Teaching and Learning with UNDERSTANDING :
When a newborn arrives in our family, we almost instinctively start TALKING to it. Why do we do it ? ( We humans are talking animals - homo loquens ! ) At first, we may just babble and not say any words of our language. Eventually, the baby responds to our talk by making its own sounds, and finally learns to say OUR words, i.e., learns to imitate our words. Perhaps, the most common word successfully imitated - in the English language - is MAMA. Why does the baby do this ? Does it "understand" what the word means, or even that the word has a "meaning" ? Our talking is usually accompanied by some actions ; for example, we may touch the baby, we may smile at it , we may hold it up close, and so on. Most importantly, perhaps, it is Mama herself who talks. She may give feedback by smiling back at the baby after its successful imitation. By the time the baby has completed three years of its journey in OUR world, including our LANGUAGE, perhaps sooner, perhaps later, our language has become a part of its world and its language. It has learnt to use our common language correctly - most of thhe time, at least. The child is now ready to go to school !
Now imagine that YOU were the child. What words - and actions - did you learn? And how ? That is to say, what THEY were doing to you when you were learning and what you were doing ?
When a newborn arrives in our family, we almost instinctively start TALKING to it. Why do we do it ? ( We humans are talking animals - homo loquens ! ) At first, we may just babble and not say any words of our language. Eventually, the baby responds to our talk by making its own sounds, and finally learns to say OUR words, i.e., learns to imitate our words. Perhaps, the most common word successfully imitated - in the English language - is MAMA. Why does the baby do this ? Does it "understand" what the word means, or even that the word has a "meaning" ? Our talking is usually accompanied by some actions ; for example, we may touch the baby, we may smile at it , we may hold it up close, and so on. Most importantly, perhaps, it is Mama herself who talks. She may give feedback by smiling back at the baby after its successful imitation. By the time the baby has completed three years of its journey in OUR world, including our LANGUAGE, perhaps sooner, perhaps later, our language has become a part of its world and its language. It has learnt to use our common language correctly - most of thhe time, at least. The child is now ready to go to school !
Now imagine that YOU were the child. What words - and actions - did you learn? And how ? That is to say, what THEY were doing to you when you were learning and what you were doing ?
