Neurological basis

Introduction

“Everything should, as far as possible, be placed before the senses. Everything visible should be brought before the organ of sight, everything audible before that of hearing. Odours should be placed before the sense of smell, and things that are tastable and tangible before the sense of taste and of touch respectively“ (Comenius, zit. n. Flitner 1954, S. 135).

The quotation above shows that utilize the senses related to learning was always a matter in the educational research, even in the 17th century. The educationalist, Johann Amos Comenius, pointed out that knowledge is based on sensual perception. A century later, the Swiss educationalist, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, represented the “Learning by head, hand and heart”. His conviction was that one basis of education is the experience of reality with all senses (heinrich-pestalozzi). However, this was more related to the training of senses than to the targeted use of senses to improve the learning process. In the 20th century Maria Montessori, an Italian pedagogic reformist, comprehended the importance of learning by constitute all the senses and invented her own Montessori pedagogy based on this fundamental. During the decades, more and more knowledge was gained by the brain and learning research. Today, the multisensual approach is popular in everyday school life, especially in the primary school. One knows that utilize the senses during the overall learning process improves it significantly. But what is about learning a foreign language? Does teaching English to non-native speaking children by using a multisensual approach also accelerate the learning process?

In the following, this question will be analyzed and answered by considering the neurological and educational research precisely. We will take a closer look at the structure of the brain and the functions of the different brain areas regarding to the learning process. Furthermore, the different learning types will be presented and discussed concerning their relation to the sensual perception.

After that the practical implementation of the multisensual approach during the everyday school life in primary schools will be presented. Games that are used during the course will be introduced an analyzed regarding to their educational contribution. Also examples out of the experimental education will be displayed.

Finally, the question that was given at the beginning will be answered. Important facts concerning the multisensual approach by learning a foreign language in primary school will be pointed out. Improvements for the practical application will be given.

Foundations

Humans have five senses: Sight, Hearing, Taste, Smell and Touch. To analyze weather the multisensual approach accelerates learning a foreign language in the primary school one has to receive more information about the correlation between the senses and the learning process. Therefore, the neurological research and the different types of learners will be placed in the center of consideration.

Neurological basis

Thanks to the recent neurological research one can understand how the brain works every day. It consists of three major parts: The Cereburum, the Cerebellum and the Medulla. Without these parts, one could neither learn a new language nor walk straight without losing the balance. The brain is where all of our remembering and feeling takes place. But these are just two of many things we wouldn’t be able without it. Following there will be a closer look at three mentioned parts of the brain.

The Cereburum is the biggest part of the brain and controls our imagination, senses and thoughts. This part is divided in two halves, also known as the left and right hemispheres. Although, there is a connection between those two halves, the right hemisphere is responsible for the creativity, music, colors, dreams, feelings and also pictures. Furthermore, the right hemisphere is important for the comprehension of numbers and the spatial thinking as well as for the face recognition. (The Thinking Business. “Brain Hemispheres”).In contrast to the right halve, the left one is equipped for logic abilities and also for the language skills. There are lots of muscle groups which work together and let a human being speak. The second major part, Cerebellum, is much smaller. This important part controls our motion, balance and also our abilities to know new things. The Cerebellum is also known as the “little brain”.The medulla controls our heartbeat, breathing, digestion and blood pressure. It controls all our autonomic functions (Serendip. “Brain Structures and their Functions”).

To remember things we’ve learned, we have two different systems of memory: The short-term-memory and the long-term-memory. The memory span begins to minimize after our puberty. The memory span is important for remembering phone numbers or numbers at all, words, locations, pictures etc. (Ahano. “Wie sich das Gedächtnis im Alter verändert”). The short-term-memory stores new information just for a few seconds. There are about seven “chunks” we can store for the same time (About.com Psychology “What is Short-Term Memory?”). If there is more information than seven chunks, the older information goes to the long-term-memory if necessary, or it gets deleted out of our brain. The long-term-memory stores our information for a much longer time than the short-term-memory. It stores the information for minutes or at least for years so that we can still remember some moments of our childhood, for example. Some people’s long-term memory is better than other people’s. This depends on how deep the linking-ups in our brain are. The deeper they are, the better is our memory. (Alphabiol “Kurzzeitgedächtnis und Langzeitgedächtnis”)

To learn most efficiently, all the brain areas should get activated. If they are all activated, there exists a better linking-up between the nerves of our brain. These linking-ups are very important to save the information in our brain. During our learning period, children should use as much senses as possible for successfully learning. (GedaechtnisTraining. “Multisensorisches Lernen & Lehren”). For learning a new language new vocabulary has to be learned. However, learning vocabulary only through written documentation and oral presentation (left hemisphere) it spends a long time until the new words are stored in the brain. Learning vocabulary also by using the visual and creative half of the brain (right hemisphere), the new words can stored in the long-term-memory much more faster.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16