Environmental Influences Society
Permissiveness Mobility Television Counterculture Family Life Anomie School Students
Factors in Student Action, Reaction, and Interaction Affective
Phenomenology
Student Attitudes and Feelings toward School Attitudes and Feelings toward Second-Language Study Cognitive Psychomotor Personality Other Factors
Student Needs
Self-Concept
Self-Actualization
Socialization
Values
The Student 165
The purpose of this chapter is to consider the students, their world, their characteristics, and their needs. The goal of this chapter is to make teachers or prospective teachers aware of the existence of these various student characteristics and of the significant role each plays independently and collectively in facilitating or impeding student achievement in the classroom, to tune their senses to the multitudinous individual and group signals that are generated daily in class. Ways and means of meeting student needs are treated in chapter 9.
Some years ago in an interview over the Purdue University radio station, a former vice-president of the university stated that the major problems with which he had to deal involved people, finances, people, facilities, and people.
Anyone in a leadership position has a multitude of problems to meet, but the principal one is always the people with whom one is associated. Teachers are no exception. They have accepted the responsibilities of leadership and are duty-bound to fill this role to the best of their capabilities. Their students' appreciation, now or in the future, will correlate rather highly with the conscientious exercise of the obligation to lead them toward optimum levels of achievement. What complicates their problem even beyond that of the aforementioned vice-president is that they operate in a situation containing a captive, at times disinterested and perhaps even hostile, group of young people attempting to make their way successfully through the physical, cognitive, psychological, emotional, and social mazes separating childhood from adulthood.
The complexity and difficulty of the problems facing teachers in the classroom further emphasize the importance of their task. Given the proper amount of food, rest, exercise, and medical attention, the student will develop physically; but psychologically, emotionally, socially, morally, and intellectually desirable growth requires encouragement, guidance, and support. And it is that student (or students) in class exhibiting the greatest need who requires the greatest amount of attention. The teacher's task is to recognize the symptoms, analyze the problem, and devise a plan for fostering improvement, personally, socially or academically as the case may be. However, accomplishing the goal is vastly more complicated than stating what should be done.
Often the relationship between cause and effect in student actions is not obvious. In fact, a student's actions, such as the insecure student lacking in self-confidence who dons a behavior pattern of extreme aggressiveness to
mask her true inner feelings, may have little or no apparent correspondence to her actual basic inner feelings.
One often hears the question, "What do you teach?" In response to a reply naming the subject taught, the questioner states smugly, "/do not teach a second language; / teach students!" As appealing as this distinction may be, the dichotomy is inherently false. A teacher teaches (1) a second language, or any other subject, (2) to students with cognitive and affective needs (3) in a social situation. In establishing his instructional program, the teacher should keep all three factors and their interrelationships in mind as he selects appropriate teaching-learning situations for the class and as he evaluates the results of those activities.
Teachers should also remember that they cannot learn the material for the students. Learning is the students' responsibility. One of the positive influences of "individualized" instruction is that an attempt is being made to place the responsibility for learning on the students themselves. For too long the educational system has struggled under the unwritten assumption that the teachers must bear the burden for learning. The students were excused from shouldering their share of the task. This generally accepted belief contained three basic components. (1) If the students are not interested, they cannot be expected to learn. (2) If they are not interested, it is the teacher's fault. (3) The resultant corollary is that there are no failing students, only failing teachers. Hopefully, the present trend will lead to the quiet burial of this debilitating premise.
A word of caution is appropriate at this point. Placing the responsibility for learning on the student, where it justifiably belongs, does not sanction any degree of a "take-it-or-leave-it" teacher attitude. The teacher's role includes not only teaching but also the promotion of learning. Effective teaching in contemporary schools, with their stress on the individual, can only occur when the teacher is sensitive and responsive to the students and their attitudes and feelings as well as to the content of the subject matter.
The major focus of this book is on the cognitive factors in second- language teaching. The reader may even get the impression that the primary concern is with the teacher and what the teacher does. Such is not the case. If most of the discussion seems to be teacher-centered or subject-centered, the purpose of such an emphasis is to provide guidelines for developing teaching-learning activities for student participation that lead to functional language skills. Indeed, the author could not do otherwise. All the research points to the learners themselves as being the single most important variable in the success or failure of any instructional method. As early as 1963, Carroll listed five component factors in school learning. Three of these, aptitude, ability to understand instruction, and perseverance, are student factors! Therefore, recognition of the crucial student contribution to learning is
necessary. Equally essential is the realization that students are more than just minds. They are also living, feeling human beings, filled with doubts, likes and dislikes, ambitions, etc. Their psychomotor abilities and affective states play as important a role in their academic work as their cognitive abilities. Although the psychomotor, the affective, and the cognitive student factors are inseparably interrelated, the major focus of this chapter is on the affective.
Society
A satisfactory description of contemporary society is understandably rare. In the first place, the degree to which any given member of that society can divorce himself from the confinement of his culture is severely limited because of his own membership in the group. Even if he does manage to divest himself somewhat of the restrictions of his cultural heritage, he is still bound by his own subjective interpretations of what he sees. Will Durant reflects the extent of this cultural and contemporary myopia when he states that history is 95 percent opinion and 5 percent fact. Another factor is that most modern societies are so pluralistic that generalizable characteristics of the society are difficult to determine. The industrialized societies of the Western world are somewhat like a cracked pane of unbreakable glass: immediately observable are the innumerable fissures. The multitudinous elements are held together by some connecting factors, but the relationships involved and the strength and importance of each are not directly apparent. During periods in which the emphasis is on the pluralistic nature of society and the importance of the individual, society places importance on the multitudinous components of its various parts. At other times greater emphasis is attached to the connecting fibers, i.e., to the overall characteristics of society itself, and the process of socialization assumes a major role in the educational process.
The fact that all teachers are products of some culture or subculture makes it difficult for them to comprehend entirely the world of those students who are from a different cultural environment. The fact that the students are products of their own culture places a responsibility on the teacher to consider the students' world and to attempt to understand it. The fact that the culture of each student is a product of a unique background makes it imperative that the teacher distinguish among the students and be sensitive to their individuality.
Permissiveness In addition to the general trends and movements in society discussed in chapter 1, other pertinent factors have played influential roles in the students' world in recent years. Overall, students have been nurtured in a society characterized by advanced technological systems of production and consumption. The possession of things has been the primary goal in the lives of many people. The high degree of purchasing power attained by the vast
168 Part One: Theory
majority from the end of World War II to the early 1970s quickly converted luxuries into necessities. Too, the affluence of society made it possible for people to satisfy material desires and brought about a situation in which the gratification of desires was expected. Consequently, there arose among the population a low level of tolerance for frustration. The term permissive , usually associated with the rearing of children, applies equally well to society as a whole. Suppression of desires, whether they be material, social, or physical, is not characteristic of the 1970s. The expectation of instant gratification of wants and of solutions to personal or societal problems is almost universal.
Mobility The mobility of contemporary society has been a major influence on the life experience that many students bring with them to the classroom. Any given student may have gone through the necessity of adjusting to several different school systems. They will have been through the experience of leaving past friends and familiar landmarks to move into unfamiliar circumstances. This movement from one area and one situation to another is unquestionably broadening, if the student has the personality type to benefit from the experience, but the breadth of experience may be counterbalanced by a certain lack of development in other aspects of personality created by the severing of ties with the familiar past. The outcome is that the students may be more knowledgeable but less comfortable and less sure of themselves and their surroundings. They may have an intellectual maturity that is not matched by their psychological or emotional development.
Television Television has been praised and panned. Whatever one's opinion regarding program content and the viewing habits of children, the impact of television and the general mass communications media on the lives of everyone is undeniable, just as a second-language learner's world expands into another culture as a result of language study, so the child now grows up in a world vastly different from that experienced by the preceding generations. On-the-spot reporting brings the entire planet and even the universe directly into the home every day. The breadth of knowledge and vision of today's student is vastly superior to that of their parents when they were students. Children today are exposed to a multitude of information at a rate and to a degree unimaginable only a few decades ago. At the same time, they are subjected to an infinitude of ideas and stimuli that make their growth as individuals more complex and more difficult than was true in the past. Another characteristic of the television generation with which the teacher must deal is the competition television presents for the classroom. Television entertains as well as informs. Experts, supported by almost limitless facilities and huge budgets, prepare programs of a quality with which the classroom teacher
simply cannot compete. It is quite a challenge for the teacher to attract and retain the attention for fifty minutes or more, day after day, of thirty students accustomed to television programming.
Counterculture Society seems to be characterized by a cyclical repetition alternating between "activism" and "quietism." "Activism" was dominant in the late 1960s. Katz (1974) explains the student unrest during that period as being due to three social factors: (1) The affluence of society gave youth the material security needed and the necessary time to expand their outlook and to consider other aspects of their world. (2) The liberality of child-rearing practices during and immediately after World War II created a group of youth disposed to question society's actions and to participate in seeking solutions to perceived problems. (3) During that same period society as a whole was involved in self-examination and in reform movements.
In the early 1970s there has been a period of relative "quietism." After the period of rapid change and social protest has come a trend toward a renewed interest in the past. A national nostalgia has turned interest back to country music, folk dancing, antiques, etc. As many members of society have turned to the past, substantial numbers of youth have turned inward to escape from or to avoid seeking solutions to society's problems. Discredited by the results of the activist movement of the late 1960s, political radicalism has given way to cultural radicalism. Many young people are occupied with introspection, self-analysis, and personal encounter as productive alternatives to "satisfy the social needs of people disaffected from the structure of American society" (Larkin, 1974, p. 29). The counterculture groups seek to substitute their brand of humanism for the puritanism of the past. Their beliefs reflect a blend of Rousseau of the West and Zen Buddhism of the East. They question marriage, the nuclear family, authority, religion, work, money, careers, and sexual morality. They are seeking answers to the problems they see in their technological society: decline of community, increased rationalization, impulse repression, and personal isolation (Larkin, 1974).
One outgrowth of living in an age of mechanical marvels has been the increased amount of "free" time that adults have to spend with their families and to pursue leisure activities. As a result, middle-class youths spend a great deal of their time in activities supervised by adults. Whether at home, in school, or participating in some extracurricular activity, they frequently perform in situations in which adults determine the rules and define success or failure. This state of affairs has definite advantages for youngsters, but they must also be content to operate under constraints established by adults. This type of child rearing creates in individuals a certain ambivalence toward the societal structure. Society can help them, but society is also the agent to blame
when their expectations are thwarted. Young people used to rebel against parents. Now much of that rebellion is directed toward society as a whole and toward society's institutions (Larkin, 1974).
A characterization of all youths as being either active or potential participants in the counterculture would be erroneous. Neither the counterculture nor the so-called generation gap is universally applicable to all young people. Not all youths seek alternative life styles. Many are earnestly striving for the same security and financial rewards as their parents. Discussions of activist, humanistic youths largely ignore the "Middle Americans," who are generally satisfied with their society, and lower-class groups, who are actively seeking to improve their standard of living. Both the "Middle Americans" and the lower class are chiefly vocationally or domestically oriented, and they are quickly assimilated into the realities of the adult, working world (Spady & Adler, 1974).
Family life Some young people have never been told no, while others have never been told yes. Some students are totally bored with an existence in which someone caters to every whim but in which they feel no sense of accomplishment or success. Some burn with the desire to achieve and to move up the social and economic ladder. Others dwell in a world of despair and hopelessness.
Some students have been reared in a permissive family atmosphere, some are accustomed to a democratic relationship, while others have learned to operate in an authoritarian climate. Thus, their expectations and methods of social relationships are already different when they enter school for the first time. In general, middle-class students are more likely to have been reared in a permissive or democratic environment, but they are also more likely to be dependent upon others than the lower-class child. Middle-class children are used to being helped when they have problems. Too, they are likely to be more frustrated than the lower-class student due to the fact that they have had to operate in a situation in which adults have supervised a major portion of their activities. On the other hand, lower-class children are usually more independent, since they have been left to their own devices more often. They are less likely to understand the democratic process or to be able to cope with a permissive classroom situation. Types of incentives and disciplinary procedures may have to vary depending upon the background of the student.
Many students come from family units that are far less cohesive than was true in the past. Few, if any, have other relatives living with the family, and, in fact, the family may have only limited contact with any of their relatives. If the mother works, her job prevents her from spending much time with the children outside the necessary routine. The father's job now takes him out of the home and in many cases out of the community (Coleman, 1965). In many instances children are reared by only one parent.
Anomie The net result of having lived in a modern, industrialized, technological society is that the students come to the school already having been exposed to a much greater variety of information and experiences than was true prior to World War II. They are much more experienced and knowledgeable about what goes on in the world. At the same time, the changes in society have produced an environment in many cases in which the students are deprived of the security and the roots characteristic of their predecessors in the schools. They not only lack the close family support which they formerly had, but religious faith and church attendance have suffered a simultaneous decline. With no other readily available substitute in a society characterized by bigness and impersonal relationships, an increasing tendency toward anomie and alienation from society in general, and from school specifically, has occurred. Fischer (1975) reports that anomie has increased from the 1950s to the early 1970s. This trend is especially noticeable among whites under thirty-five. Anomie has increased at all educational levels.
The comprehensive American high school is unique in the history of education. For the first time, an educational system was established to educate everyone, not just a select minority. In order to accomplish this all- encompassing goal and to handle the increasingly large enrollments, the schools have sought ways and means of streamlining the system and of making it more efficient. In so doing, larger and larger buildings have been constructed as schools have been consolidated and students bussed to more central locations. This trend in schools is a direct reflection of society itself, which has emphasized size and efficiency. One unfortunate consequence has been to develop a system that at times resembles an assembly line more than an educational institution. Schools that were the pride of the nation in the 1960s have become the object of mounting criticism. Critics decry their curriculum, procedures, organization, purposes, and failure to accomplish their selected goals.
Dissatisfaction with the schools is not limited to a small group of writers attacking the system from a philosophical point of view. The general public is also upset. Rising costs are a primary consideration, but public concern goes beyond the pressure for funds. The public harbors doubts as to the amount of learning that is being obtained in exchange for the money being spent. They believe a gap exists between what the schools have promised and what they have delivered (Manning, 1972). A general public questioning of the state of affairs in the schools and with student achievement persists, in spite of efforts by the schools to improve education and to improve communication with parents and the public.
172 Part One: Theory
Just what is wrong with the schools? Critics present many different opinions. The only point of agreement seems to be that the present situation is serious and that needed changes should be instituted immediately. Spady and Adler (1974, p. 145) state: "The major source of student hostility and unrest lies in the school's preoccupation with the custody, control, certification, and selection of students rather than its instructional effectiveness." Spady (1974) quotes Seeman, who identifies five sources of student frustration. First, in many cases the students feel powerless in the school situation to control their own fate. Second, they are forced many times to attempt to cope with a situation that is meaningless to their personal life situation and experience. Third, Spady perceives a breakdown in the norms that govern behavior and interpersonal relationships, and an ensuing normlessness results. Fourth, students feel isolated iron) their peers. Fifth, students participate in activities selected for them and for which they see no need. This continued behavior of seeking utilitarian goals to the exclusion of intrinsic goals can lead to self-estrangement. Dobay (1973, pp. 44-45) disagrees, affirming that the current crisis is caused by "the absence of hierarchy, the negation of the concept of authority, and the distortion of ideals." She goes on to say, "No young person is born arrogant. Accepting less than the best from the few lowers the level of excellence for the many. This is the real tragedy of our educational crisis today."
What does the public see as the major problems in the schools? The sixth annual Gallup Poll (1974) of public attitudes toward education provides a summary of student and adult opinions. The adults listed the following as being major problem areas, in order of decreasing importance:
6. Size of school/classes.
7. Parents' lack of interest.
8. School-board policies.
9. Poor curriculum.
10. Lack of proper facilities.
1. Lack of discipline.
2. Integration/segregation problems.
3. Lack of proper financial support.
4. Use of drugs.
5. Difficulty of getting "good" teachers.
It is interesting to note that three of the first four problems listed deal with student behavior and that the students list the same three problems. The first four on the student list were:
1. Lack of discipline.
2. Integration/segregation problems.
3. Pupils' lack of interest.
4. Use of drugs.
Automatic promotion to the next grade was rejected by 90 percent of the adults and 87 percent of the students. Seventy-four percent of the adults and 82 percent of the students favored having industries provide practical training in job skills. Surprisingly, there was rather solid agreement between students and adults on measures to be followed to handle students who cause trouble.
Suspension or expulsion was favored by 31 percent of the adults and 41 percent of the students. Adults were more prone to punish misbehavior (11 percent to 4 percent) or to paddle (7 percent to 3 percent), while students would prefer to give detentions (8 percent to 4 percent). Students felt that the major outcomes of school were making friends and learning to get along with other people. Less commonly mentioned were a general education, preparing for a job, and preparing for college.
The congruence between adult reactions and opinions and those of the student population hints that the "generation gap" may not be quite the unbridgeable crevice once suspected. Too, the results seem to indicate that students are as desirous of establishing an atmosphere conducive to learning as the adults. In this sense, they may be more mature and more serious than the adult population has recognized. In both polled groups the major concern lay in the realm of people problems as opposed to curricular problems.
The recommendations for measures to alleviate these problems are far-ranging: from the return to an authoritarian, teacher-centered class; to a permissive, student-centered classroom; to deschooling the educational process. An examination of the experience gained from previous educational programs would lead one to suspect that specific situations and circumstances will require varying approaches. The ability of the administrators and teachers to solve current difficulties depends upon their flexibility in determining productive procedures in response to particular aspects of each problem rather than insisting upon a certain predetermined program as the answer to all concerns and to all needs.
Perkinson (1974) suggests that current dissatisfaction with the schools lies not so much in the realm of what the schools are and what they are doing as in society's expectations of the schools. Confronted by a complex array of social, political, and economic problems, the public's reaction has been to turn to education to solve these problems. When the educational system was unable to produce immediate results to the problems of the sixties, such as the population explosion, pollution, drug use, the reaction was to look for defects in the schools. Perkinson recommends that educators be honest with the students and with the public. Problems should be brought into the open and discussed with them, and it should be pointed out that the recognition of difficulties is a different matter entirely from solutions to these problems. A tradition of critical analysis of the existing system and its functioning, with an objective of improvement and refinement, should become an integral component of the educational experience. Perkinson (1974, p. 395) summarizes his discussion by stating: "Because our present education now lacks such critical encounters, the young do not understand the existing social, political, and economic arrangements, and they do not know how to use them to protect
174 Part One: Theory
themselves. They feel alienated from, and victimized by, the present system, which they see as unchangeable—except perhaps by force."
This section is entited "Students," not "Student." The plural form of the noun was selected consciously and purposefully to contrast with the stress on the individual in the other sections of this chapter. Coping with individual differences in the cognitive and affective domains can be achieved, to any substantial degree, only by emphasizing the individual, but the group cannot be ignored. The old saying is that the forest cannot be seen for the trees. In the classroom, the problem may be viewed from both perspectives. The teacher faced with conducting five classes of thirty students each day may fail to see the individuals for the group. Focusing on both the group and the individual, while attempting to keep up with her many duties and responsibilities, certainly presents the teacher with a challenging assignment. The teacher is confronted with the task of determining how each student is unique and how each is similar to, yet different from, the general student population as a whole and how each functions within the group and relates to his peers. Each student is a separate entity operating in a distinguishable set of circumstances.
What are some of the general characteristics of adolescence? How is adolescence different from childhood and adulthood? First, this is a period of transition from one stage of development to another, a period of emergence from the cognitive, emotional, and social world of the child to that of the adult. The outward physical and sexual changes are obvious. Too, the stress on social acceptance and the importance of the peer group are easily identifiable. Parents, teachers, and other adults readily recognize, at times painfully and not too sympathetically, the questioning of adult values and the increasing attempts of the maturing youth to establish independence. Not so obvious are the qualitative cognitive changes that are occurring simultaneously in the individual's mental makeup.
The nature of the individual's internal and external pressures during this phase of life creates tensions within and without, often resulting in psychological and emotional turmoil. What is needed, both by the individual and significant people in his life, is a tolerance for vacillation, searching, insecurity, and questioning. The single most important consideration is that the lines of communication with the adult world be kept open. In dealing with them, the adult should keep in mind their egotistical, idealistic perspective on the world and their impatience for solutions to problems. These are all direct results of their lack of experience rather than an intentional rejection of the values of their cultural heritage. Questioning and/or disagreement are not necessarily permanent, nor do they necessarily reflect rejection of the cultural past. Tempted as they may be to overreact to youthful attitudes, adults should keep in mind these characteristics of the maturation process.
Some people view adolescence as a period of alienation. Hill (1971) states that there is a commonly held belief that there is a separate adolescent society with a distinct culture, but that the available evidence does not support the existence of a separate youth society or culture. He says, "The continuities that bind adolescence to the childhood that preceded it and to the adulthood that will follow it are more impressive than the discontinuities" (p. 105). He attributes the prevailing attitude concerning a separate subculture to the fact that many of our impressions have been created by the mass media, by studies of psychiatric patients, and by cases of juvenile delinquency. By the time the teacher enters the classroom, he arrives complete with a predisposition to expect either "the ruminating, painfully self-conscious, affectively unpredictable, upper-middle-class neurotic" or "the uncommunicative, tough, and, above all, threatening, lower-class delinquent" (p. 105). The question that immediately occurs is the extent to which the teacher's expectations and subsequent actions serve to promote the fulfillment of these preconceived notions. To what extent do such preconceptions affect the teacher's desire or ability to interact with the students and to treat each as a separate and distinct individual? To what extent do such feelings promote an initial defeatist attitude that causes the teacher and the schools to settle for minimum rather than maximum standards, for "baby-sitting" rather than education?
The previous discussion is not intended to deny the existence of problems as youths pass through adolescence nor to dismiss their importance. Disagreement is certain to occur, but the resultant discord at times is not unhealthy, if the conflict does not grow out of proportion or reach a stage of permanent rupture. During this period of rapid physical and mental growth, increased social participation, and heightened self-awareness, the adolescent is likely to be insecure, impulsive, self-conscious, lacking in self-control, and overly idealistic.
Part of the generally held belief in the generation gap can be traced to apparent lack of understanding of the changes taking place during the maturation process and to a misconception between adults and adolescents as to what opinions and attitudes the other group actually holds. One trait, which may seem surprising, is that adolescents tend to idolize adults. Not so unexpected is the adolescent belief that the average adult has a low opinion of teen-agers, and the feeling of parents that teen-agers have a tendency to underrate adults and to overrate themselves (Klausmeier & Ripple, 1971). This problem of perception of the attitudes and opinions of others also plays a significant role in the school situation. Dropouts, for example, see themselves as being treated poorly by teachers as well as other students. They say that the teacher is not interested in them or their problems (Schreiber, 1969).
In the years between childhood and adulthood young people go through some rather profound changes. This is a period of intense socialization and
strong peer group relationships. At the same time, adolescents have the problem of establishing their independence from their parents and of establishing their own identity. They are helped in these adjustment processes by their increased cognitive ability to handle abstract, conceptual thought. All in all, although growth may be more rapid, maturity progresses from one level to another just as in the other phases of life. Their basic drives, "the drive to understand and the drive to be understood differ little from those of any other person at any other stage of development (Brown, 1974, p. 26).
In the classroom, students act, react, and interact with others. The teacher needs to concern himself with student factors that determine what students do, to what they respond, and with whom they interact.
The affective component includes those feelings and attitudes individuals hold toward themselves and their environment. Affective refers to the individuals' emotional characteristics as opposed to their intellectual and social traits. The question involves not what or whom they know, but how they feel about the information they have and the feedback they receive from their interpersonal relationships. Needless to say, each factor in an individual's total framework is formed in conjunction with and is influenced by the development of all other aspects of her person. Dividing these aspects into categories is impossible, but the consideration of each is important in the development of a total teachinglearning environment.
In the discussion of factors influencing student action, reaction, and interaction, affective variables will be presented prior to a consideration of the cognitive for several reasons. First, some psychologists are now saying that the influence of attitudes and feelings is a greater contributing factor in determining student achievement and success than the cognitive. This assumption may be true on practical as well as theoretical grounds due to the reluctance of many members of the "new" generation to concentrate on learning to the exclusion of feelings. Second, the current stress in education is to educate the whole individual, not just the mind. The modern-day tendency toward anomie requires that the students' emotional development and socialization be given equal status with their academic preparation. Third, in the past the affective domain has not received the attention it deserved. The assumption was that the students would automatically develop emotionally and socially as they
developed intellectually. The results indicate that such is not the case. Students need assistance in growing emotionally and socially just as they do intellectually.
Phenomenology One problem in dealing with attitudes and feelings is the multitude of intangibles involved. This lack of specificity causes some educators to shy away from a serious consideration of the affective domain. As valid as this reaction may be from a truly scientific view, circumstances in the schools emphasize the necessity of investigating the affective and social realms. In seeking solutions to educational problems, phenomenologists attempt to take these factors into consideration.
Phenomenology is related to existentialism and to humanistic psychology. Its focus is on the inner universe of feelings, attitudes, emotions, meanings, and purposes of the individual. Although cognitive psychology and phenomenology are both internal theories of learning, the attention of cognitive psychologists is directed more toward meaningful learning. Phenomenologists are more interested in the development, or self-actualization, of the person as a total thinking, feeling, social being. Obviously, cognitive learning and growth affect self-concept and self-actualization and vice versa (Mouly, 1973). The basic premises of phenomenology are the following:
1. Behavior is the result of the individual's perception of reality. Reality is psychological rather than objective. It exists in the mind of the individual.
2. Perceptions are the result of the individual's interpretation of the present situation.
3. Behavior is the result of the present situation and must be dealt with from that point of view.
A major implication of these premises is that people act the way they do because they see the situation the way they do. From this point of view, the student who is a behavior problem, however much he may depart from the teacher's conception of proper decorum, is merely doing what seems best to him in that particular situation (Mouly, 1973).
These premises serve to explain behavior, not to justify it. Phenomenology is an attempt to comprehend behavior, not to condone misbehavior. As a conceptual framework for understanding the why of student action, the tenets presented can provide insight into the motives behind what the student may do. However, the theory should not be used as a guise to justify the adoption of a permissive, laissez faire classroom atmosphere in which self-actualization for the students and for the teacher would become haphazard and inefficient, if not impossible. Such an atmosphere is, in effect, contrary to the primary goal of phenomenology, which is self-actualization.
Student attitudes and feelings toward school Concurrent with the diminish-
178 Part One: Theory
ing influence of the home and the church on the life of the individual has appeared a seeming lack of ability on the part of many individuals to cope in our complex technological, industrialized society. The students' reaction has been to question the ability of the schools to prepare them for participation in society. In this sense, perhaps the charge of irrelevancy has a certain amount of justification. However, a more accurate appraisal would be that the scope of the teaching-learning experience has been inadequate. Relevancy may be related more closely to failure to deal effectively with the often neglected affective and social areas of education than to the inapplicability of the cognitive. At any rate, it would appear that either the home, the church, or the educational system will have to fill the current void in the background of many individuals in our society.
The students' attitudes and feelings toward school are affected by several variables, such as their own personalities and backgrounds, those of their classmates and teachers, the curriculum, and the methods of teaching. Figure 7.1 presents a schematic outline of the relationships and interrelationships influencing the affective domain in the classroom. It is interesting to note those relationships that are reciprocal and those that are not and to consider the implications of each on individual growth and on the teaching-learning atmosphere of the class.
Figure 7.1: A Schematic Representation of Various Effects on School- Related Attitudes (SES-Socioeconomic Status; Pers-Personality; Ach- Achievement).
Source: Kahn, S.B., and Weiss, )., "The Teaching of Affective Responses," In R. Travers (Ed.). Second Handbook of Research on Teaching (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1973), p. 770. Copyright 1973, American Educational Research Association, Washington, D.C.
The Student 179
Attitudes and feelings toward second-language study Attitudes and feelings play important roles in the prestige and importance of any academic subject in the curriculum, and this influence is strongly felt in the field of second- language study. The fact that enrollments in second-language classes have declined steadily since the late sixties seems to be of little concern to those not directly involved. Except in times of crisis, such as the unexpected launching of the first Sputnik, second-language study is not valued highly by many people in the United States. This attitude is partly the result of the large numbers of immigrants who have been concerned with becoming Americanized, partly the natural consequence of being relatively isolated from speakers of other languages, and partly the outgrowth of living in a country with such a vast financial and political influence throughout the world that large numbers of people from other countries learn to speak English. The readiness with which people of other nations have learned English in order to reap the financial benefits has led some Americans to the mistaken conclusion that there is no need to learn second languages.
Second-language study is also handicapped by the negative attitude with which many adults and students alike view second-language classes, which for some were and are a traumatic experience. These people feel that it is a "hard" subject, that they do not get anything out of the class, and that they shortly forget what little they do learn. In part, this attitude is due to a general lack of public relations sensitivity on the part of many second-language teachers. However, the nature of the subject matter itself must also be considered in attempting to identify the causes of the negative reaction facing second- language teachers from some, but not all, quarters.
What is this quality inherent in second-language study that may result in negative student reactions? Discomfort is one answer. Second-language study requires the student to tread new linguistic and cultural territory. This use of new, partially mastered language patterns and vocabulary, as well as the exposure to different culture patterns and customs, can be just as psychologically uncomfortable to some as it is exhilarating to others. Learners tend to avoid that which produces discomfort and to seek out and repeat that which makes them feel good. The teacher may either be oblivious to the students' emotional straits or may tend to react as negatively to the student as the student has to the second language.
Both the profession as a whole and individual teachers can promote efforts to improve the image of second-language learning in the United States. The profession can continue to foster community and public awareness of the need for people with second-language skills. Teachers can do their part by sensitizing themselves to the psychological comfort-discomfort threshold of each of their students. They can seek to devise ways and means of reducing or eliminating the causes of discomfort when reactions indicate that the discom-
180 Part One: Theory
fort zone has been reached and that the result is affecting student attitude and achievement.
Also, second-language teachers in the United States should not overlook the considerable reservoir of support that exists for second-language learning among the public and among the students. Rivers (1974a) reported the results of a survey of student attitudes towards second-language study conducted at the University of Illinois that refuted commonly held myths about how much students dislike language classes. Similar data were obtained in a questionnaire administered to the students enrolled in the first four semesters of language study at the University of Virginia. In this study almost 70 percent rejected the statement that students see no reason for studying a foreign language. Over 75 percent answered no to the statement that there is no need to study a foreign language because everyone else speaks English. Nor are the students isolated from the influence of second languages. More than 15 percent had parents who spoke a second language, and more than 60 percent had friends who spoke a second language. Many of the students were planning careers in fields such as journalism, foreign service, government work, social work, etc., for which they felt a second language might be useful. The student response to the beginning language courses was surprisingly favorable. The percentages of electives for each of the languages were 13.8 percent (F), 35.2 percent (G), and 17.0 percent (S). The response to "I enjoy language even if it is required," was positive by 51.8 percent (F), 61.2 percent (G), and 50.0 percent (S). Even if language was not required, 43.6 percent (F), 63.4 percent (G), and 42.6 percent (S) said they would study a language anyway, and 31.3 percent (F), 54.2 percent (G), and 39.0 percent (S) of the students said they planned to take courses beyond the requirement. Although the grade-point average of some students may suffer, a situation which would most likely be true for any academic subject, large numbers of students received higher grades in second languages than in their other subjects. In fact, the percentage of A's and B's received by students in second-language classes at the University of Virginia was more than 20 percent higher than their overall grade-point average. An even more revealing survey is the one referred to by Savaiano (1974) in which the members of a 1969 graduating class were asked what courses they wish they had taken that they did not take. The most frequent reply was foreign languages.