I believe that the importance of transfer is most clearly seen in a foreign language classroom. In high school, I took Spanish for four years, but it was not until the last year that students were asked to use the language in an active way. For example, to be able to participate in a debate or write a speech and then share with the class. I remember that earlier on in my learning, I was assigned an occasional small project, such as writing a script with a conversation partner, however most of the learning was transmission and memorization. I also recently had an exchange student from Japan live with my family for a week, and while I noticed that he was able to write and read English very well, he was hardly able to converse in English. His abilities were a reflection of a culture and class environment that values mastery of grammatical skills and rules over conversational skills and active learning.
I agree with this completely, transfer is essential in foreign language. I remember when I took Spanish in middle school I was mortified when I was forced to get up in front of the whole class and recite the alphabet because no matter how many times I tried to memorize the information I never could internalize it. I could not internalize it because I was not actively learning the alphabet and relating it to other aspects of my life, I was simply saying it over and over again expecting to memorize it. Therefore when I got up to present I could only recall the first few letters in Spanish. Later I got another chance and worked with a friend in class making up funny rhymes and relating the letters to things in our own life. Through then I was able to internalize the information and then transfer it to the rest of the class in my presentation.
ReplyDeleteI would agree with the fact that transfer is very obvious in foreign language classrooms. I too took spanish in high school, however only for 2 years, so when I came to college, after having taken 2 years off from the language, I was thrown into it. It is true that the majority of my success in the class was simply memorization. I know that I did not truly internalize what little I learned of the spanish language because I cannot remember grammatical rules now, and can barely remember words, phrases and meanings.
ReplyDeleteUnderstanding allows students time to think and to process. It’s matter of developing a deeper understanding and be able to transfer the knowledge. A transfer-oriented lesson requires full understanding of the concepts and not just a mastery of it. This way, students are able to transfer the knowledge and skills that were learned and apply another learning situation. Memorization can perhaps be used with near transfer depending on the topic, but it will not allow far transfer if it does not coincide with understanding. So it won’t work if it is just memorization alone. This is why transfer requires something further than just memorization
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