Global Issues in Language Education: Issue 30. March 1998. (pp. 12 - 14)
Global Issues in Language Education: Issue 30. March 1998. (pp. 12 - 14)
Helen Keller once remarked that it would be good for each person to experience
blindness or deafness a few days. Living in darkness, she added, would
enhance the appreciation of sight and learning about silence could teach
the value of sound. This article examines how experiential learning activities
can be used in language classes to promote awareness of issues such as
handicaps, world hunger, and landmine proliferation. Some of the strengths
and weaknesses of experiential-based simulations are considered. Resources
to learn more about experiential learning are also highlighted.
Keeton and Tate (1978) describe experiential learning as a process which allows
learners to be in direct touch with the issues they are studying. Related
to "discovery learning" and so-called "holistic education", it is a
bottom-up learning process in which participants create their own meanings
after hypothesizing about shared experiences. In cases where direct
experience is not feasible, simulated roleplays sometimes offer viable
alternatives. It should be noted, however, that some situations
are not suited to roleplay: they may involve more physical or emotional
risk than some teachers are prepared for.
Whereas students can "stand back" and passively observe many traditional
classes, in most roleplay scenarios direct participation
is imperative because students are in fact co-participants.
Experiential learning is rooted in constructivism,
which asserts meaning is actively molded from experience. Munsell (1995) adds that it,
"focuses on learning-by-doing, not learning-by-showing." The emphasis of process over
content is a hallmark of experiential learning.
According to Tourunen (1992) there are three steps to an
experiential learning cycle: (1) concrete experience, (2) active
reflection, experimentation, or observation, and (3) abstract
conceptualizing. This cycle is influenced by Kolb (1976),
who includes an additional stage of hypothesis testing.
Done with sensitivity, experiential roleplays can offer a vicarious taste of
unfamiliar horizons and glimpse of a different world. Done without adequate
skill, however, they can appear like gamelike parodies. A key element
to the success of the experiential roleplays is a capacity
to span from ones immediate experience to the another, sometimes vastly
different perspective. The life of a refugee or visually challenged person
might seem far to most ESOL students. Experiential-based roleplays, which are related to
sociodrama, are an attempt to make a distant world closer, bridging the
field of experience. Though children can perform roleplays, they generally
aren't able to make the cognitive shift from the simulation to the broader
world behind it. For this reason I prefer using experiential-based
roleplays with adults. It should be emphasized experiential roleplays
involve more than acting specific roles; it involves a process of critical reflection to
bridge the the roles we are actually playing in real life.
One type of roleplay
which works well in many ESOL classes is a blind simulation exercise.
Students who are accustomed to relying on written notes when speaking
in particular tend to find this type of activity challenging.
For five years I've conducted blind awareness training seminars with
university sophomores. After a few schema-activating, warm-up questions about handicaps, half of the
participants experienced a twenty minute blind trek and picnic while the
other half served as guides. Blindness was simulated by using neckties
to cover the face.
Though some students felt anxious about this activity at the onset, after safety parameters were
set and the right to decline any activity emphasized, responses
were positive. By 'safety parameters' I refer to an imperative that seeing
guides protect their partners from significant danger. This doesn't mean
that guides need to protect their partners from every mistake - only those
which could cause serious injury. (Some guides tend to be overprotective
and the issue of how much protection to offer comes out in discussion.)
With a 90 - 120 minute time constraint, about midway through the class, roles were switched and some
"blind explorations" in which participants tried to guess various objects
from tactile, olfactory, and auditory cues were held. The final 10 - 15
minutes of class were devoted to feedback and reflection. Feelings during
the experience were explored. For many students, discussing
personal feelings with candor in another language was a refreshing,
unaccustomed experience. This was more than an exercise of language - it was an attempt to draw
meaning out of an unfamiliar experience and see parallels between blindness
and other aspects of life. A description of an extensive four-hour blind awareness
training program is available online at www.tnewfields.info/Articles/handi.htm.
In addition to non-sightedness, another disability which can be simulated in class is reduced
mobility resulting from the loss of a limb. Crutches and wheelchairs can
be used to simulate lower torso immobility; bandages can simulate
arm/hand immobility. Connecting handicap awareness to the problem
of anti-personnel landmine proliferation, I designed the following lesson:
Landmine Awareness Activity
Here are some possible questions to raise during the feedback/reflection session:
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How did you feel during this activity?