19:14:00.000+08:00

Building up a useful vocabulary is central to the learning if a foreign language at primary level. Children can learn foreign language words clearly by participating in the discourse of the classroom activities. The interaction of vocabulary and grammar in language learning will be taken further in the next chapter.
The chapter begins with an overview of vocabulary development. Children are still building up their first language vocabulary, and this development is tied up with conceptual development. In planning and teaching a foreign language, we need to take account of this first language background to know what will work and what may be too difficult for children. It also becomes quickly apparent that learning a new word is not a simple task that is done once and then completed.

Vocabulary development in children’s language learning
The word as unit
Vocabulary development is about learning words, but it is about much more than that. Vocabulary development is also about learning more about those words, and about learning formulaic phrase or chunks, finding words inside them and learning even more about those words. Children will ask what a particular word means, or how to say a words in the foreign language, and in learning to read the word is a key unit building up skills and knowledge. The role of words as language units begins with the early use of nouns for naming object in first language acquisition, and of use other words to express the child’s wants and needs e.g. “more!’ or ‘ no’ infants go through a period of rapid vocabulary growth as the starts to name, as well as interact with, the words around them.
Remember! The acquisition of word meanings takes much longer than the acquisition of the spoken form of the words, and children use words in their speech long before they have a full understanding of them. ( Lock 1993) we can think of words as rather like flowers growing in the soil. Vocabulary is development is about words, but that learning words is not something that is done and finished with. Learning words is a cyclical! Process of meeting new words and initial learning, followed by meeting those words again and again, each time extending knowledge of what the words mean and how they are used in the foreign language
Vocabulary size
Vocabulary size is usually measured to the nearest thousand, and count ‘ words families’, in which a base word and all its infected forms and derived forms counts as one e.g. the words family is the base form walk plus walking, walked, walks, a walk the English language is said to contain around54.000 (54K)words family. When these are counted in a large dictionary (Nation and Waring 19997). No one knows all the words in the language.
What it means to know a word.
Many types of knowledge covered in ‘knowing a word’ consider the following classroom extact, in which a native speaker teacher is talking with a second language learner of English about the equipment needed to draw a pie chart (a circular graph that shows proportions like a pie or cake cut into slice).
Developing meanings in childhood
Conceptual knowledge grows as children experience more and more of the world in their daily lives. As children depend on their word knowledge, they increase both syntagmatic and paradigmatic knowledge, but also shift over the years of childhood towards more emphasis on the paradigmatic and the abstract. Because these developments occur deep in a child’s mind, they will be applicable to foreign language learning too, in that children will increasingly be able to handle paradigmatic aspects of word meaning, and words with less concrete meanings.

By Armin Ade

Learning methods

2007-05-13T12:26:00.000+08:00

Observational learning (learning by example)

Main article: Observational learning

The most basic learning process is imitation, one's personal repetition of an observed process, such as a smile. Thus an imitation will take one's time (attention to the details), space (a location for learning), skills (or practice), and other resources (for example, a protected area). Through copying, most infants learn how to hunt (i.e., direct one's attention), feed and perform most basic tasks necessary for survival.

Example can be a motivation for learning. Imitation of a role model is a natural mechanism for infants and children, when learning from experience. Child's play is another method for learning by the example of other children, who naturally gain satisfaction by playing the role of teacher or mentor to a less-experienced child.

The next form of learning is acquired learning. Teenagers often go through this when it comes to dating, sexual relations, and other things in which they are pressured into.

The sandbox (sandpit) in a playground is an example of a location where children can learn by experience. It is instructive to watch smaller children on a merry-go-round, for example, who naturally push it more slowly than the larger, older, more experienced ones. In order for a little one to get on the merry-go-round, they might simply grab a bar and drag their feet in the sand, while holding on. This slows down the rotation, which allows the little one to climb on, under the oversight of a supervisor, to ensure their physical safety.

Learning "how to learn" is a skill, which can be taught to others, by example.

more :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning

What is Grammar?

2007-05-13T11:16:00.000+08:00

Grammar is the system of a language. People sometimes describe grammar as the "rules" of a language; but in fact no language has rules*. If we use the word "rules", we suggest that somebody created the rules first and then spoke the language, like a new game. But languages did not start like that. Languages started by people making sounds which evolved into words, phrases and sentences. No commonly-spoken language is fixed. All languages change over time. What we call "grammar" is simply a reflection of a language at a particular time.

Do we need to study grammar to learn a language? The short answer is "no". Very many people in the world speak their own, native language without having studied its grammar. Children start to speak before they even know the word "grammar". But if you are serious about learning a foreign language, the long answer is "yes, grammar can help you to learn a language more quickly and more efficiently." It's important to think of grammar as something that can help you, like a friend. When you understand the grammar (or system) of a language, you can understand many things yourself, without having to ask a teacher or look in a book.

So think of grammar as something good, something positive, something that you can use to find your way - like a signpost or a map.

* Except invented languages like Esperanto. And if Esperanto were widely spoken, its rules would soon be very different.

more:
http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/grammar-what.htm