Bilash’s Success-based Language Instruction Model (B-SLIM)

 

Dr. Olenka Bilash (Olenka.Bilash@ualberta.ca)

 

 

           We talk so much about self directed learning and have structured policies and proposed practices around the assumption that all learners are equally self-directed.  BUT, practitioners know that not all learners are equally self-directed.  In fact, teachers also know from experience that some learners need to be taught to be self-directed.  By being based on success, B-SLIM incorporates enough scaffolding (structure and support) at each phase for learners who are less self sufficient to succeed while simultaneously providing opportunities and direction for the more self-directed student to push forward.  For example, while a less self-directed student might need to follow a template several times before really ‘getting’ the structure of a form such as a brief event review (in order to be able to create one on his/her own as an OUTPUT assignment), a more self-directed learner may only need to hear or see the model once and be able to replicate and creatively alter it!

 

 

 

Theoretical Underpinnings

 

• Cognitive Science (Piaget, Vygotsky, Gagne) (We organize knowledge of different types into schema through mental processes.  As learners who are active participants we require scaffolded instructional material that utilizes demonstrations, illustrative examples and corrective feedback to maximize memory retention.)

• Constructivism (Bruner) (We construct our own understanding of the world by generating our own rules and mental models to make sense of our experiences.)

• Developmentalism (Ryle, Schwitzgebel) (We learn concepts and dispositions in a gradual way frequently passing through periods of being "in between" genuine understanding and failure to understand.)

 

 Goals 

 

• to develop self directed learners

• to ensure that every learner succeeds at each phase of the learning process by maximizing exposure to concepts through all learning styles/intelligences and encouraging intellectual /thinking growth in systematically developed steps

• to help students develop all aspects of language by applying research findings from all areas of second language learning and acquisition (language awareness, pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, situations- fluency-accuracy, culture and Culture, learning strategies, listening comprehension, speaking, writing, reading, forms, skills, content, motivation-attitude)

• to ensure that learners can transfer what they have learned to new contexts

• to learn language and to learn through language

• to identify success in learning in concrete terms

 

 Components/Phases

 

 

             B-SLIM reflects how to think about sequencing and pacing activities for all students.  In this day of heterogeneous multi-level classes teachers must oversee the learning of students with varying abilities, interests and learning styles during the same class time period.  B-SLIM helps the teacher to plan, organize and implement activities for each learner.  See Figure 1.  B-SLIM has 5 parts:

 

 

    - Planning and Preparation

 

    - Comprehensible Input

 

    - Intake – “Getting it”

 

    - “Using it”

 

    - Output

 

    - Assessment

 

    - Evaluation

 

 

Because assessment occurs throughout the model the teacher is easily able to recognize where a student is ‘at’ – what the student has learned and what the next step(s) should be.  For example, if the student is referring to class notes, blackboard or other mounted visual clues or a dictionary then the student is clearly still at the ‘getting it’ stage.  Only when content is remembered can it be used in the ‘using it’ phase.  Key points about each phase follow.

 

 

Dr.Olenka Bilase