Nurture vs. Nature

      

  In a discussion with colleagues, the idea of  nature vs. nurture debate as well as the age effect was discussed, i.e. how much does the learning preferences of a person change over time and how does upbringing, culture- at least up to teenage times – play a role in education. 

Teenagers need as little authority as possible; variety input from diverse sources. This was my case. With increasing age (and perhaps freedom), this changed to a personal mode of learning more at the level of thought and actual behaviour. What has been missing, though, was an opportunity (or better to say tools) to put my own learning mode and preferences into words beyond phrases.  I studied in a typical school environment. There was a lot of influence of teachers and textbooks on my learning and my parents also took keen interest in my progress. But now I love to learn and I enjoy learning and leading training at the same time.

   

Scholars denote that people ways of learning differ from time to time and as teachers we should draw our students’ attention to this idea to make them aware. Such awareness will empower them.  Adult learners should be self-ware, know what they are interested in, and have the opportunity to choose what and how to learn. “Simply stated, Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) can be defined as the search for and study of applications of the computer in language teaching and learning” (as cited in Gruba, 2004, p. 623).  In other words the goal of CALL is to “improve the learning capacity of those who are learning a language through computerized means” (cited in Gruba, 2004, p. 623). Moreover, both learners and teachers have each had to adapt to the demands and opportunities afforded by a range of new technologies. As such, more and more learners are required to design and execute their own computer-based activities (Gruba, 2004). While some educators consider technology as the solution to problems, there are those who see it as a distraction from the real aims of education (Chapelle, 2008).

Over the last few decades the Internet has had a major influence on Computer Assisted Language Learning owing to its ability to connect people on a global scale. Not only does it enable communication between language learners hundreds of miles apart, but it also contains a huge amount of resources and information useful for enhancing the quality of language acquisition. Both teachers and students can benefit from the use of the Internet in terms of various tools and programs which they can use for different language purposes. More specifically, teachers can integrate email-based activities into their curriculum that would allow students to correspond with their colleagues and native speakers of the target language (LeLoup & Ponterio, 2000). The rapid development in technology has dramatically expanded the utility of distance learning for language instruction (Chapelle, 2008). For instance, an online class can enable the connection of four people who are interested in learning the same language at one point in time despite the fact that they are scattered across different countries (Chapelle, 2008). Extensive language and cultural material can be found online via the World Wide Web. Search tools specifically designed for language study, such as dictionaries and translation programs, can also be used by students who seek answers to linguistic questions (Chapelle, 2008). The advantages of the Internet when it comes to language learning and teaching are indisputable yet certain measures of precaution should be kept in mind because not all the content found on the Internet is credible.

A great advantage to coronavirus spread, is it made online learning a reality everywhere. Teachers who have access to computers and the Internet, whether in a separate computer lab or perhaps with single machines in the students’ normal classroom" (Scrivener, 2005, p. 354) were committed to continue the syllabus online. Some teachers used programs designed for class activities like Microsoft teams and Google classroom. Unfortunately, many students were not prepared to this. Harmer (2001) enforces on the relevance of students’ preparation to online education. He states: "When we encourage students to use search engines to find information on the Internet, we should prepare the ground beforehand” He explains that  if we did not do so things would be diasterous, students will lose a lot of time, and will dislike the experience feeling it is inconvenient.

So once we return back to our schools and universities we have to dedicate time to help students find their way on various e-platforms, familiarize them with tools that enhance their  learning experience to make it a better one and prepare them for their educational and professional opportunities.