KJK’s Newsletter K J Kent M.S.Ed.

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In the field of psychology, schema refers to the pre-existing thoughts and ideas a person has that serve to organize their perceptions of the world. Psychologists like Bartlett and Kant in the 1930s, followed by Jean Piaget in the 1960s, pioneered and refined the idea of knowledge of the world around us being organized as structures or schemas in the mind. In childhood we build these schemas, or schemata, and use them to interact with new knowledge or concepts. In a way, we create a filing system in our minds to speed up our ability to interact with the new and exciting world around us.
In traditional Language Arts teaching, the importance of activating schema is a core concept in teaching reading. The idea that students will get more out of a piece of literature after they have spent a little time thinking about the ideas or themes to be found in it is widely accepted. Pre-reading questions that prompt students to access what they already know about a subject can lead to greater enjoyment and understanding of a piece of literature. In fact, lessons in critical thinking try to teach the habit of thinking deeply about what we already know of topics before we read anything that might have been made to influence us in any way. It is this comparison between what we already know and what we are now reading, that creates the gaps where unique concepts and knowledge can poke through.
When the concept of activating schema is transferred to the field of second language instruction, it changes slightly. Instead of activating prior knowledge for the benefit of enriching the enjoyment and understanding of a theme, this prior knowledge is activated so it can be used to mentally anchor the second language to the pre-existing first language. For the second language learner, the calling to consciousness of what is already known can be used as the platform where newly acquired vocabulary and grammar can be placed. In fact, I would go so far as to say that without this platform, what we build as language teachers is destined to quickly fall apart or decay.
For the second language learner, the calling to consciousness of what is already known can be used as the platform where newly acquired vocabulary and grammar can be placed
Starting a Lesson
When my students walk into the classroom, one of the first things I do is greet them in English. Greeting the students is not only a great way to immediately promote empathy, it is also a way to initiate the idea of communication as a fundamental part of each English lesson. In many of the students’ other classes, they are required to sit quietly in their seats and absorb as much content as possible while their other teachers explain concepts or teach new ideas. In the second language class, students need to be ready to engage in two-way communication right from the beginning. Undoubtedly, students have stored knowledge about the ways to greet others in their native languages. Accessing these schemata and performing the greetings in English is one way to quickly require students to get into ‘schema accessing mode’. From the start, students implicitly understand that they will be active in my class. They quickly see that they need to be stakeholders in a communicative environment that will force them to draw upon what they already know, and translate that function into a productive one using English. They are thus put into a situation where they are alert and eager to learn a new word or grammar function to help them perform successfully.
After the greetings have taken place, I do my best to ignite interest in the communicative episode that is most likely to contain the target language to be learned. To take a simple example, when students are learning the ways to introduce themselves to people, I ask them to recall times when they have been in a situation that required them to do that exact task.
“Do you remember when we first met?”
“Have any of you introduced, or been introduced to,

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References
* Elmes, D. (2013) The Relationship Between language and Culture. National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Kanoya International Exchange and Language Education Center. #46.
* Everdingen, Yvonne & Waarts, Eric. (2003). A multi-country study of the adoption of ERP systems.
* Kachru, B.B. (1985) Standards, codification and sociolinguistic realism: The English language in the Outer Circle. In R. Quirk and H. Widdowson (Eds.), English in the world: Teaching and learning the language and literatures, pp.11-36. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
* Morrison, L. (2016)In a room full of non-native speakers, ‘there isn’t any chance of understanding’. It might be their language, but the message is often lost. Worklife. BBC.com.
* Nesbitt, Richard. (2003) The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently…and Why. The Free Press. New York.


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References
* Burns, K. (2010). Japan and its standardized test-based education system. Japan Today. https://japantoday.com/category/features/opinions/japan-and-its-standardized-test-based-education-system. retrieved on July 27th, 2021.
* Japan’s Education System. (2020) https://www.wa-pedia.com/politics/japanese_educational_system.shtml.
* Krashen, S. (1981). Second Language Acquisition and Learning. http://www.sdkrashen.com/content/books/sl_acquisition_and_learning.pdf
* Nation, P. (2007) The Four Strands, Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 1:1, 2-13, DOI: 10.2167/illt039.0
* Nation, P. (2001). Learning Vocabulary in Another Language. Cambridge University Press. New York.
* Swain, M. (1993, October). The Output Hypothesis: Just Speaking and Writing Aren't Enough. The Canadian Modern Language Review, 50(1), 158-164.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kjkent.substack.com