Brain growth is enriched by continued learning

Continued learning develops human brain but in order to the proces takess place continually, the particular requirements must be satisfied.

We can consider the following situation - The student learning a language in the school situation lacks many of the stimuli to natural use of the language that abound for the person who acquires a language while living among its native speakers. The teacher must, somehow, make up for this lack of natural stimuli, and he usually calls on the student's imagination. Words alone, however, are not sufficient to carry the student over into an imaginary situation. Therefore, in the foreign language classroom - the place where the process of foreign language learning (and teaching) takes place, besides equipment found in the ordinary school room there should be various pictures, maps, charts, mock-ups helping to make the language used in the classroom comprehensible. First of all, maps of foreign countries should be installed with the help of which students together with  their teacher can travel around the country, visiting places they read and talk about. Students understand and retain the meaning of a word better when they have seen or touched the object associated with it.  For this reason, the teacher with the help of his students should make a collection of everyday objects, which should include such items as newspapers, bus tickets, flags, bottles, cans, containers and toys. As it was claimed by researchers, enrichment may come from many different sources. There are still at least three more objects which ought to be among the standard equipment in every school that teaches a foreign language: a telephone, a clock, a calendar since they make the conversations and the learning process during classroom activities more real.

Movement and exercise improve brain functioning

Most of us know that phsical exercise is good for our general health, but it also have a great influence on human brain. The researchers confirms this information putting special attention to the fact that they make our mental functioning better and help students think and learn better. It happens because physical exercise increases oxygen flow to the brain, as well as increases blood vessels. Therefore, getting more exercise helps the learners improve their cognitive functions and it proves that the teachers should give the students as many opportunities to stretch and move around in the classroom as it is only possible. After the physical exercise pupils can easily achieve deep relaxation which can be a form of brain-break before the next mental work.

Each brain is unique

" Every student is unique and every brain processes information slightly differently" says Mary Ann Christison in her brain-based research. When I quote these words, I realise that this sentence has a great power....

Many foreign language teachers are puzzled why their lessons are often dull and why their students do not learn much although they plan each lesson very carefully taking into account all the formal characteristics of the target language. The answer to this question is simple. Those teachers concern themselves with the arrangement of the material, but they do not pay enough attention to their students' ways of acquiring knowledge or to their interests, feelings and thoughts. The manner in which every pupil in the classroom learns a new language is invisible because it takes place in the pupil's mind. According to Christison (2002), each teacher asking the questions to the students should be open to different ways of interpretations and seeing informations. Students in the classroom form a micro-society. It generates communicative needs. They feel a need to communicate each other which can be satisfied through the learning foreign language therefore the teacher should provide them with complex and provocative questions to consider (and avoid questions with "yes/no" answers). Furthermore, the class should be organized in different way:  frontal work with the teacher in control of the whole class, individual work, pair work, group projects with groups scattereed in the classroom or performing in the middle of the room.
Briefly, pupils should be engaged in different types of project work that  require their active participation so that they feel that they can show their abilities and develop their interests. What is important, familiarity, pleasantness of being active among the group of students, goal significance, coping potential and social image of the learner are constantly improved during such activities.

The brain is meaning driven

As it has been stated before, our brain searches for meaning through patterning. It is automatic process of working human brain therefore the teachers should help the students to derive meaning from meaningful materials. It is strictly connected with using of vocabulary which is a very useful tool for language learning.  From this point of view, the aim of the teacher should be to give the students the activity which can help them to discover the meaning. Because human brain is pattern-seeking, communication games seem to be useful to this purpose.

These ones are designed in the way which requires communication between students because there are information gaps to fill in so that one student has to talk to a partner in order to solve the given problem, put the words in right order, as well as explain the meaning of the given words from the texts.
Undoubtedly, it has a great impact on pupils' language skills. Another aspect which should also be taken into consideration is the fact that awareness and knowledge of printed words is essential for further learning therefore the students must realize that print represents speech. What is more, learners should remeber that English language is very specific. It causes that one word can have different meanings. The meaning of the given word is defined by its relationship to other words therefore the role of the teacher is to teach the students that the words we use and what they actually mean in the context we use them are totally different thing. The teacher should get the student's attention to this fact, because it seem to be extremaly important when creating perceptual maps through patterning takes place.

The search for meaning occurs through patterning

Researchers (Christison; 2002) claim that human brain creates patterns therefore teachers should organize and present given material choosing the way which allows provide the patterning to constructive learning process. Teachers should put that principle into practice when the new language material is introduced. It means that working with a new text, the teacher should provide the activities which demonstrate both the teacher's introduction of new language, as well as material designed to encourage students to work patterns out. It can be made by discussion of the new material. The example of it can be a described below activity. The following one shows clearly how a situation can be used to provide the context in order to introduce new language. The task is based on science fiction material. The teacher asks the question if the students ever read science fiction. This way the teacher tries to find out what students know about the topic- in other words, if they understand what genre of fiction they are talking about. It might turn into a discussion of what they have read and why, or simply-what they would expect to find in a science fiction text. (It is a form of the activity which I have already mentioned about in this section). The aim of that is to encourage them to the material-based discussion. It uses a natural tendency of our brain in order to construct meaning from patterns. In the practical language learning it means that we can learn second language (novelty) if it is closely related to our personal experiences, our attitudes, feelings, emotions and it teaches us how to learn by forming the patterns. Moreover, it remains in our mind and this way we are able to recall the meaning at any time and use it in appropriated situations and situational context.

 As far as emotional dimensions are concerned, we can see easily that our self and social image develops - more we learn, more we feel confident during practising the language. Additionally, coping potential and goal significance become higher- we know how to select foreign language in order to use it in situational context and what is extremly worth to emphasize, we set a goal which we wish to achieve.

The brain downshifts under threat

There is no doubt that human emotions have a great impact on the work of human brain. It is very important at the process of learning. If the new material is introduced, students will devote a lot of time to understand it and be able to use it correctly. Being familiarized with its context, rules and new vocabulary, students take pleasure of using it in incredible easy way. High goal significance is also a part of school success. First of all, students should set a goal at the beginning of the learning process and step by step pursue that goal. High coping potential, however, can be generated by a teacher's performance. There is no doubt that students can be engaged by energetic and enthusiastic teachers to take part in classroom activities. The feeling of self-esteem and being self-sufficient improve student's self and social image during the lesson and affect the student's behaviour and his self-confidence. It is vitally important in terms of effective learning process.

Self-confident people are more willing to take risks and take part in unfailiar tasks. The role of the teacher is to motivate the pupils and encourage them to be active, share their interests among classmates. In order to achieve it, the teacher must avoid bad classroom atmosphere (stress, anxiety etc. ). It can be made by giving them interesting tasks and creating good conditions to learn.

The brain is a parallel processor

As the author said, the human brain is capable of doing many different tasks simultaneously. It happens because there are ten thousands of different neurons varieties,trillions of cells, synaptic combinations, small blood vessels and aksons which cooperate each other faultlessly. As far as learning of English is concerned, many various brain centres are responsible for foreign language learning. The initial difficulties in language learning are very similar to riding a bike for the first time. We are not able to ride a bike at once. What is more, in order to manage this trick we have to get tired and work hardly all the time to keep balance. The same is during foreign language learning. Our brain decides about our behaviour and language learning. Every new language skill is developed and practised by constant repetitions. If the language is new, it should be repeated as many times as it is possible in order to be familiar with. This process proves that the way from novelty to familiarity in the context of foreign language learning, as well as improving of coping potential and self image are long and require a lot of student's effort.