Mark J Stoneburgh is currently a Professor of English at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan. When not busy with with teaching and teacher training, Mark volunteers his time to animal rescue. Email: mjstoneburgh@yahoo.com

Anthony Page currently resides in Japan and is a Professor of English at Taisho Taisho, Tokyo Japan. When he’s not spending time with his wife and son, Anthony might be found cheering on his favorite soccer team, Manchester United.

 

Introduction

For me, as a university ESL teacher teaching in Tokyo, Japan, the biggest battle in the classroom has always been to effectively engage my students while at the same time produce tangible results. As language teachers, we’ve all experienced at one time or another, those dreaded looks on students’ faces of boredom, vapidness, disinterest, and confusion. The lesson plan on paper looks great; it follows all the tried and trusted steps. But when implemented, it just falls flat. The class is not only a failure, it’s basically a waste of time. The class is neither enjoyable for the students nor constructive, with lesson points being quickly forgotten if they were to be learned at all. To be fair, there will always be the students in class who are perennially turned on, i.e. the students listening attentively, taking notes, and asking questions. Unfortunately there will always be a few students who will offer the opposite-doing as little as possible and learning even less. But I’ve found the bulk of the students in any given class will learn one way or the other, contingent on the teacher’s approach. The million dollar question is what is this approach? How do you win students over, engage them in the lesson, have them communicate effectively, and retain the lesson points?  The answer for me is ‘organic learning.’ Unfortunately for me (and my earlier students) there was no early ‘eureka moment’ that lead me to this discovery. Rather, it was only through years of trial and experimenting with countless outlines and teaching strategies that I was eventually able to weave this teaching methodology into my formerly mediocre, humdrum, and conventional lecture style lessons and transform them into dynamic, constructive, and captivating ones.

 

What exactly is organic learning?

 “Organic learning is learning that occurs in a natural state. It is learning that develops from within a student. The student develops curiosity about a topic, concept, problem, or idea, then seeks out methods to satisfy this curiosity.  The outside world does not interfere with this process. The motivation to learn is intrinsic. It radiates from within.” (1)

Yes, I know what you’re probably thinking. How is this revolutionary? It’s basically self-evident; I wholeheartedly agree. I can personally tell you that I learned much more of the French language in a summer in Quebec, Canada than I ever did in my seven years of formal French study in the classroom. Or the Japanese vocabulary and grammar that I now utilize on a daily basis is not likely something I studied by rote learning in my years of study with textbooks, but rather language that I casually hear on TV or in conversation with native Japanese speakers. The need to communicate functions as the motivator and that is enough to facilitate true learning. Almost anybody who has competently learned a second language would nod their head in agreement. Why then do language teachers not utilize this methodology (even a little bit) in their classrooms?

Admittedly as a younger teacher, I would ignore what worked best for my own personal language study and do my utmost to follow the seemingly tried and true best practices of the day. I would make Herculean efforts to choose the right textbook and follow all the proper steps (icebreaker, introducing the topic, drills, and production.) I was pretty successful with this strategy too, (or so I thought.) The students seemed to like my classes and my reviews from my supervisors were all glowing. But deep down I knew my classes could be better. Earlier on I noted that any time something naturally (organically) came up in class, say a vocabulary word or phrase, or perhaps a challenging grammatical structure, the students would be much more tuned in and willing to learn it. Not only that, they would be able to retain it and utilize it much more effectively than they would have if it were presented cold and out of context from a textbook. Over time, I would start to challenge conventional language teaching strategies and tinker my lessons toward this style of pedagogy, realizing that I could utilize and harness the students’ need to communicate as a vital component in the direction the class would take. Up to that point, I was so focused on achieving the designated lesson points, I would lose the students’ curiosity, interest, and motivation in the process.  The communication aspect was lost. Eventually, it was this ‘forest for the trees’ realization that opened my eyes to the obvious.

‘Organic Learning’ was not my idea after all, (of course,) but rather a concept that has been around for a long time. In fact there is a plethora of general information and research on the subject. All one needs to do is go to the local library, bookstore or simply google it. Therefore, this paper does not ambitiously strive to break new ground in the field, nor does it aim to be a scientific analysis of the effectiveness of this methodology. Rather it modestly endeavors to introduce the reader to the concept of organic learning, the historical and current place it holds in education, and its potential as an effective means of teaching in the ESL classroom.

 

A brief history of modern learning approaches

The idea of learning as a science began at the turn of the 20th century with the two most important theorists in the history of American education, Edward Thorndike and John Dewey, formulating radically different visions of how the art of teaching could be transformed into a science.

 

Edward Thorndike

Thorndike, an American psychologist at Columbia University, “combined a hereditarian behavioral psychology with the newly developed techniques of statistical analysis and standardized every aspect of the educational process, showing how schooling could be structured around the methods of industrial management.” (2)

His early research led to many theories and laws of learning, such as

“behaviorism (using test animals as subjects), cognitivism and constructivism, which were all built on the similar premise that learning is biological, or mechanistic; the brain acts as a center for processing, storing, recalling and directing responses to stimuli. Over the last hundred years, education institutions have built practices, methods and policies around the principles of the theories. Teaching is a reflection of this scientific perspective; methods of instruction, assessment and testing embrace the theoretical principles. Through his contributions to the behavioral psychology field came his major impacts on education, where the law of effect continues to have great influence in the classroom.” (3)

Thorndike defined teaching as “the art of giving and withholding, where administrative experts hold the scientific knowledge and teachers toil to transfer that knowledge to students.” (4) His standardized rating/grading scales are still　very much present today. In fact, Thorndike’s models have been extended in recent years with

 “the human brain being compared to a computer. Common terms used to describe learning and the brain include storing, processing, retrieving, short-term memory, etc. To that end, knowledge is taught in schools with the goal of maximum efficiency, technology often used as a method to increase efficiency, i.e. automating teaching functions grading tests, essays and even feedback from robots in group work…The scientific approach to learning, where the brain is viewed as the ‘processor’ of learning, drives our education practices.” (5)

John Dewey

In contrast to Thorndike's mechanistic view, John Dewey, renowned American philosopher and educator at the University of Chicago, “formulated an organismic ontology modeled on the process of adaptation and demonstrated that the scientific method depends upon the construction of a democratic community of problem solvers.” (6) Dewey believed that “traditional education, in its rigid requirements of standards and conduct, encourages learners to be docile and obedient, producing an environment where learners are encouraged to listen and learn but not necessarily to think for themselves.” (7) He wrote, “There is an intimate and necessary relation between the processes of actual experience and education.” (8) His philosophy was based on the idea that “learning occurs through experience and requires hands-on activities that directly relate to the learners life and needs. In experiential education, learning occurs through actually doing something and reflecting on and learning from the process.” (9) Key concepts in his approach are “experience, freedom, community, and habits of mind…and that effective teachers are able to connect the subject matter to the existing experience of students, and that they can expand and enrich students’ lives with new experiences.” (10)

Further implications for Dewey’s learner-centered approach for educators is Dewey’s belief that

“students' interests can guide their choices from a group of themes (concepts) identified by the teacher. Learning is active—a living process enriched in students' experiences of personal inquiry which can be transformative. Dewey uses the biological metaphor of growth to demonstrate learning and increasing complexity of the system of the learner.” (11)

 

In a nutshel

Dewey believed that freedom is a tool that helps students develop. If you give your students freedom of thought, the student will harness their ‘experiences’ towards an educational continuity. It is more about the journey and less about the destination.

 

Contemporary views on Organic Learning today 

In recent years, prominent educators have added their voices of support for this learning approach. In 2013, Norm Friesen, Professor of Alternative Pedagogies and E-learning at Boise University, asserted (at an education conference in Shanghai) that learning comes about through experience and immersion in culture rather than by a process, stating that:

“Learning is not cause and effect

Learning is cultural not scientific (brain as the machine)

Learning is contingent upon culture

Learning changes over time

Learning is pulled by the learner, and not pushed.” (12)

Echoing Friesen’s views and not satisfied with treating organic learning as merely an abstract concept, Hugh Osborn, author, e-learning consultant, and principal of 21^st Century Solutions (a renowned non-profit school for the gifted) believes that

”it is also an extraordinary opportunity. I contend that organic systems are applicable to education and powerful enough that the right small group of people could spark a transformation in American education for the cost of developing a few textbooks. That is the potential impact of organic education for the key hypotheses of organic education.” (13)

Osborn’s colleague, Margaret Gayle, Executive Director of the American Association for Gifted Children at Duke University, put these principles into practice in North Carolina. Osborn explains,

 “ In her role as executive director of  The American Association for Gifted Children (AAGC), Margaret worked with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) to reinvent teaching based on organic principles in a project called Bright IDEA—a project that has been recently extended and funded by the U.S. Department of Education(see Exhibit 2 for an explanation of Bright IDEA's organic teaching model). The original project trained 30 teachers in North Carolina K-2 Title I classrooms in 2001–2004 and yielded spectacular results. When measured on nationally normed tests, the Bright IDEA kids, who had had no test prep, had nearly double the scores of the other kids. Furthermore, the project taught and measured 21st-century skills like creative problem-solving, empathetic listening, persisting, and thinking flexibly (NCDPI and AAGC 2005).” (14)

 

 

Organic Learning’s relevancy in the ESL classroom: Language acquisition vs. language learning

Theories continue to be postulated and challenged by language educators and teaching techniques/strategies have been invented, bent, and contorted in that never ending quest to understand how additional languages are learned in relation to the mother tongue. So now we are getting to the crux of the issue for language teachers. Can college-aged (or older) students learn a second language in the same way they learned their first as children? And if so, what are the implications for the classroom? According to most educators and linguists, there is an important distinction between language acquisition and language learning. Children ‘acquire’ their first skills ‘organically’ through interaction with the environment that surrounds them and their need to communicate is the main driver behind their language acquisition. With adult learners, the emphasis is, unfortunately, based on ‘language learning.’ And there’s the rub. As a university lecturer with thousands of hours teaching experience in the classroom, I can confidently say that rote learning, grammar drills, and worksheets may prepare students to do well on standardized, spoon-fed tests, but it certainly isn’t very effective as the sole means of teaching for a language class full of young adults with the primary aim to engage in fluent, effective, and meaningful communication.

 

What do the experts have to say about this?

Stephen Krashen

Few have looked at this issue more closely than renowned linguist and University of California professor Stephen Krashen. Introducing some of the most influential concepts to the study of second-language acquisition and development, Krashen addresses the question of how children and some adult learners perform the seemingly magical trick of mastering a language and the implications that his findings have in the classroom. Krashen sums up the idea by saying that “acquisition is where the action is. In other words, in every successful example of language-learning, such as an infant mastering a first language or an adult learner of English scoring a band 9 on the IELTS test, the reason for their success is that they have 'acquired' rather than 'learned' the language.” (15) He views ‘communication’ as the primary driver of language learning and therefore believes teachers should be focusing on the communicative abilities and skills of students rather than the mundane language structures that are ubiquitous in today’s language classes.

“Areas such as vocabulary and speaking are given much more weight in the classroom, with the more traditional area of the study of grammatical structures being relegated to a much more peripheral role…What really distinguishes this  approach from other methods and approaches are its premises concerning the use of language and the importance of vocabulary: Language is viewed as a vehicle for communicating meaning and messages and vocabulary is of paramount importance as language is essentially its lexicon…This means that language acquisition cannot take place unless the acquirer understands messages in the target language and has developed sufficient vocabulary inventory. In fact, it should be easier to reconstruct a message containing just vocabulary items than one containing just the grammatical structures.” (16)

Krashen's theory of second language acquisition consists of five main hypotheses:

The Acquisition-Learning hypothesis: That becoming fluent in a language (acquiring a language) is quite different from learning about grammar rules;

The Monitor hypothesis: That knowing and thinking a lot about grammar rules helps polish formal writing but can hinder people from communicating naturally with others;

The Natural Order hypothesis: That languages each have a “Natural Order” with some aspects of the language coming more quickly than others;

The Input hypothesis: That we need lots of input at just a little bit beyond what we already can understand in order to acquire more language ability;

The Affective Filter hypothesis: And that if we are unmotivated, dislike the language, or feel anxious about it, our progress will be hindered. (17)

Stephen Kreshen concludes

"Acquisition requires meaningful interaction in the target language - natural communication - in which speakers are concerned not with the form of their utterances but with the messages they are conveying and understanding… The best methods are therefore those that supply 'comprehensible input' in low anxiety situations, containing messages that students really want to hear. These methods do not force early production in the second language, but allow students to produce when they are 'ready', recognizing that improvement comes from supplying communicative and comprehensible input, and not from forcing and correcting production.” (18)

 

What this means for us as language teachers is clear:

*Focus primarily on the communicative abilities and skills of the students.

*Vocabulary should be much more emphasized and taught prior to grammatical syntax.

*Grammar should be deemphasized and taught on a need-to-know basis. When you consciously study grammar, it generally is forgotten if not consistently reinforced. It’s best to move on and learn grammatical structures more contextually and naturally.

*Communicative language pair and group activities should be utilized to complete tasks.

*Classroom environments should be relaxed, correction should be kept to a minimum, and students should be encouraged to ‘acquire’ the language by having fun with it.

 *We must revolutionize our conventional and defective approaches and embrace the concept that with language learning it is not in the actual study of the subject matter itself that brings about tangible progress for the students, but rather it is the ‘doing’ part. The learning is in fact a by-product of communicative activities that captures the students’ interests.  Students will learn best from activities based on comprehensible input and contextual, meaningful communication.

 

David Nunan

Another influential voice in support of ‘organic learning’ in the language classroom is world-renowned linguist and best-selling author David Nunan. Nunan points out the elephant in the room by stating

 “From a grammatical perspective, many foreign language programs and teaching materials are based on a linear model of language acquisition. This model operates on the premise that learners acquire one target language item at a time, in a sequential, step-by-step fashion. However, such a model is inconsistent with what is observed as learners go about the process of acquiring another language.” (19)

For students to competently ‘acquire’ a language, we as language teachers need to stop relying on techniques that have proven time and again to be inadequate, unconducive, and even counterproductive for meaningful learning. Nunan writes “When we observe learners as they go about the process of learning another language, we see that, by and large, they do not acquire language in the step-by-step, building block fashion suggested by the linear model. It is simply not the case that language learners acquire target items perfectly, one at a time.” (20)

Mirroring Stephen Kreshen’s view on acquired learning and its place in the classroom, Nunan believes that language acquisition is a phenomenon best understood through the lens of ‘organic learning’ for educators to truly employ the best practices.

 “The adoption of an 'organic' perspective can greatly enrich our understanding of language acquisition and use. Without this perspective, our understanding of other dimensions of language such as the notion of 'grammaticality' will be piecemeal and incomplete, as will any attempt at understanding and interpreting utterances in isolation from the contexts in which they occur. The organic metaphor sees second language acquisition more like growing a garden than building a wall. From such a perspective, learners do not learn one thing perfectly, one item at a time, but numerous things simultaneously (and imperfectly.) The linguistic flowers do not all appear at the same time, nor do they all grow at the same rate. Some even appear to wilt, for a time, before renewing their growth. The rate of growth is determined by a complex interplay of factors related to speech processing constraints. In textbooks, grammar is very often presented out of context. Learners are given isolated sentences, which they are expected to internalize through exercises involving repetition, manipulation, and grammatical transformation. These exercises are designed to provide learners with formal, declarative mastery, but unless they provide opportunities for learners to explore grammatical structures in context, they make the task of developing procedural skill—being able to use the language for communication—more difficult than it needs to be, because learners are denied the opportunity of seeing the systematic relationships that exist between form, meaning, and use. As teachers, we need to help learners see that effective communication involves achieving harmony between functional interpretation and formal appropriateness by giving them tasks that dramatize the relationship between grammatical items and the discourse contexts in which they occur. In genuine communication beyond the classroom, grammar and context are often so closely related that appropriate grammatical choices can only be made with reference to the context and purpose of the communication.” (21)

 

Benefits of conventional teaching methods/limitations of Organic Learning

So have language teachers been getting it wrong all this time? How is it that so few have seen the light of ‘organic learning?’ Well, to be fair, there are many benefits of more traditional, structured, rote learning tasks. The primary one (in my opinion) being that they are efficient at developing foundational knowledge. This is especially true with larger, beginner-level students. Organic learning is not a magic bullet and it does come with its drawbacks. Due to its less than efficient effect in foundational learning with basic grammatical structures and grammar, fruition takes longer. Some courses with time constraints or specific objectives (such as preparation for TOEIC/TOEFL exams) would be not very conducive with this type of approach. It can also be frustrating for the beginner student in that much of what is learned is built on other ( yet to be learned) knowledge. Another potential weakness of ‘organic learning’ is that there is more reliance on the attitude and effort of the students. It’s great if you have students that are eager to learn and contribute to the class as a whole, but frustrating if you have students intent on doing the bare minimum. For this model to work well, the students have to rise to the occasion. As a teacher you can set the stage and encourage, but in the end, the students must care enough to make it happen. They have to meet you halfway.

 

How I utilize Organic Learning in my ESL classes

To be clear, as a university ESL teacher, I do not approach my classes in a cavalier, discombobulated, or unstructured fashion, depending solely on the whims and wants of the students, all in the name of ‘organic learning’. On the contrary, I utilize most traditional style language exercises to some degree in every class. I still have an icebreaker, a clear introduction of the topic, drills, especially if the tasks are collaborative and student-centered. Most of my classes have a textbook. Whether it be a grammar, writing, or conversation class, I find that students (in Japan at least) like to have the structure a good textbook provides and something tangible. Along with the textbook, I walk into each class with an outline and the key objectives I intend to target and hopefully achieve.

I believe there are many different ways to introduce and stimulate organic learning without having to completely revolutionize traditional ESL teaching practices.  Conventional exercise types can, with a slight twist, be brought into harmony with this approach, particularly if they are introduced into the classroom as natural and collaborative tasks. My utilization of ‘organic learning’ borders on the subtle side, mostly appearing in the impromptu, unscripted moments any language class will find itself in. Perhaps the lesson point is not in the text, nor planned, but I can still hit all the essential skills and introduce a valuable learning point with the new focus. Though this does necessitate flexibility on both the part of the teacher and students and the conscious choice for all those in the classroom (including the teacher) to be in the ever state of readiness, it makes for a much more stimulating, fun, and constructive class.

 

Organic Learning principles I effectuate include:

• In each class, I make it of the utmost importance to create an environment in which there is no fear of failure. Zero errors equals zero learning.
• I encourage experimentation and exploration of grammar, vocabulary and downplay the need for grammatical accuracy.
• The classes are student-centered. I rarely employ a lecture-based teaching style; pair and group work are primarily used.
• I harness the students’ need and eagerness for socialization and communication and use it as the prime driver of the class.
• I make sure I understand the dynamic of each class and identify what truly interests (and excites) that particular group of students, tailoring the classes accordingly.
• I create a forum in which the need for communication and expression will bring about enhanced fluency and natural questions regarding contextual vocabulary and grammar.
• I emphasize the ‘doing’ part in my classes. A slogan I ingrain into my students’ educational philosophy is “practice makes perfect.”

 

Some examples

To illustrate my methodology, let me share two examples from classes I recently taught.  

A lower-intermediate oral communication class

During the icebreaker segment of the class, I noticed one of my (Japanese) students wearing a sweatshirt that had the word ‘sophisticated’ emblazoned on it in big bold letters.

Note: Often in Japan, for some odd reason, shirts have the most random English words and expressions on them. More times than not, the wearer has no clue as to the meaning of what the word actually means.

Wonderful! An opportunity to learn a useful word. I asked the student donning the

 shirt to stand up with me in front of the class and had the students repeat the word “sophisticated” all together as I wrote the word on the the board. “Does anybody know the meaning of the word sophisticated?” The students had no idea; just as I had anticipated. I then started giving them hints by using various examples written on the board:

“The iPhone is a very sophisticated device.”

“Nowadays, cars are very sophisticated.”

“My teacher is a very sophisticated person.”

Note: I believe it is imperative for the teacher NOT to just give out answers easily, such as offering the translated meaning of a word. Rather, the teacher should view these questions (situations) for what they are, i.e. golden opportunities to go through the necessary process of learning and discovery. Students should not be deprived of the satisfaction of working towards the answer and having that special ‘aha’ moment. I find it is in these magic times that deeper processing, understanding, and storage occur. It is one of the key reasons ‘organic learning’ is so effective as a learning method.

Once the students understood the word, I extended it into a pair-work fluency exercise by having students talk about their favorite sophisticated devices, changing partners every few minutes. The whole exercise from discovery to end took about 15 minutes. 

If I had just extracted the word from the textbook or randomly written the word ‘sophisticated’ on the board, and went about teaching it, I believe it wouldn’t have nearly had the same impact it did coming up ‘naturally’ in class. I find that one variation can make a huge difference in a student’s eagerness to learn the word, process it, understand it, and be able to retain it over time.

 

A lower-intermediate writing class

Another ‘organic learning’ opportunity appeared in the icebreaker of a writing class in the afternoon, when a student was trying to explain to the class that she had been walking her dog when an earthquake occurred the evening before. Perfect! Another chance to ‘organically’ learn a difficult grammatical structure.

Note: For ESL students in Japan, the past continuous structure is generally viewed as an abstruse grammatical form, something to only be used in answering test questions. One of the biggest issues for ESL students is understanding the relationship between form and function. It’s one thing to teach students to choose the appropriate grammatical structures for an exam, but it’s completely another to have them to utilize the more complex grammatical forms with the goal of a communicative ends.

As the student struggled to explain her situation, I wrote both parts of her sentence on the board.

“Walk my dog.”

“An earthquake occurred.”

I then instructed the students (in pairs) to think of the proper grammatical structure needed to form a complete sentence and write the answer out together. Afterward, I solicited responses. Then as a class, I had the students explore the ‘past continuous’ by writing examples on the board (using a timeline,) doing quick drills, and having them discuss (in alternating pair-work) what they were doing when the earthquake occurred (using the past continuous as the main structure.) From beginning to end, the whole exercise took about 20 minutes and was a complete success. This grammatical structure was not on my outline that day, but because it was contextually relevant, sparked interest in the students, and was an important grammatical form (that students notoriously struggle with,) I pounced on the opportunity. Judging from the review portion at the end of class, I can confidently say that the 20-minute detour we took as a class went a long way in   illuminating for my students what years of rote grammatical study had not. And what was the difference? Organic learning. Suddenly, this grammatical structure had ‘real’ value, facilitating ‘real’ communication in a ‘real’ situation. The students went from being performers of an action to using the grammatical structure as a tool. Not only were they finally able to see the usefulness of the structure, but it also helped reinforce the far-reaching idea that different grammatical forms allow them to express different meanings. I believe if the communicative value of more sophisticated structures are not made evident to students, they will end up regarding them as mere obstacles, something only to be studied for a test. True understanding and ability to utilize the more complex structures will never take place.

 

Conclusion

Fittingly, my journey (from discovery to successful implementation) of ‘organic learning’ has been a genuinely ‘organic’ one. It is not the result of a conscious decision to implement a new approach; rather, it is the product of an evolution of trial and error that has taken place slowly over the years. On paper, the contrast between my classes (then and now) is ostensibly minimal. The critical difference lies in the philosophy that “learning comes from within.”

In my paper, I have asserted that even though there are indeed benefits to conventional linear, form-focus pedological practices, it is imperative that we look at language acquisition as an organic learning experience that involves dynamic factors such as culture, cognitive styles, prior learning experiences, learning strategy preferences, and personal interests. ‘Organic learning’ embraces the idea of language as a communication tool and involves the understanding of how all the pieces of an entire concept work together, as opposed to a piecemeal approach. Through a vast range of linguistic and experiential contexts, my students are encouraged to learn by ‘doing’ and obtaining authentic knowledge as they need it.

As a teacher with thousands of hours of classroom experience, no one would agree more with the adage that there is “no royal road to learning,” but I do believe there are ‘better’ ways to educate. Learning does not have to be unpleasant; it can be pleasurable and fulfilling when approached as a vehicle for pedagogical exploration. All it takes is an open mind, a willingness to be flexible, and the ability for the teacher to tap into the students’ natural learning processes. I find that once this is achieved, the learning experience is engaging, constructive, and will resonate long after the teacher’s work is done.

 

Endnotes

(1)Robillard, Jason, 2010, Organic Versus Synthetic Learning: A Synopsis, viewed 03 March, 2019<http://hs-survival.blogspot.com/2010/11/organic-versus-synthetic-learning.html>

(2) Tomlinson, Stephen, 1997, Edward Lee Thorndike and John Dewey on the Science of Education, The Oxford Review (abstract), viewed on 07 March, 2019 <    https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249005217_Edward_Lee_Thorndike_and_John_Dewey_on_the_Science_of_Education>

(3) Morrison, Debbie, 2017, Is Learning Scientific or Organic? Online Learning Insights, viewed on 07 March, 2019<

https://onlinelearninginsights.wordpress.com/2014/02/06/is-learning-scientific-or-organic/>

(4) Tomlinson, Stephen, 1997, Edward Lee Thorndike and John Dewey on the Science of Education, The Oxford Review (abstract,) viewed on 07 March, 2019 <    https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249005217_Edward_Lee_Thorndike_and_John_Dewey_on_the_Science_of_Education>

(5) Morrison, Debbie, 2017, Is Learning Scientific or Organic? Online Learning Insights, viewed on 07 March, 2019

 https://onlinelearninginsights.wordpress.com/2014/02/06/is-learning-scientific-or-organic/>

(6) Tomlinson, Stephen. 1997.  Edward Lee Thorndike and John Dewey on the Science of Education. Vol. 23, No. 23, pp.365-383, viewed on 09 March, 2019 <

https://www.jstor.org/stable/1050962?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents>

(7) Spanella, Theresa, 2018, John Dewey on Education: Theory and Philosophy, viewed on 09 March, 2019< https://study.com/academy/lesson/john-dewey-on-education-theory-philosophy-quiz.html>

(8) Spanella, Theresa, 2018, John Dewey on Education: Theory and Philosophy, viewed on 09 March, 2019< https://study.com/academy/lesson/john-dewey-on-education-theory-philosophy-quiz.html>

(9) Spanella, Theresa, 2018, John Dewey on Education: Theory and Philosophy, viewed on 10 March, 2019<

https://study.com/academy/lesson/john-dewey-on-education-theory-philosophy-quiz.html>

(10) Singer, Alan, 2017, What I Know About Teaching And Learning (With Apologies To John Dewey,) viewed on 16 March, 2019 <

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/what-i-know-about-teaching-and-learning-with-apologies_us_59ad2844e4b0d0c16bb52677>

(11) Tomlinson, Stephen, 1997, Edward Lee Thorndike and John Dewey on the Science of Education, The Oxford Review (abstract,) viewed on 07 March, 2019 <

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249005217_Edward_Lee_Thorndike_and_John_Dewey_on_the_Science_of_Education>

(12) Friesen, Norm, 2013, MOOCS, (e) learning & Institutional Learning, viewed on 16 March, 2019

https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/nfriesen/e-learning-and-institutional-learning>

(13)  Morrison James, 2005, Implementing Organic Education: An Interview With Hugh Osborn, viewed on 22 January 2020, < https://www.researchgate.net/publication/255639199_Implementing_Organic_Education_An_Interview_with_Hugh_Osborn>

(14) Morrison James, 2005, Implementing Organic Education: An Interview With Hugh Osborn, viewed on 22 January 2020,< https://www.researchgate.net/publication/255639199_Implementing_Organic_Education_An_Interview_with_Hugh_Osborn>

(15)Stephen Krashen's Theory of Second Language Acquisition, viewed on 18 March, 2019

https://www.sk.com.br/sk-krash-english.html

(16) Rhalmi Mohammed, 2018, The Natural Approach, viewed on 19 March, 2019

https://www.myenglishpages.com/blog/natural-approach/>

(17) Neubauer, Diane, 2014, Summary of Stephen Krashen’s Theory of Second Language Acquisition, viewed on 19 March, 2019

http://tprsforchinese.blogspot.com/2014/02/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-zh-cn.html>

(18) Stephen Krashen's Theory of Second Language Acquisition, viewed on 18 March, 2019

https://www.sk.com.br/sk-krash-english.html

(19) Nunan, David, 1998, Teaching Grammar in Context, ELT Journal, Vol. 52, Issue 2, April 1998, Pages 101–109, viewed on 20 March, 2019 http://lenguasvivas.org/campus/files/0_28/teachinggrammarincontext.pdf>

(20) Nunan, David, 1998, Teaching Grammar in Context, ELT Journal, Vol. 52, Issue 2, April 1998, Pages 101–109, viewed on 20 March, 2019

http://lenguasvivas.org/campus/files/0_28/teachinggrammarincontext.pdf>

(21) Nunan, David, 1998, Teaching Grammar in Context, ELT Journal, Vol. 52, Issue 2, April 1998, Pages 101–109, viewed on 20 March, 2019<

http://lenguasvivas.org/campus/files/0_28/teachinggrammarincontext.pdf>

 

Please check the NLP and Coaching for the English Classroom course at Pilgrims website.

Please check the How to Motivate Your Students course at Pilgrims website.