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IATEFL special              .



        Instructions for r
        Instructions for reducing cognitive educing cognitive

        load to incr
        load to increase ease language learninglanguage learning


        Time to put cognitive load theory on the ELT agenda? Gill Ragsdale explains
        how it can help low level learners.

                                                                                 Another helpful process is rehearsal, which
       WIKIMEDIA                                                                extends the time information spends in
                                                                                working memory. Who hasn’t tried to hold
                                                                                a phone number in their mind by constantly
                                                                                repeating it to themselves while looking
                                                                                for either a phone or a pen and paper?
                                                                                This rehearsal is important in holding and
                                                                                processing the information in working memory
                                                                                long-enough to move it into long-term storage.
                                                                                 Psychologists used to think that the road
                                                                                to long-term memory was a one-way-street,
                                                                                but we now know that there is a lot of cross-
                                                                                talk between long-term and working memory.
                                                                                Unlike working memory, the information storage
                                                                                capacity of long-term memory is effectively
                                                                                infinite – no upper limit has been found.
                                                                                 A central idea in cognitive load theory,
                                                                                with major consequences for education,
                                                                                is that the strain on working memory (the
                                                                                cognitive load) can be relieved by accessing
        A functional MRI scan showing the brain performing working memory tasks. The   related information in the learner’s long-term
        highlighted regions show differences in activation between an individual performing   memory.
        a 1-back task and a 2-back task (remembering the position of an item on a game   This supporting information – no matter
        board 1 turn back and 2 turns back).
                                                                                how much of it being retrieved – adds no
                                                                                further cognitive load and greatly aids the
               ognitive load theory was developed   a long phone number into two parts.   processing of new (but related) information.
               in the late 1980s by the Australian   There is a lot of variation in learners’   This means that the cognitive load will
               educational psychologist John   working memory processing but everyone   be especially heavy for learners who do not
        CSweller. The theory draws on how   is limited by how many items they can   have much related information in long-term
        memory works, as well as models proposing   process at once, typically 3-4 for around   memory, such as beginners and lower-level
        that some kinds of knowledge are more   15-20 seconds. It is consequently very easy   language learners. For these students, they
        naturally acquired than others (for example,   to overload the learner’s working memory.   have insufficient language in their long-term
        we have an innate capacity for listening and
        speaking language – but not for reading and
        writing). The main influence of the theory on
        language teaching has been on instructional                                                                JOHN GRANER
        design: how, as teachers, we can decrease
        the cognitive load and increase the learning
        capacity of our students.

                 The bottle-neck
            in this process is the
           processing capacity of
             working memory.

          In any learning situation, the learner’s
        attention funnels information to their short-
        term, working memory. As teachers, our hope
        is that much of this information will then be
        stored in the learner’s long-term memory.
          The bottle-neck in this process is the
        processing capacity of working memory.   An fMRI scan showing a default mode network (DMN), which is a region in
        At any one time, we can hold around seven   the brain that exhibits decreased activation in association with goal-oriented
        items of information (such as the digits of   or attention-demanding tasks. DMN’s may be associated with processes such
        a phone number). The processing capacity   as introspection or self-referential thought. One study found that less task-
        is helped by ‘chunking’ i.e. breaking the   induced deactivation of DMN regions correlated with increased response time
        information down, for example breaking   in healthy subjects performing an attention task.

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