Reflection of Reading Week 5

I was very interested in the readings for this week. In particular, I enjoyed Chapter 4 and I thought it was a much needed overview of all the things we had read about in the past. I appreciated the nice breakdown of each teaching principle.

Surprisingly, the cognitive principles seemed as though many teachers view such aspects as 'common sense'. I know that many of my teachers in the past have used such techniques almost as if they have been doing it for a long time. Also, some of these same techniques seem to be common sense for students as well. I know that I have employed my 'intrinsic motivation' to its maximum, especially when learning a foreign language.

I thought it was great that the book pointed out that students as adult learners can take pointers from children learners. Often times adult students get in the way of themselves and their learning process by over analyzing their progress and not fully submerging themselves into the language.

Chapter 5 took a deeper look at intrinsic motivation in the classroom. It discussed Maslow's hierarchy of needs. I thought this was a fascinating way to look at intrinsic motivation because often times I forget that students are not only students. Especially when considering students in the U.S. studying English. Often times they have cultural adjustments to go through and are not in their comfortable home environment. I almost viewed the model as a puzzle of learning. To clarfiy, each student needs each piece of the puzzle in order for their learning experience to be complete.