Preparing for a lifetime of learning

In a classroom in Yemen, Maria is working with a group of her student. The rest of the class is busily engaged with individual workcards that Maria has made by cutting pictures from magazines and sticking them on construction paper with True/False questions on the back.. As each student finishes, she or he checks the back of the card for the correct answers. The student then makes a note of the card number, returns the card to a box at the front of the class, and takes another.

In a classroom in Tonga, David's class is busy working on a writing exercise. Two students finish early, but instead of distracting the other students, they walk to the front of the class and select activities from a box kept there. One begins to reconstruct a cut-up reading passage while the other writes a dialogue for speech balloons in a cartoon story. All the activities in the box are color coded so that the students are able to select an activity at their own level. Student record cards and answer keys are enclosed in the box.

In her classroom in Thailand, Amy sets up activity centers every Wednesday. She does this by placing a box of reading activities one desk, a writing activities box on another, a grammar activities box on a third, and a listening/pronunciation activities box on a fourth. In each box the activities are arranged by level. As each student completes an exercise from one of the activity centers, he or she checks the answers using the answer key in the box, puts an entry on his student record sheet, and then selects another activity. Amy circulates, helping students with individual difficulties.

In all three classrooms students are engaged in independent tasks of their own choosing and are taking some measure of responsibility for their own learning. This is what independent study is all about.

IN THIS CHAPTER

In this chapter, we suggest some ways in which you could use independent study in your classroom. The first half of the chapter deals with background information, such as the rationale for using independent study and issues of classroom management and materials production. The second half of the chapter provides a bank of materials and activity types that you can choose from to suit your particular group of learners.

REASONS FOR USING INDEPENDENT STUDY

If we were to ask Maria, David, and Amy why they use independent study, they might give a number of different answers. Maria might say that it's a way to usefully occupy most of the students while she has a chance to give some extra help to a small group . David might say that he started independent study as a way of dealing with the interruptions produced by early finishers, while Amy might say that her learners are all at different levels and in need of different skills and that independent study seems to be the only way to address their individual needs.

In fact, independent study can do all these things and more. It can also help to solve the problem of a limited number of textbooks. And it provides students with the study skills necessary to continue learning beyond the classroom. This last point is very important if the students are receiving only minimal English instruction in school.