Melitta Wagner-heaston

Brain-compatible Foreign Language Melitta Wagner-heaston

The guiding focus of this study centered on teachers experiences with student learning and language proficiency in a brain-compatible, student-centered environment. The participants in this study discussed teacher student roles and responsibilities and presented best practices and effective strategies used in their classrooms. The role of teacher as facilitator of knowledge and student as participant in this learning engagement is at the heart of student centered learning and constructivist theory. Given the appropriate tools, guidance and environment, the learner not only creates his/her own learning but better comprehends the relationship between cognition and emotion. Likewise, the facilitator recognizes the value of engaging students through activities that spark curiosity, offer novelty and choice, reinforce prior knowledge, instill creativity, challenge senses, affect motivation, pace and chunk content, enhance memory retention, and ultimately teach students how they learn best. Successful mastery of a second language requires that teachers draw on a multiplicity of approaches, methodologies and strategies that reach out to a diverse population of learners.