The Dimensions of Learning in Language Teaching

Rahila Waqar

In the book ‘Teaching with Dimensions of Learning’ Robert J. Marzano (1992) delineates five
dimensions of teaching and learning. In this article, the innovative application of these dimensions
will be explored in language teaching.

The figure below shows the interrelationship of the dimensions of learning as presented by
Marzano.

Figure 1 Dimensions of Learning (Marzano, 1992, p. 16)

The first dimension ‘Attitudes and Perceptions’ and the fifth dimension ‘Habits of Mind’ form the
backdrop against which the main action of teaching and learning takes place. The three dimensions
in the foreground comprise the main action of teaching and learning. Each bigger circle includes the
smaller circles, which shows that these three dimensions do not occur in steps, in some linear way,
rather they are interconnected and may occur simultaneously. So when learners extend their
learning it may also enhance acquisition and integration and when they apply their learning, it may
also facilitate the ‘extend and refine’ process at the same time.

Each of the dimensions is explained below with its application to language learning.

Dimensions 1: Attitudes and Perceptions

Sara, a fifth grade student, couldn’t learn in her English class because her mind was focused on what
her best friend had said before the class. Maryam, her classmate, could not pay attention because
she was worried about the incomplete homework which was to be submitted in the next period.
Batul could not pay attention to what the teacher was saying because she felt that the teacher
assigns tasks that are extremely difficult for her. Taniya doesn’t like the teacher’s shrill voice, so her
mind just switches off in her class. Shahmeer does not pay attention thinking that English is not his
piece of cake. On the other hand, Daniya was fully attentive like always because the teacher
appreciates her contributions and has given her an ‘A’ grade on the last test.

The above stories depict the most common reasons of not being able to focus in class. Some of these
perceptions are permanent traits and some are states that may change. Some of these are related to
other people in the class, whereas others are related to learners’ own way of looking at situations
and some have to do with the teacher and the assigned tasks. To ensure effective learning, it is
necessary to nurture positive attitudes and perceptions in all of the above mentioned areas namely:

1. Relationship with peers,

2. Relationship with the teacher,
3. Perception about tasks and
4. Motivation

The teachers must explicitly work on creating a positive learning climate in the classroom so that all
learners benefit from the teaching and learning process that takes place in the classroom. The
teachers should deliberately use sentences like: ‘This new concept is very easy’ (working on the
perception; building positive expectations), ‘This new concept is just like the concept we learnt in
the previous unit/class’ (capitalizing on the previous knowledge; positive expectations), ‘Today we
will learn a very interesting concept,’ (capitalizing on the fun element to engage all students).

The teachers must explicitly develop learners’ social skills using T-charts (Bennett, Rolheiser &
Stevahn, 1991, p. 112) like the example given below. For each week a new social skill may be
selected to be introduced explicitly with the help of a T-chart, and students should be encouraged to
apply the skill as they work together. The T-charts elaborate on how the skills work in addition to the
language learners may use to apply and remind the use of the social skill to other members of the
group. Moreover, effective stories, lessons from the lives of famous personalities or lessons from
history may be used to develop social skills and effective working relationships with peers and
community at large.

T-Chart

Focus Skill: Encouraging Participation

Say Do
 What is your opinion?  Look at everyone with an encouraging
 We have not heard from…? smile.
 What do you think?  Listen respectfully.
 Now, it’s your turn.  Disagree in agreeable ways.
 Nod while listening.

Some other strategies that teachers can use to create an effective learning climate in the classroom
are using eye-contact, smiling, using names, touching in appropriate ways, being available to all,
giving equal opportunities to all students, using appropriate systems of eliciting answers (like picking
name cards from a deck of students’ name cards etc.) etc. For enhancing students’ task perception,
teachers can provide suitable wait time after every question so that all students get an opportunity
to think. Teachers should dignify responses by developing the lesson with the learners’ responses,
helping learners by rephrasing questions to enhance understanding, using cooperative learning
strategies, providing clear guidelines for all expectations related to academics as well as behaviour
etc.

Furthermore, language teachers must apply strategies that motivate learners to learn. Some key
points they can focus on are given below.

 Take care of basic physiological and safety needs both inside the classroom and around the
school.
 Create a climate that ensures that learners feel accepted by all classmates and each one of
them is respected by all.
 Make students feel good about themselves and also ensure that every student feels positive
about other class members.
 Motivate learners intrinsically by introducing tasks in a way that everyone feels that they can
accomplish them with success. Moreover, also provide them freedom of choosing from
amongst different resources and strategies for completing tasks.
 Provide challenges within the learners’ zone of proximal development, "the distance
between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and
the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult
guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers" (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 86).
 Nurture the habit of self-comparison, rather than comparison with others.
 Develop a desire for learning new knowledge or to master new skills by modelling
enthusiasm for learning.
 Minimize chances of failure by giving clear explanations and guidance before a task and
being ‘a guide on the side’ (facilitator) during the task.
 Use verbal persuasion strategies when any learner is stuck or is feeling low.
 Help them set high ‘Learning goals’ for themselves to achieve success and mastery rather
than just gaining appreciation of others.
 Model attribution of success and failure to controllable effort and hard work.
(Omrod, 1995; Eggen & Kauchak, 2000)

Dimensions 5: Habits of Mind

The second dimension that works in the background throughout the teaching process is the way
learners engage with the learning tasks presented to them. The sixteen habits of mind as described
by Costa and Kallick are given in the vignette below.

The sixteen habits as described in the preface of the book ‘’Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind: 16
essential characteristics for success’ by Costa and Kallick (2008)
1. Persisting: Stick to it. See a task through to completion, and remain focused.
2. Managing impulsivity: Take your time. Think before you act. Remain calm, thoughtful, and deliberate.
3. Listening with understanding and empathy: Seek to understand others. Devote mental energy to another
person’s thoughts and ideas. Hold your own thoughts in abeyance so you can better perceive another
person’s point of view and emotions.
4. Thinking flexibly: Look at a situation another way. Find a way to change perspectives, generate
alternatives, and consider options.
5. Thinking about thinking (metacognition): Know your knowing. Be aware of your own thoughts, strategies,
feelings, and actions—and how they affect others.
6. Striving for accuracy: Check it again. Nurture a desire for exactness, fidelity, craftsmanship, and truth.
7. Questioning and posing problems: How do you know? Develop a questioning attitude, consider what data
are needed, and choose strategies to produce those data. Find problems to solve.
8. Applying past knowledge to new situations: Use what you learn. Access prior knowledge, transferring that
knowledge beyond the situation in which it was learned.
9. Thinking and communicating with clarity and precision: Be clear. Strive for accurate communication in
both written and oral form. Avoid overgeneralizations, distortions, and deletions.
10. Gathering data through all senses: Use your natural pathways. Gather data through all the sensory paths:
gustatory, olfactory, tactile, kinesthetic, auditory, and visual.
11. Creating, imagining, innovating: Try a different way. Generate novel ideas, and seek fluency and
originality.
12. Responding with wonderment and awe: Let yourself be intrigued by the world’s phenomena and beauty.
Find what is awesome and mysterious in the world.
13. Taking responsible risks: Venture out. Live on the edge of your competence.
14. Finding humor: Laugh a little. Look for the whimsical, incongruous, and unexpected in life. Laugh at
yourself when you can.
15. Thinking interdependently: Work together. Truly work with and learn from others in reciprocal situations.
16. Remaining open to continuous learning: Learn from experiences. Be proud—and humble enough—to
admit you don’t know. Resist complacency.
(Costa & Kallick, 2008, pg. XX & XXI)

These 16 habits are to be explicitly taught so that learners use them as and when required. One
habit at a time may be selected and worked on for at least a month. The selected habit may be
explicitly introduced using an appropriate story, anecdote, historical example, quote etc. depending
on the level of the learners. After that, tasks may be assigned, forms may be designed for reflection
or evaluation, opportunities may be provided for students to share how they applied the habit in
their life, the habit may be integrated with regular teaching and relevant posters may be displayed in
the classroom. Conscious attention to social and mental skills enhances learners’ ability to be more
cognizant of them and enable them to apply these skills effectively whenever the situation warrants.

Figure 2 Samples of some Displays for Developing Effective Habits of Mind

Dimensions 2: Acquire and Integrate Knowledge

‘Acquire and Integrate Knowledge’ is the first dimension that operates in the foreground. Generally,
knowledge may be divided into three broad categories: declarative, procedural and episodic (Laith,
2013). Knowledge of these three types is packaged in different types of texts. Factual texts provide
declarative knowledge; texts that give procedures, linear (a recipe for example) or nonlinear (looking
for a place on a map etc.), provide procedural knowledge and narrative texts provide episodic
knowledge. The language teacher need to first analyse the text to decide which genre the text
belongs to. Next, it is important that they study the text to identify the key language features used in
the chosen text; for example past tense in narrative texts, imperatives in the procedural text,
present indefinite in description of processes etc. Then, they may decide to enhance the key
feature/s of the text using (visual) typographical salience techniques(Izumi, p. 543) (Doughty &
Williams, 1998). The teacher may underline or boldface the selected
language features to enable learners to notice them as they read for
meaning and comprehension. Finally, the teacher needs to choose the
macro and micro skills that can be taught or developed through the text.

With the help of well-designed tasks for before, during and after reading
and listening, learners can be helped to acquire language features
implicitly. The tasks should also include appropriate graphic organisers
to help learners transfer what they read or listen to in a new form e.g. Venn diagram, T-chart, Y-
chart etc. The graphic organizers should be selected according to the Figure 3 An example of Y-chart
type of chosen text. For example a flow chart can be used for a story
(narrative Text: episodic), recipe (procedural text) etc. A Venn diagram can be used for a descriptive
text (declarative) that compares two or more objects or phenomena.

The Input-Output
Loop

Peer checking/
feedback on the
written output

Figure 4 The Input-output Loop of Language Learning

(Waqar, 2013, p. 31; 2016, p. 16)

In the input-out loop (Waqar, 2013 and 2016) where the micro reading and listening skills are
developed and practiced like: skimming, predicting, scanning, inferring, analysing, critically
evaluating, synthesising/creating, etc and the basic level of writing is also introduced, teachers have
the opportunity to help learners acquire skills and integrate the new learning with what they have
already learned.

Similarly, for the writing and grammar skills implicit and explicit teaching is used to help learners
acquire new language skills and integrate the new learning with what they already know.

References

Bennett, Barrie. et. al. (1991) Cooperative Learning Where Heart Meets Mind, Professional
Development Associates, Bothell, Washington

Doughty, C., & Williams, J. (1998). Pedagogical choices in focus on form. In C. Doughty & J. Williams
(Eds.), Focus on form in classroom second language acquisition (pp. 197–261). New York: Cambridge
University Press.

Eggen, Paul & Don Kauchak. (2000) Educational Psychology Windows on Classrooms, Prentice Hall,
New Jersey

Izumi, Shinichi. (2002) OUTPUT, INPUT ENHANCEMENT, AND THE NOTICING HYPOTHESIS
An Experimental Study on ESL Relativization. SSLA, 24, 541–577 DOI: 10.1017.S0272263102004023

Laith, Noah. (2013). Memory. http://www.noahlaith.com/transfer-information-to-long-term-

memory/ Accessed on 10 – 5 – 17

Marzano, Robert J. (1992) A Different Kind of Classroom Teaching with Dimensions of Learning,
ASCD, Virginia

Ormrod, Jeanne Ellis. (1998) Educational Psychology Developing Learners, Prentice Hall, New Jersy

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes,

Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Waqar, Rahila. (2013). The Loops of Language Teaching. SPELT Quarterly Journal 28(4),
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Waqar, Rahila. (2016). Mastering the Loops of Language Teaching. ERI Quarterly Journal
3(4), 1-12.