Turning Teens into Super Learners

www.celt.edu.gr info@celt.edu.gr
Turning Teens into
super learners
Marisa Constantinides, CELT Athens, Teacher Development Centre

Teenagers can be challenging, moody, emotional, difficult, as
they are undergoing major physiological and cognitive changes.
Yet most good learner studies identify them as prime subjects for
massive vocabulary acquisition & enhanced language learning.
In this talk I would like to suggest some ideas of how we could
help them fulfill this awesome potential in order to acquire,
use, learn and develop their language skills.

Teaching primary vs
secondary Ss

Who are they?
half grown - unaccountably shy - incredibly gawky - volatile and passionate-
gauche - insecure – compulsive – unsure - lanky and bony - still cute - responsive
– ignorant - shy childish - possessive - surly - self-conscious - rambunctious –
precocious -curious - still cute -awkward -hare brained and ineffectual – good-
natured - naturally vigorous and combative - lean and vehement - baby-faced -
passionately silent - pallid and frail - dumb - cheerful - bloodthirsty – soft -
self indulgent – obnoxious- , gangling – moody ….

Teaching teens is…

Who are they?
Formal Operational stage
 Abstract thought
 Metacognition
 Problem Solving According to J.Piaget
Concrete operational
12

Scaffold & Connect
Monitor for success
Reflect on Success or lack of it

Emotional – inhibited – lack control – risk
takers – love challenge – lack control

Good Learner Studies

• Are motivated towards foreign language learning
• Are analytical enough to notice, categorise and store features of language and its
regularities
• Are usually aware of their own and others’ mistakes
• Are motivated through tasks which are involving and challenging
• Are prepared to experiment by taking risks
• Are not afraid of appearing foolish
• Have a high degree of tolerance for ambiguity, unknown words, etc
• Can easily adapt to new/different learning conditions and environments
• Are usually very good listeners and can acquire through listening
• Are also (usually) high achievers in other fields of education
[ A Summary of typical features from a variety of sources/studies; mentioned in H.D.Stern, 1983]

• Can work well with others in the class/group/team
• Will not feel pressure or anxious about learning a foreign language
• Never feel shy or inhibited about using L2
• Look for every available opportunity to use the target language in and out of
class
• Make a point of listening to, understanding and responding to spoken
English without worrying too much about grammar or unknown vocabulary
• Are keen on using study techniques such as word trees/networks, mind
maps, etc which are likely to involve attention to form
• Will usually be adolescents or adults rather than a children
[ A Summary of typical features from a variety of sources/studies; mentioned in H.D.Stern, 1983]
Will usually be adolescents or adults rather than a children

Meta-cognition
Develop self-awareness
Am I a good language learner?
Monitor own thinking
How can I become a good language learner?
Develop strategies for learning
How can learn without my teacher?

Suggested Classroom activities
• Mini lecture (listening lesson) or text (reading lesson)
• T - questions after an activity has been completed
• Ss collaborate to work out some ways of helping themselves
and each other to develop these good qualities
• T – interest in individual progress – individual tutorials - super
learning clinic 
• Post – activity reflection – what worked what didn’t how we
can fix it

An example at B1+ level
1/ A difficult text 2/ A set of strategies for dealing with unknown lexis
Guess meaning by
understanding
logical connections
btwn ideas in text
3/ Applying the strategy with a new text

Team building activities
• They need challenge
• They need to be motivated
but
• They also need to feel safe
Hadfield, J (1992) Classroom Dynamics.. Oxford:
Oxford University Press

Alternative Methods
• Suggestopedia
• Community Counselling learning
• Dogme
• TBLT

Vocabulary acquisition
Can acquire up to 60 words a day
Learning machines!
Can switch off if bored or peer pressured

https://storycorps.org/animation/the-bookmobile/

• A suggestopedia lesson plan
https://www.thoughtco.com/suggestopedia-lesson-
plan-1211080
• An essay and a lesson plan
https://cambridgedelta.org/2020/09/08/massive-
vocabulary-acquisition/
Some sample materials

Creative & Critical Thinking

• thrives within constraints
• benefits from the paradox
• is triggered by what is unusual
• dies when things get too normal
• is sparked off by humour
• is revived by exaggeration
Creativity

rock’n roll traditional music
Yes, but… or Yes, and…..

Exploiting the paradox

fill
take
enlarge
manicure
cut
check
dry clean
pull out
wash
measure
test
Style
clean
perm
dye
• hairdresser’s
• dentist’s
• optician’s
• photographer’s
• dry cleaner’s
Begin your examples like this:
You can have your ………..enlarged at the
………………’s.

You can have your feet enlarged at the hairdresser’s

• You were seen chewing the corner of a carpet in a
furniture shop
• You were seen gluing apples to tree outside your
house at midnight
Predicaments
Write two predicaments of your own
Choose someone from the other team to put on the spot!

https://www.tricider.com/brainstorming/3Xi0dgILELR
Evaluating

The task cycle
produce
Read/Listenunderstand
produce
some
more
1
4
3 2

Questions Please
Ask as many Yes/No
questions as you can in
5 mins.
I will answer them all!

a. Expansion activities
e.g. a. Ask as many questions as you can about this picture
Asking related Questions

www.fodey.com

You win a point if the text does NOT answer the question
– you lose a point if it DOES ☺
A 3-month-old boy fell from the roof of his father's moving car, but
landed upright and uninjured in his portable car seat, authorities
said.
The infant, Matthew Murray, rode on the roof for three-quarters of a
mile before the car seat flew off and landed in front of the car
behind. Motorist James Boothby stopped, dashed over and picked
up the seat.
[……………………………………………………………..]
''It didn't faze him at all. Even his pacifier was still in the car seat,''
Murray said.
Asking UNrelated Questions

Screenshots of two students collaborating using
www.primarypad.com
Elaboration
Use https://etherpad.org/ or Google Docs for synchronous or
asynchronous collaboration

Multiple Perspectives

Six Thinking Hats

Cards to give out like this

Improvisation

I don’t think you are very interesting I don’t think you’re very interested!
The problem with you is that you are bored! The problem with you is that you are boring!
Well, it’s not so amusing, you know. You don’t seem amused at all with my story.
You don’t look very convinced to me. Well, you do not sound very convincing!
You look so depressed! But your story is so depressing!
Improvisation (phrases lifted from a CB exercise)

heBigPicture

Creativity - Conditions
Playful
Paradoxical
Fun
Appreciated
Safe
Challenging
Scaffolded
Collaborative

… showing appreciation
… being patient & tolerant
… showing enthusiasm
… modelling positive learning behaviours
… smiling and encouraging
… believing that all students can do it…
… and they will!
Above all, make a difference by…

Suggestopedic texts fro Foreign Language Teaching
On Improvisation
Summary of Suggestopedia
Creativity in the English Language Classroom
Links to some sources
Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy

Email marisa_c@celt.edu.gr
Twitter http://twitter.com/Marisa_C
CELT Athens www.celt.edu.gr
Blogs
http://marisaconstantinides.edublogs.org/
https://celtathens.com/blog/
http://cambridgedelta.org/
http://cambridgecelta.org/
http://eltchat.org/wordpress/
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/Marisa.Constantinides
Thank you!
Ευχαριστώ!Merci!Gracias!

Turning Teens into Super Learners

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