INNOVATIONS IN LANGUAGE TEACHING BASED ON RECENT RESEARCH

Researchers looking into language learning have identified a number of problems explaining difficulties many learners experience. Today students have to be action-oriented in their language use and social context plays an important part in dealing with socio-pragmatic aspects. Despite teachers' efforts and new approaches some students always lag behind.
Other problems having to due with lack of achievement are often blamed on lack of motivation. In fact, there appears to be a lack of understanding of learners's need as regards cognition and also visual perception.

The method used for this study is a review of the literature. We used key-words to enquire into problems, gathered the key studies and analyzed them in light of the questions we had, namely around poor, achievement, personal characteristics and visual cognition.

Studies in language learning show the importance of input and out put. We will discuss the controversy between comprehensible input and incomprehensible input (White,1987), as well as modified input. We will shed new light on strategies to better learning by discussing research on output, including "output +1" (Swain, 2004). Many researchers also claim that there is a need for modified output. Needless to say, the objective is to have learners produce more effort and have them work harder with problem solving activities for instance. In support of these underlying theories, the Ontario Ministry of Education encourages the use of extensive questioning at generally more advanced level to support this need to work on language more extensively if one is to master it. Examples will be provided;

Solutions will also be presented to improve learners' achievement based on recent research on visual cognition as a result of findings on visual perception. Not only do learners choose to concentrate on an "object", they also have to decide to make the effort to understand. Moreover researchers suggest that activities have to follow to allow the assimilation of the new data.
Data from visual cognition also points to the fact that data has to be presented in the way visual perception is understood today which would make learning more effective and more interesting. A number of findings will be expanded on, like for instance personal preference to focus on certain things, the role of the fovea versus the activity at the eye periphery and the concept of the "mind's eye".

Practical applications will be presented taking into account the new findings in research, for example setting-up activity centres.