Dil öğretim materyallerinin daha öğrenen merkezli tasarımı ve adaptasyonu

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DESIGNING AND ADAPTING MORE LEARNER-CENTERED LANGUAGE TEACHING MATERIALS

GÖZDE DİNÇER

M.A. THESIS

GAZİ UNIVERSITY

INSTITUTE OF EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES TEACHING

ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING PROGRAMME

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TELİF HAKKI ve TEZ FOTOKOPİ İZİN FORMU

Bu tezin tüm hakları saklıdır. Kaynak göstermek koşuluyla tezin teslim tarihinden itibaren …… (…) ay sonra tezden fotokopi çekilebilir.

YAZARIN Adı : Soyadı : Bölümü : İmza : Teslim tarihi : TEZİN Türkçe Adı : İngilizce Adı :

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ETİK İLKELERE UYGUNLUK BEYANI

Tez yazma sürecinde bilimsel ve etik ilkelere uyduğumu, yararlandığım tüm kaynakları kaynak gösterme ilkelerine uygun olarak kaynakçada belirttiğimi ve bu bölümler dışındaki tüm ifadelerin şahsıma ait olduğunu beyan ederim.

Gözde DİNÇER

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Jüri onay sayfası

Gözde DİNÇER tarafından hazırlanan “Dil Öğretim Materyallerinin Daha Öğrenen Merkezli Tasarımı ve Adaptasyonu” adlı tez çalışması aşağıdaki jüri tarafından oy birliği ile Gazi Üniversitesi Yabancı Diller Eğitimi Anabilim Dalı’nda Yüksek Lisans tezi olarak kabul edilmiştir.

Danışman: Doç. Dr. Gonca YANGIN EKŞİ

Yabancı Diller Eğitimi Anabilim Dalı, Gazi Üniversitesi ………

Başkan: Doç. Dr. Arif SARIÇOBAN

İngiliz Dili Eğitimi Anabilim Dalı, Hacettepe Üniversitesi ………

Üye: Doç. Dr. İskender Hakkı Sarıgöz

Yabancı Diller Eğitimi Anabilim Dalı, Gazi Üniversitesi ………

Tez Savunma Tarihi: 07/11/2014

Bu tezin Yabancı Diller Eğitimi Anabilim Dalı’nda Yüksek Lisans tezi olması için şartları yerine getirdiğini onaylıyorum.

Prof. Dr. Servet KARABAĞ

Eğitim Bilimleri Enstitüsü Müdürü ………

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis advisor, Assoc. Prof. Gonca YANGIN EKŞİ for her endless support. She has been my biggest help with her unique organization skills which she has always elaborated with her invaluable academic knowledge throughout the study. She also provided me with psychological support with her patience in my difficult periods completing this study. Thanks to my dear advisor, everything seemed possible again and continued smoothly resulting in a satisfactory study for me. I thank her for being such a great advisor and would like to express my respect for one more time.

I would like to extend my appreciation to the administrators and instructors of Ankara University School of Foreign Languages for their permission and collaboration and for their friendly efforts contributing to my study. I should also express my happiness for the academic atmosphere they have created. The academic coordinators who made a great effort in such a difficult period of school work and Administrative Coordinator Fahriye Deniz ERGİNER KESKİNOL with her patience in delivering questionnaires have been of great importance to my study.

I would like to express one of my greatest thanks to my dearest friend Şermin VARDAL OCAKLI. She has been my support, my sister, my best friend, my dictionary, my reference book and everything I needed all through the study. I should thank her for each and every moment of this great friendship which accompanied me from the moment I met her and wish it to continue all through our lives. My close friends and my roommates have my great appreciation for their patience and efforts to help me whenever I needed.

My mother and father, indispensable parts of my life, have also been an eminent part of my study with their patience and effort to create a stress-free study atmosphere for me. My mother being the happiness figure all through my life, contributed a lot staying late at nights with me, being there whenever I needed and my father, my trust, my relief has always been there changing the impossible to possible. I thank to both of you for being my family.

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Hande BULUT, my sister, best friend, mum and one of my biggest helpers, contributed this study with all her facilities. I feel very lucky to have a person like you next to me and to have a chance of making benefit of your ideas. Thank you for being such a great sister and loving me this much, my beloved best friend.

My life companion, my love and my closest friend, Fikri DİNÇER has been one of a kind with his unique support in motivating me and taking care of our son to create time for my study. I would like to thank you for being there all the time.

I feel like expressing my most innocent and deepest gratitude to my 3-year-old little son, Kemal DİNÇER. He has been the most intrinsic motivation for me whenever he reminds me to study and leaves time and space as a mature, understanding little man. I feel like the luckiest mother in the world for having such a great child and would like to express my deepest appreciation for him.

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DİL ÖĞRETİM MATERYALLERİNİN DAHA ÖĞRENEN

MERKEZLİ TASARIMI VE ADAPTASYONU

Yüksek Lisans Tezi

Gözde Dinçer

GAZİ ÜNİVERSİTESİ

EĞİTİM BİLİMLERİ ENSTİTÜSÜ

Ağustos, 2014

ÖZ

Bu çalışma İngiliz dili öğretim materyallerinin daha öğrenen merkezli tasarımı ve adaptasyonunu öngörmektedir ve bu doğrultuda faydalanılabilecek üç yaklaşımı öne sürmektedir. Yapısalcılık, bilişsel ve insancıl yaklaşımlara odaklanan bu çalışmada, Ankara Üniversitesi Yabancı Diller Yüksekokulu’ndaki okutmanların öğrenen merkezli yaklaşım konusundaki bilgileri, inançları ve sınıf içi uygulamaları açığa çıkarılmaya çalışılmıştır. Bu amaçla, anket tekniği kullanılmış ve elde edilen veriler araştırmacı tarafından analiz edilerek yorumlanmıştır. Veri toplama aracı olarak kullanılan anket McREL (1994) tarafından geliştirilmiş ve araca ilişkin değerler çalışmada belirtilmiştir. Anketin araştırmacı tarafından geliştirilen açık uçlu kısmında ise sonuçlar içerik analizine tabi tutulmuş, kodlar ve temalarla ifade edilerek yorumlanmıştır. Eklerde belirtilen bu çalışmalar sayesinde, sınırlılıklarda göz önünde bulundurularak çalışma nihai sonuca bağlanmıştır.

Bilim Kodu :

Anahtar Kelimler : Öğrenen Merkezli Dil Öğretim Materyalleri Tasarım ve Adaptasyon

Sayfa Adedi : 165

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DESIGNING AND ADAPTING MORE LEARNER-CENTERED

LANGUAGE TEACHING MATERIALS

M.A. Thesis

Gözde Dinçer

GAZİ UNIVERSITY

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES

August, 2014

ABSTRACT

This study sets forth the adaptation and design of English language teaching materials to be more learner-centered and suggests three approaches in line with this aim. Focusing on Constructivism, Cognitive and Humanistic Approaches, this study has meant to reveal the knowledge, beliefs and in-class applications of instructors at Ankara University School of Foreign Languages. To this end, survey has been use as data collection technique and the data collected has been analyzed and commented by the researcher. The questionnaire which has been used as data collection tool was developed by McREL (1994) and the values for the questions have been mentioned in the study. The results of the open-ended part of the questionnaire has been analyzed through content analysis and commented on codes and themes. Thanks to this study added in appendix, the study has been concluded paying attention to the possible limitations.

Science Code :

Key Words : More learner-centered language teaching materials Design and Adaptation

Page Number : 165

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CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES ... xiv

LIST OF FIGURES ... xv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ... xvi

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study ... 1

Problem of the Study ... 2

Significance of the Study ... 3

Aim and Scope of the study ... 3

Research Questions ... 4

Overview of Methodology ... 4

Assumptions and Limitations of the Study... 5

Definitions of Terms and Abbreviations ... 6

CHAPTER II

What is being learner-centered? ... 8

Characteristics of Learner-Centeredness ... 8

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Approaches Providing a Basis for Learner-Centered Curriculum... 16

Eclecticism ... 16

Cognitivism and Learner-Centeredness ... 17

Constructivism and Learner-Centeredness ... 19

Cognitive- Constructivist Approach – Student Centered Learning ... 20

Humanistic Approach and Learner-Centeredness ... 21

Why do we need a learner-centered approach? ... 22

What should we change? ... 22

Perceptions of Learner-Centered Model ... 24

By teachers ... 24

By students ... 24

Learner-Centered Classrooms ... 25

Learner-Centered Teachers ... 26

Teacher-Student Relationships and Classroom Climate ... 26

Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment ... 26

Classroom Management ... 27

Learner-Centered Schools ... 28

School culture ... 30

School Practices, Structures, and Policies ... 30

Handling the Difficulties ... 32

Students’ Resistance ... 33

Faculty Resistance ... 33

How it works well ... 34

Learner-Centered Curriculum ... 35

Pre-Course Planning ... 36

xii Objective Setting ... 37 Grouping Learners ... 38 Implementation Process ... 38 Content Selection ... 39 Grading Content ... 40 Methodology ... 40 Evaluation ... 41 Materials ... 42

Is the Adaptation Necessary? ... 43

Teachers as Material Adapters ... 43

Towards Adaptation ... 44

Evaluating the Materials ... 45

Adapting the Materials ... 47

Reasons to Adapt the Materials ... 48

Objectives of Material Adaptation ... 49

Principles of Material Adaptation ... 50

Ways of Adapting the Materials ... 51

Learner-Centered Materials ... 53

CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Methodology ... 54

Design of the Study ... 55

Data Collection ... 55

Participants ... 59

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Data Analysis Plan ... 60

CHAPTER IV

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Demographics of the Participant Lecturers ... 62

Results and Discussions for Teachers’ Beliefs ... 64

Results and Discussions for the Teachers’ Classroom Practices ... 73

Results and Discussions for Open-Ended Part about Learner-Centered Material ... 85

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS ... 104

Summary and Conclusion ... 104

Discussions and Pedagogical Implications ... 106

Limitations and Suggestions ... 108

REFERENCES

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1. Descriptive Statistics of Sample Demographic Characteristics ... 63

Table 2. Descriptive Statistics for Learner-Centered Beliefs about Learners ... 65

Table 3. Descriptive Statistics for Non Learner-Centered Beliefs about Learners ... 68

Table 4. Descriptive Statistics for Non-Learner-Centered Beliefs about Learning and Teaching ... 71

Table 5. Descriptive Statistics for the Items Related to Positive Interpersonal Relationship and Climate ... 75

Table 6. Descriptive Statistics for the Items Related to Honoring Student Voice, Providing Challenge and Encouraging Perspective Taking ... 78

Table 7. Descriptive Statistics for the Items Related to Encouraging Higher Order Thinking and Self-regulation ... 81

Table 8. Descriptive Statistics for the Items Related to Adaptation to individual and developmental differences ... 84

Table 9. Themes for a learner-centered classroom with a metaphor ... 89

Table 10. Themes for learner-centered materials’ features ... 95

Table 11. Themes for the usefulness of learner-centered materials ... 98

Table 12. Themes for the frequency of occurrence ... 101

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1. Characteristics of non-learner-centered and learner-centered classrooms ... 29 Figure 2. The Objectives (outcomes) model ... 38

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AUSFL Ankara University, School of Foreign Languages ELT English Language Teaching

LCM Learner-Centered Model

APA American Psychological Association

McREL Mid-Continent Regional Educational Laboratory MATSDA The Materials Development Association

PPP Presentation-Practice-Production LCB Learner-Centered Battery

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

Today, language teaching is regarded as one of the most important educational areas as it should be. What is even more important is that language learners should be achieving more than they are doing now if language needs a lifelong learning basis. The necessity of learning a language is quite undeniable along with the need of more competent learners. The information is best preserved when it is turned into a practical skill encoded by the learner himself. Even though there are teachers making efforts, it is still a problem to take the learners one step further to help them be more competent in the real use of the target language. Besides this problem, the coursebooks are prepared for ‘global needs’ and the materials they present normally address to a ‘global learner’. The needs to be satisfied, on the other hand, are on individual basis, not even on class. To serve this purpose, every teacher should have the ability to design and adapt in-class materials.

This study, then, looks for ideas about a more ‘individual-based’ approach for the language teaching materials. As a result, it focuses on the gap between the classroom materials prescriptively planned and the materials evaluated and adapted by the teacher in accordance with the real needs of learners. It has already been done by many researchers up to now. In order to overcome this mismatch, ‘the focus should be on the teachers’ planning of activities and materials according to the individual demands of learners’ (Nunan extracted from Shavelson and Stern, 1989, p. 22). This learner- centered attitude also proved itself to be a dominant one. Taking this attitude towards individualization as the motive, this study aims to explore the instructors’ beliefs, ideas and applications about learner-centeredness at Ankara University School of Foreign Languages (AUSFL).

Although there are many comparative studies related to teacher and learner perspectives, the highlighted work of Nunan (1988), ‘Learner-Centered Curriculum’ has explained a lot. In today’s literature, Sarıgöz (2004) mentioned the importance of learner centeredness with his work, ‘Learner Profile versus Lesson Profile’. Such an approach that is based on learners themselves seems to be an integrated rather than only one as this study also

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argues. As Sarıgöz (2008) mentioned, “Eclecticism is a reality and new instructional profiles are created for different groups of learners….Eclecticism has gained more importance today due to the instructional movements respecting and implementing individualization in the classroom…”. In his study, he identified some mainstream approaches as more useful when they are used in an integrated way. Constructivist, Cognitive and Humanistic approaches are handled together not only in Sarıgöz’s works but also in the works of many others such as Gibbs (1992) arguing for the same integration concept. However, this study includes these approaches only from the point of related needs.

One of the most eminent propositions of learner-centeredness and also the main pillar of this study is material design and evaluation. Harwood (2010), in his book ‘English Language Teaching Materials: Theory and Practice’, argues for the theoretical framework of material design. The main idea of the book and this study, emphasizes that the ability to evaluate and adapt language teaching materials is essential for teachers. Harwood, just as many other coursebook writers such as Hutchinson & Torres (1994) did, mentioned that ‘even prescriptively planned materials are not totally appropriate and necessitate adaptation to emphasize the significance of the point despite limited time and overloaded programmes.’ According to him, the best first step is to realize coursebooks only as a source. Thereby, there will be flexibility for both the teacher and the learners. What is remarkable is this ability’s being difficult for some, but being a part of their profession for some others.

Problem of the Study

When in-class matters are taken into consideration from the teachers’ side, the most apparent problematic part appears to be materials related. While, at first sight, they seem to be in relation with the planning part, the real importance lies in the skills of teachers as no coursebook will be in perfect harmony with the learners’ demands. As the learners in a class should individually be taken care in a group, it is not so easy for the teacher to organize the materials accordingly.

“Although there are numbers of materials on the market, it may be very hard to choose as such materials will not be suitable for the needs of a particular group of learners. These materials are made for mass sales and the author usually aims at an average class. Thus selecting, adapting and adjusting materials is an essential skill for the EFL teacher. (Ersöz, 1990, p.19)"

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This very significant and highly educational disrupter is a problem also in AUSFL. As being the problem of this study, the knowledge, beliefs and applications of instructors about learner-centeredness are the subject matter to research.

Significance of the Study

A lot of different and extensive works have been carried out about constructivist, cognitive and humanistic approaches both separately and together. Studies about the learner-based instruction, in addition, are mostly comparatively organized as teacher-based and student-based. Nunan’s book ‘Learner-Centered Curriculum’ ,which was published in 1988, is one of the long-standing works of the related literature. Moving on from that day, studies that address to the learner-centered teaching are highly appreciated. Once this idea has been accepted as the basis, the diversity of ideas or flexibility in creating materials may be more obvious in a learner-centered atmosphere. Although this diversity itself may be a handicap for some teachers, many of them who have aptitude for moving on, caring for the learners and better teaching, will reflect on their ideas with the aim of raising self awareness. This study, so, is meant to create an opportunity for self-reflection in addition to its main aim; that is, gathering descriptive data.

To foster the significance of this study, many works of important researchers can be cited. According to Cunningsworth (1995), for instance, students’ independence is extremely important and should be drifted from teachers’ dependency. Ellis and Sinclair (1992) focused on ‘learner training’ concept for all the materials developed and designed. Only that way, they thought, learners can be aware of their learning strategies, paces and even themselves. Tomlinson (1998) also supports this concept by mentioning learner investment in materials, which is directly linked to their effort, interest and time investing. These are crucial for learner-centeredness according to him. Being aware of such an important concept in language teaching, this study hopes to shed a light on current beliefs and applications of instructors for further studies.

Aim and Scope of the study

Besides touching upon the points mentioned above, this study has got aims at a more specific level. It aims at studying with the preparatory school teachers of Ankara

University and hopes to identify how the English language teaching materials are realized within the light of constructivist, cognitive and humanistic approaches and learner-based

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standards. In other words, the aim of this study is to explore AUSFL instructors’ beliefs, ideas and applications about learner centeredness; material design and evaluation

accordingly. Through this aim, descriptive data collection and statistical analysis in line with them are also in the scope of this study. As its exploratory and descriptive scope necessitates, the study does not hypothesize any finding, but surely regards its research questions as the beginning.

Research Questions

Besides its aim to reveal how currently used materials are realized according to learner-centered criteria, this study also hopes to find the answers to the following research questions:

1. What are the beliefs, knowledge and applications of English Language Teaching (ELT) instructors at Ankara University School of Foreign Languages (AUSFL) about learner-center d approaches?

2. How do they define centered materials? Do they believe in learner-centeredness in evaluating, adapting and designing language teaching materials? 3. How often and how do they adapt materials to make them more learner-centered?

Overview of Methodology

As mentioned, in this descriptive study, what is to explore, lies behind the ideas, beliefs and applications of AUSFL instructors about learner-centeredness and accordingly prepared materials. The instructors, with their consents, participated in the data collection procedures. The data collection tool, that is the questionnaire, included demographic questions, Likert-type scaled items, and open-ended questions to explore beliefs, practices and knowledge. This also explains why this study has both qualitative and quantitative data. The participants were given two weeks to return the questions. Necessary

explanations and help were provided by the researcher whenever needed. After the data collected, the descriptive statistics analysis were carried out while for the open-ended part’s questions content analysis were made through codes and themes within the light of expert ideas. Once the analyses were completed, results and implications made themselves apparent and were written by the researcher.

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Assumptions and Limitations of the Study

This study unfortunately has some certain limitations in both the application process and for the results. These limitations have resulted from difficulties related to dates, phase of the educational applications at school and also they are the kind of limitations that may be seen in any study related to humanities.

The first point to consider is the sampling procedure. As the time set for the application of the questionnaire by the management was also the last weeks of the school, it was impossible to apply the sampling rule of N>50+8k. As a result, nonrandom convenience sampling had to be used. Another reason for this type of sampling was actually the impossibility to reach the expected number of participants compared to the amount of items in the questionnaire as the number of instructors working is already far below. What is more, the impossibility of reaching instructors from other universities would cause the data, which is necessary for statistical analyses, to be unreachable. The feedback from the target school is not even enough and such an attempt would not be the way to reach the target number. In other words, there was a chain effect between these three possible limitations for this study. They, in turn, caused the researcher to get descriptive statistics only through items and no data for statistical correlation and comparison, which was also out of the scope of this study.

Besides the subject characteristics, some other threats may be realized in terms of internal validity. There had to be a location threat during the application process of the questionnaire. Although some measures were tried to be taken such as assigning certain time limits for two weeks and providing explanations, it was impossible to form a certain place and time for all the participants.

There was a mortality threat which may be partially observed. During the questionnaire application process, some participants were lost and an attempt to get in touch with them again was made through e-mail as the original copy of the questionnaire was not soft and handed in personally. Although 80 copies of the questionnaire were delivered, some of them could be reached while some could not. In the beginning of the study, researcher’s institution was chosen with the purpose of getting better feedback. However, the number was not enough and statistical comparisons were not possible and caused them to be out of the scope of this study. In Ankara University case, descriptive statistics analyses were carried out. For more in depth analysis of ideas and applications, open-ended questions

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were used and content analyses were carried out. In other words, teachers’ beliefs and practices for learner-centeredness were analyzed through descriptive statistics and their knowledge, applications and use of learner-centered materials were asked through open-ended questions. The second set of questions about materials was analyzed through content analysis organized by codes and themes, with the control of an expert idea.

Another threat was about the history of the data collection tool application. The time set by the management for the application of the questionnaire was also the busiest time of the school and this might have led an extra stress and put burden on instructors attended and so might have affected the results negatively.

The study has been applied in Ankara University Prep School (AUSFL) context. To generalize the findings and the results, this threat should be taken into consideration. The findings, then, could only be generalizable if the questionnaire is applied in other preparatory schools of universities.

Definitions of Terms and Abbreviations

The terms and abbreviations used in this study are mentioned below:

Terms

Constructivism: Constructivism is a theory of knowledge that argues that humans generate knowledge and meaning from an interaction between their experiences and their ideas (Piaget, 1955).

Cognitivism: Cognitivism is the study area about mental processes, including how people perceive, think, remember, learn, and solve problems.

Humanism: Humanistic philosophy is the one that cares about people’s feelings and inner worlds on the individual basis.

Learner-Centeredness: This is an approach to classroom applications that puts the learners individually at the centre of all the procedures related to class.

Eclecticism: This is the tendency to use different approaches at one time for the sake of learner-centeredness.

Faculty: The term is used for both teachers and administrators working at an institution.

Zone of Proximal Development: It is the distance between the actual level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development

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as determined through problem solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers (Vygotsky, 1978)

Intrinsic motivation: This is the kind of pleasure that comes from the success of completing a task itself.

Extrinsic motivation: This is the kind of motivation that is triggered externally with the help of money, award and so on.

Abbreviations

AUSFL: Ankara University, School of Foreign Languages ELT: English Language Teaching

LCM: Learner-Centered Model

APA: American Psychological Association

McREL: Mid-Continent Regional Educational Laboratory MATSDA: The Materials Development Association

PPP: Presentation-Practice-Production LCB: Learner-Centered Battery

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CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

This study examines the ideas about a learner-centered approach on language teaching materials’ design and adaptation. For this purpose, firstly, it gives background information about Constructivism, Cognitivisim and Humanistic approach which are highlighted as useful in the study because they are believed to form a learner-centered one at the end. The study, then, informs about material design and adaptation with a constant perspective on the approach.

What is being learner-centered?

What a learner- centered approach brings in a classroom different from other perspectives is the feeling of being cared about, supported so being important as a learner for in-class procedures. Only feeling this way can lead the self-generated natural motivation to occur within learners. McCombs and Whisler (1997) in their book explain “Learner-Centered” as ‘the perspective that combines a focus on individual learners- their heredity, experiences, perspectives, backgrounds, talents, interests, capacities, and needs- with a focus on the best available knowledge about learning and how it occurs and about teaching practices that promote the highest levels of motivation, learning, and achievement for all learners.’ What this definition puts into practice is the understanding of students’ and teachers’ complex system of viewpoints and needs into the classroom. In other words, effectiveness of teacher and differences of individuals are regarded as highly acceptable in a learner-centered model.

Characteristics of Learner-Centeredness

As many ideas to frame the features of learner-centered model have been put forward, the first way to condense will be to review the literature. Dating back to Nunan’s “The Learner- Centred Curriculum” in 1990, the premises can be realized as the basis for current ideas about the learner-centered model (LCM). He has, actually, listed these premises as 11 item based on the differences between traditional and communicative approaches which

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have a perfect harmony with the learner-centered approach. This harmony is so great that the literature supporting the idea of a ‘learner-centered communicative class’ has already started to develop. Koji Nakamura (2005) in “Creating a Learner-Centered Communicative Classroom for Student Teachers”, referred to the concept as ‘language home’. According to Nunan’s adaptation (1990) from Quinn (1984:61-64), 11 items as mentioned before are listed below:

Focus of learning is on communication rather than the structure.

Selection of language items is based on the needs of learners rather than linguistic criteria.

Sequencing of language items is determined emphasizing the content, meaning and interest.

Degree of coverage rises up to what is important to learner.

View of language is variant and realized as equivalent of contexts’ character.

Genuine everyday language is emphasized.

Criterion of success is communication ability along with appropriate manner.

Spoken interaction is emphasized as well as reading and writing. Centre of the class shifts from teacher to student.

‘Wrong’ is not accepted but ‘partially correct’ while correcting the errors. Taking all these items into consideration, Nunan’s approach seems to resemble the natural language learning process more than the traditional way.

In order to support the concept with another to-the-point idea, McCombs and Whisler’s (1997: 10) ‘premises of the Learner-Centered Model’ list is quoted below:

Learners are distinct and unique.

These differences include their emotional states of mind, learning rates, styles, stages of development, abilities, talents, feelings of efficacy, other academic and non-academic attributes and needs.

Constructing learner is directly linked to the input being relevant and necessary for the learners’ real lives’ needs so that they use the information

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practically by producing and constructing themselves with the help of what they already know.

Positive environment in a class is a must to make the learners feel appreciated, supported with a feeling of comfort and order.

As learning is a natural process, language learners should also be interested in the activity in the class. This inclination should be so natural that the interference of the resistance the learning itself may bring should not require an overall fixing.

All these premises which can clearly be recognized in the practices of a teacher are meant to maximize learning for students as they include learners in the class in real terms at every stage of planning. Once it is established, McCombs and Whisler state that the learners will be self-sufficient in taking the responsibility for their own learning (1997:11).

Principles of Learner-Centeredness

When the principles were first listed by McCombs and Whisler in 1997, twelve items were included. However, McCombs and Miller, ten years later, enlarged it and added two more items keeping the four main domains as they used to be. Some supporting ideas have been put forward, as well. This is why the list of McCombs and Miller (2007:46) is used in this study. The items have originally been adopted by the American Psychological Association (APA). They are organized into four domains based on the factors affecting learners and learning:

The first domain is ‘cognitive and metacognitive factors’ which are about the intellectual capacities or brain functions of learners.

o Having cognitive factors about information storage on one hand and metacognitive factors about higher-order thinking processes on the other, the first domain’s list starts with the ‘nature of the learning process’. Although there are different types of learning such as motor learning and cognitive learning, the one meant here is the cognitive one including generation of knowledge, learning strategies and also the one creating self-regulated and goal-directed learners just as in the constructivist theory.

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o The second principle is about ‘goals of the learning process’ and directs the teachers to help learners identify short and long term goals. As being goal-directed is an essential skill in learner-centered model (LCM), learners and teachers should be aware of what goals energize the learning. Even if short term goals can have some gaps, with the help of the teachers they can be filled, resolved and deepened. Doing this, long-term goals may finally be reached.

o Third principle, which is ‘construction of knowledge’, is actually

widening information by building links between old and new. These links may actually vary depending on the content and the learner. They may be created by modifying, adding, reorganizing…etc. Presenting some

techniques or strategies such as concept maps, categorizing is a part of the teacher’s job.

o The fourth principle of the domain is a metacognitive skill which is ‘strategic thinking’. If a learner can achieve thinking strategically, it means that s/he has the ability to understand how to reach the

information and use it for real life applications. They do it by evaluating constant feedbacks, interacting with the good models and assessing their learning skills.

o The fifth one is another metacognitive area ‘thinking about thinking’. Learners who are self- sufficient can set their goal, choose the best methods for them and observe their progress toward the goal and assess themselves. In case of a problem, moreover, they can find new solutions and can go back to the steps again. However, the problem is that usually we do not give them enough time to do such reflections with the pressure of curriculum coverage and preparing them for the exams.

o The last principle of the first domain is ‘context of learning’. This one actually seems to be the link to the next domain about motivational factors as it is closely related to humanistic factors of a classroom context. Cultural backgrounds of learners, group influences all have effect on learners’ attitudes toward learning. It is impossible to isolate students from the class even if they tend to sleep. The atmosphere should

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be so variant, need-addressing, supportive, and positive that the learners should feel themselves as in the centre of all dynamics in that context both as a whole and individual.

The second domain analyses the factors in terms of motivation and affection. o ‘Motivational and emotional influences on learning’ are valid as the

motivation influences what and how much is learned. Correspondingly, emotional state influences motivation. As a result, quality of all learning processes is either enhanced or interfered by these factors. To put this concept in more practical terms, this is the factor closest to the feeling of persuading in class. Sometimes, teachers feel that their job is to persuade people that they are learning or overcome the negative feelings or

prejudice they carry about themselves as learners. Being aware of such an influence, teachers can be more helpful for their learners.

o Another principle is ‘intrinsic motivation to learn’. Motivation, naturally, includes curiosity, appropriate difficulty level tasks and interests.

Currently, teachers have a job of identifying learners’ interests in a topic even if they do not like it. It is obvious that such a hard job does not necessarily meet the goal. In order to trigger intrinsic motivation, according to Deci &Ryan (1985, 1990) teachers must help students feel competent, autonomous and like they belong to the group. The final point is that if we want the learners to be self-sufficient individuals, we should firstly make them feel success and the feeling of belonging as it is the most difficult to try to reach a goal that you have no idea of.

o The principle about ‘effects of motivation on effort’ means for the teachers to realize if the learners are making effort or not as effort is one of the signals of intrinsic motivation. Without it, the learners are unable to persist. Extrinsic motivation, on the other hand, is what we currently use in the classrooms. However, it is impossible to believe that each and every must-learn student is either intrinsically or extrinsically motivated. If they are all extrinsic, then the success level should be far higher as we base our approaches on it. If not, this maybe explains the reasons for

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failure of practical use. In order to create intrinsically motivated learners, they should be appreciated in the class applications at every step.

The next domain is about ‘developmental and social factors’ including two

principles. Being humanistic, supportive and having a deep understanding of your learners’ individual differences all contribute to this domain.

o The first principle of the domain is ‘developmental influence on learning’. This one is based on psychological theories about human development. What this offers as a method is the idea of combining detail information about learners and the basic human development features depending on variants. The need for this results from the basic pillar of LCM, caring for the differences of your learners (individuals) in class. o Learning is stimulated not only by individual development but also

‘social influences’. If given interactive instructional contexts, learners can enhance their knowledge through higher order cognitive skills such as perspective taking and reflective thinking serving for the

metacognitive purposes. Eradicating the negative interfering feelings of learning atmosphere such as incompetence, anxiety, and pressure will build a way to healthier feelings of thinking, feeling and behaving. The point is that rather than teachers’, learners’ perception of positive learning atmosphere and relations is important to create a meaningful partnership for academic improvement.

The last domain deals with the ‘individual differences factors’. As the eclectic nature of LCM necessitates, creating a positive atmosphere as in humanistic approach and addressing to each individual’s needs and interests as in constructivism are essential to be learner-centered for teachers.

o The principle about ‘individual differences in learning’ means to use these differences in benefit of learners’ interests. Once we reach self-sufficient learners who can decide what to learn, how to learn it and at which pace to learn it, it is the teacher’s turn. As educators, they need to suppress the mismatch between learner strategies and the content if any. Any expansion or modification related to material adaptation is

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teachers need to correlate the curricular conditions and learner

differences. If it is comprehensive enough, there would be a slight need to vary methods and materials.

o ‘Learning and diversity’ principle is richness to a learner-centered classroom if used effectively. Bringing different backgrounds, cultures, socioeconomic status, beliefs, religions …etc., all learners require specific care in the class. This may sound difficult but it is easy if the learners are given chances to use their strengths even if they are not used to it.

o The last principle of the last domain is ‘standards and assessment’ and is about assessing the learning progress and the learner once educationally and appropriately high standards and targets have been set. Ongoing, standardized and self- assessments should all include effective approaches to include students in success scales. One problematic area in assessing seems to be high-stakes tests. Actually, using them is quite common in universities’ preparatory schools. However, they proved to be misleading or not symbolizing the real abilities of foreign language use. Moreover, they even obstruct the learners of lifelong learning. The way to deal with it is to support the system with learner-centered approaches such as feedback on their progress, rewards and teacher support in the course of responsibility taking. Using these learner-centered practices will help the learners have necessary qualifications for a successful higher-education and workplace, too.

Weimer (2002) has developed five areas related to in-class dynamics to make some changes in application. The balance of power, the function of content, the purpose and processes of evaluation, the responsibility for learning and the role of the teacher are the areas mentioned. For the last two, she also identified some principles having a total number of ten. Seven of these principles belong to the area of ‘the role of the teacher’.

 ‘Teachers do learning tasks less’ meaning doing tasks to organize the content, find examples, ask and answer, summarize…etc. not very often or not always is the first one.

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 ‘Teachers do less telling; students do more discovering’ meaning talking less and give less details in class is the second one. As teachers, we may have a propensity to be informative but it is better not to be too much as Bruner’s inquiry –based or discovery based learning proposes.

 ‘Teachers do more design work’ meaning designing the activities and assignments in a way that serves for four purposes is another one. Taking the learners to a new level, motivating them, activating them and finally developing knowledge are the purposes mentioned.

 ‘Faculty do more modeling’ meaning for the faculty’s assuming the master learner’s approaches and skills and presenting them as good models in the context of the subject matters is the next one. As an example, the obligation to have a course belonging to some other fields different from yours is an application of this principle.

 ‘Faculty do more to get students learning from and with each other’ is another principle of the role for teacher. This tries to reinforce the idea of group work as collaborative and cooperative learning contributes a lot.

 ‘Faculty work to create climates for learning’ is the principle about positive learning atmosphere. Also, motivation is not something that can be forced but something that can be fostered by a positive climate in class.

 ‘Faculty do more feedback’ is the last principle of the teacher’s role. This one deals not with the amount of grading but the focus of grading. Evaluation events should have a feedback delivery which is constructive for the learners. Besides these which take the teacher from the centre and put the learner instead, there are three more principles that Weimer puts forward as belonging to the responsibility for learning.

 According to the first principle, ‘it’s about who is responsible for what in the teaching-learning process’. Immature or irresponsible students have always been a problem in this process. The thing that should be kept in mind is that as teachers, we cannot be the ones who force or control them. Learning is a learner activity at first hand. If these ‘who’s and ‘what’s can be identified, both sides may benefit more.

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 The second principle says that ‘it is about logical consequences, not discipline’. Making a student do an assignment is not a matter of discipline or the fright they carry against the teacher, but endurance to the results of their choices, which is a skill a master learner, should have, in fact.

 The last principle puts forward that ‘it is about consistency in word and deed’. The saying actions tell more than words do is an undeniable truth. If the code of conduct is set with the learners themselves at an appropriate time in the beginning and if the results are clearly mentioned and put into practice, the expectations as well as do’s and don’ts will be clear for everyone.

Approaches Providing a Basis for Learner-Centered Curriculum

As mainstream approaches, Constructivism, Cognitivism and Humanistic approaches underlie the premises of learner-centered approach. For the scope of this study, however, these approaches will be included for the parts that can be closely related to the learner-centered theory. They will be handled both separately and integrated as eclectic approach presupposes, so firstly eclecticism is argued and then the approaches. However, it should also be added that underlying a learner-centered model is not only these ones. In other words, language acquisition and communicative approaches cannot be underestimated for learner-centeredness. Next parts sometimes refer to these items, as well.

Eclecticism

The meaning of the word ‘eclecticism’ actually comes from electing. This is a kind of election that picks up the related and appropriate parts of an approach or idea and obtains a new, maybe more beneficial, unity. It is necessary to keep away from being implicitly adherent to a single philosophy.

The philosophy behind naturalism brought in the features of developmental stages and later developed in humanistic approach. Afterwards, the psychological philosophy helped the cognitive ideas develop along with constructivist ones. Later in time, interests came up with the idea of constructivism as the starting point of constituting learners’ schema. In addition to all these, social side of the education is integrated and finally in today’s educational area, discipline and the items mentioned are combined together and at the end hopefully an approach of learner-centered model is reached.

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Such an approach brings a positive atmosphere to the class that helps learners foster good feelings and motivation thanks to the diversity it naturally includes. On the other hand, the most common criticism is its lack of discipline and should be paid attention to.

Cognitivism and Learner-Centeredness

Cognitive philosophy mostly objecting partly agreeing with behaviorism occurred in 1950s with Lewin (1951) and Bloom (1956) but mostly gained importance in 1960s. The objection part was about the internal or mental processes as behaviorism did not have such concepts.

There are many leading psychologists and researcher in the field including Chomsky, Papert, but the one who comes to mind in the first place is Piaget in the 1960s. Once he started to get interested in human psychology, he put forward the idea of internal cognitive structures and identified some phases of human life and some principles that we use from birth and on. Basically, he argued functions that never change as they are biological and cognitive structures that change as humans grow. Functions also divide into two as organization and adaptation. Organization means interrelation between cognitive structures and the new information has a place in mind which waits for being filled. Integrating the information then is the part that brings the philosophy to constructivism. The second function of Piaget is adaptation and what is argued here is the ability of human to survive in view of new information. The latter function works as three different types. If the new information causes no change, it is called assimilation; if it creates new schemata, then it is called accommodation. A third one is regarded as the master one and called equilibration. That means using accommodation and assimilation together. In addition to these principles, Piaget also realized four stages in a person’s life and described them as sensorimotor between 0-2 years and operational including three other phases.

Another prominent name in the area is Vygotsky. He moved the cognitive philosophy a step forward through social constructivism just as Bruner did. He actually believed in guided social interaction and advised not to exclude social and cultural context. Also, he came up with the idea of ‘Zone of Proximal Development’ to attract the attention to the gap between developmental level of a child and the developmental level of a child that can be reached with a good guidance and his ideas shed important light on educational practices.

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As to the educational implications, cognitivism means mind, memory, motivation, thinking and reflection. In sum, they all refer to information-processing approach. To guide this process, then an external control that is the teachers have an important role. As Simonson et al. (2003) mentioned Bruner, Piaget and Papert’s ideas; they commonly talk about four items related to education.

• Arrangement of the knowledge • Students’ readiness to learn • Intuition and intellectuality

• Motivation and positive atmosphere

Another important implication for the classroom is critical two factors in motivating the learners: value and effort. Actually these two terms mostly appear in the contexts of classroom management. Value is important because learners should think that what they do is worthwhile and effort is important because learners will put energy and time into their work. Considering these two items, classroom implementations should be learner-centered using the tools of cognitive philosophy.

The last prominent effect of cognitivism on educational area again comes from the works of Piaget and about the items mentioned above. According to him, there are four very important principles to be taken into consideration while being cognitive. The first of these premises is ‘readiness’ as a mental level as Piaget differentiated human life. If the item to be taught is not appropriate for the child’s level, learning will not occur. The second one is about motivation. Content should be a bit higher level than the child’s level to provoke disequilibrium and to lead assimilation or accommodation. Piaget mentions that only that way can a learner be intrinsically motivated. The third premise is important for the teachers to be aware of the learner’s level and so the possible expectations. At that point, Piaget emphasize the importance of grading content to know the ‘before’ and ‘after’s of a learner and to test them appropriately. The last one is probably the most functional one focusing on intelligence. A part of intelligence which consists of natural curiosity and tendency should be used to construct the knowledge individually.

According to Piaget, a good classroom atmosphere consists of critical and creative individuals and discoverers within the control of a teacher as a guide and methods based on discovery and active learning, cooperation and not giving much importance to standard testing. All these premises, obviously, lead the way through Constructivism.

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Constructivism and Learner-Centeredness

Constructivist thinking puts the learner at the centre and makes them internalize the language by linking old one with the new. Piaget again is attributed the approach and regarded as the founder of Constructivism, interestingly, with his cognitive domain ideas. In many books already Constructivism is seen as a recent branch of Cognitivism. This also explains why the dates of works about this approach are quite recent. Dick and Carey (2005) for example explains the approach as ‘individual have learned when they have constructed new interpretations of the social, cultural, physical and intellectual environments in which they live.’

While Marlowe and Page (2005) wanted to describe Constructivism in their book ‘Creating and Sustaining the Constructivist Classroom’, they identified some characteristics.

• It is about constructing knowledge, not receiving it • It is about thinking and analyzing

• It is about being active not passive

• It is about understanding and applying, not repeating back.

As to constructivist implication in educational area, according to Collay and Gagnon (2001), there are six elements of a constructivist learning design (CLD).

• Situation: This element focuses on methodological implementations such as content selection, task attribution, objective selecting and expressing and so on. • Groupings: This one has two facets as students and materials. In the view of

students, it is important to know how they will be grouped and on what criterion. For the other facet, it is good to know how they will be distributed to the groups and at what amount.

• Bridge: This is the core of this theory. This necessitates knowing the techniques of brushing upon learners’ existing knowledge and building bridges with the newly introduced one and the ways of understanding if they accomplish the goals or not.

• Questions: For the phases of each step in this design anticipated questions should be ready beforehand to self-evaluate.

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Exhibit: This element means the way for learners to express their ideas, progress or products to be controlled if they could reach the goals.

Reflections: This is related to the evaluation phase of the design. Leading students with the techniques to openly express their feedbacks, acquisitions is quite important for the design cycle to be completed.

Adding to these elements, Alessi and Trollip (2001), promoted some ways to accomplish such a design in class:

o Emphasize learning rather than teaching.

o Actions and thinking of learners rather than teachers are important. o Active learning is important.

o Discovery or guided discovery is important. o Learner construction of information is vital. o Cooperative learning activities are useful.

o Real, authentic materials serve well for the purpose. o Learner choice through negotiation is really contributing.

o Developing personal autonomy in learners is one of the purposes. o Learner reflection and ownership of the activities are important.

o Relevancy of the materials fosters motivation.

Cognitive- Constructivist Approach – Student Centered Learning

Between 1990s and 2004 and on, many researchers started to define learner-centered approach again and they used the terminology cognitive-constructivist. Starting with Ambron in 1990, it was put forward that interactive learning is student centered. Gibbs in 1992 defined learner-centered as giving learners greater autonomy and control over their choices for in class procedures. In 2004, Neo and Neo mentioned that students do not passively listen and absorb the delivered information, but learn through a series of discoveries, interactions, inquiries, and problem-solving situations they actively engage in.

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From these definitions, it is not so awkward to say that learner centered may be defined as cognitive-constructivist approach from now on as their contribution is obvious.

Humanistic Approach and Learner-Centeredness

Humanism which made its name well-known in the mid 20th century, started to be used in education in the 1970s and 80s. The motive was against behaviorism just as cognitive and constructivist approaches do. Dating back to 1800s to Socrates through Renaissance, humanistic approach attracted many psychologists at first and many educators afterwards. It can be related to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, Johari window model of Luft and Ingham, Gestalt therapy, and is mostly attributed to Carl Rogers as one of the founders. It is about the feelings, experiences, beliefs, values of individuals and thinks the individuals holistically. As feelings are always present, Moskowitz (1978) expresses that ‘affective education is effective education’. Five characteristics of humanism, problem-solving, reasoning, free-will, self development and cooperation are the ones which relate it to cognitive and constructivist approaches and so to the learner-centeredness. The prominent names of humanistic applications in education are Curran and Gattegno. Curran (1976) created ‘counselling-learning’ making the learners feel secure and talk about their feelings and opinions through self-evaluation and decide on the curriculum. Gattegno (1972) is the leading name of the Silent Way approach which presents challenges to learners and enables them to overcome while they are developing self awareness. To achieve these implementations in class, a humanistic teacher should be aware of Piaget’s developmental readiness factor and should offer problems to be solved to trigger disequilibrium as in cognitivism. Another important skill of teachers is the awareness of motivation and its type. Intrinsic motivation is the preferred one; however some students are used to being extrinsically motivated and their needs may change. Combining these two in humanistic approaches, a teacher can be quite learner-centered.

According to Moskowitz (1978) again, there are some underlying premises that constitute humanistic education in a foreign language class and they are as below:

A learning environment that facilitates the achievement of full potential of the learners is one of the principal purposes.

Personal growth is also a responsibility of the school. For learning to be significant, feelings must be recognized. This kind of learning is discovered for oneself.

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Human beings want to actualize their potential.

Having healthy relationships with other classmates is more conductive to learning.

Learning more about oneself is a motivating factor. Increasing one’s self-esteem enhances learning.

If these premises can be applied, truly motivated learners will contribute to their own learning more easily in a more-learner centered classroom.

Why do we need a learner-centered approach?

When asked, most people remember the best memories of their school years and they are full of the positive feelings that learner-centered model fosters. Not all the memories are like this, unfortunately. This unfortunate situation is what primarily leads us to use a learner-centered approach. It is also possible to see more concrete reasons. The reasons may be fluctuation in the grades, the feeling of boredom, the loss of motivation, unwillingness to attend the lessons, or not doing the assignments. Whatever the reason is the result is the same: we cannot reach the target learner profile. All in all, the real reason is something that is created by all those small items together constructing a macro problem that needs to be solved. The importance of understanding these items is that each of them has more or less the same backgrounds which are tried to explain by the principles of learner centered model. Unfortunately, not all the problems have easy solutions. This deficiency necessitates some new search. A learner-centered model consisting of humanistic, cognitive and constructivist approaches underlying can be offered as one of the best solutions but the tip is how to fit it up.

What should we change?

Weimer (2002), in her book ‘Learner-Centered Teaching’, summarized five areas of in class dynamics to be changed in line with the approach. The first change appears to be in the ‘balance of power’ which means sharing the teacher’s authority with the learners, in brief. The idea has actually occurred from the critiques of radical and feminist pedagogies as they revealed that the imbalance in power structure or its distribution in the class leads to some negative effects on learning motivation and learning outcomes. As a result, if the shift in this too authoritarian manner can be achieved, students’ engagement and motivation will be secured, too. As the second area to make change in, ‘function of

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content’ is prescribed. This idea has been formed in light of constructivism which is closely related to cognitive psychology. Differentiating between deep and surface learning, Ramsden (1988:271) notes that ‘learning should be qualitative, not difference in the amount of knowledge’ and the way to do this, on the side of teachers, is to discover learners’ existing conceptions and design contexts to change them. Doing this, the teacher will also have a clue to how much content can be covered. One easy way, which may even be regarded as an advantage for some, is to encourage collaborative learning movement stemming from the work of Bruffee (1993). Teacher, here is the master learner and the resource and the learners are problem solvers just as in the problem-based learning. The hypothesis underlying is that learners need to be told less and to discover more as they find an appropriate content to explain, answer and resolve the problem. The self-organization skill needed to conduct this approach can only be developed by letting the learners carry out open-ended investigations and by trial and errors testing their solutions.

Like in the works of many others, Weimer also mentions the concept ‘role of the teacher’ as the most controversial one as it is the most difficult to change in practice. It is a fact that this approach necessitates a shift through traditional, authoritarian, complicated presenting skills to a less dominating but more encouraging attitude toward teaching. According to LCM, the main job of a teacher is to address the learners to learning steps. Being more around the class rather than in the front, teachers feel less secure and less over-control. As a result, they tend to reject LCM as Kember and Gow revealed with their work in 1994 through an instrument developed by Biggs (updated in 2001). They got the result that knowledge transmission provides more security for the teachers whereas learning facilitation leads to a lack of secure feeling in the class.

‘The responsibility for learning’ is probably the second hardest area to change. This has actually been argued for many years dating back to 80’s. Boud was one of the people who first felt obliged to do something new to put the burden of learning on learners. In our current traditional approaches, learners need support of teachers to identify what to be learned, how to learn it, and how to assess what they have learned. This traditional way, an opponent of a self-regulated learning might lead us to ignore some skillful individuals who can assume high levels of responsibility for themselves.

The final subject matter is the ‘evaluation purpose and processes’. This argument is not based on the existence of assessment which has already proved to be working well as the most potent impetus to learning. However, the problem is that the assessment may lead to

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either surface or deep learning depending on its system. The dominant one seems to be surface learning as the learners are observed to be grade-oriented even hiding themselves behind the idea that their faculty is grade-oriented, too. To eradicate these misconceptions, the focus can be on process evaluating, stress can be reduced giving second tries, and informative feedbacks related to the next phase of evaluation can be supplied.

Perceptions of Learner-Centered Model

Although there are many action researches about the result of using learner-centered model, it is better to summarize them as a whole because the ideas of teachers and students classify around the same concepts. Referring to all, they are observed to be positive for the model and they have a lot of comments in common related to the model.

By teachers

The first comment of the teachers in general is about the acceptance of reality of the principles of LCM being true about the human learning system, nature, motivation and development. In addition or in more practical terms, they mention that the knowledge, belief and use of these premises help them accept and include the learners as a whole caring for the individual differences. It is for sure that such a holistic approach will reflect upon the learners as something encouraging. As a result, according to them, teachers have an opportunity to fill the gap between the current system and the target learner by using suggested principles. To include generally, teachers focus on non-surprisingly same characteristics when asked about what learning looks like in a learner-centered atmosphere. They usually talk about teams that stay together, diverse learning opportunities, inquiry based learning, high expectations they set for all learners, students’ being confident, real-life content, success with almost impossible learners, collaboration, open classrooms which the teachers accept visitors.

By students

Many researchers have demonstrated that the learners need the sense of belonging to their class. This is also the complaint of today’s youth. Feelings of belonging, being appreciated, supported, praised, and many other positive stimuli seem to be the missing needs of learners in our classes. Expressing their ideas more like expectations rather than appreciation, learners report what they want as;