Alhexia Carolina Ucares Millan

3/6/2020
The Powerpuff Principles

After reading the fourth chapter of the marvelous work from Douglas Brown,

Teaching by Principles,​ of course my teaching vision expanded a lot; however, as human we

tend to relate to some things according to our personality, our beliefs and our likes. Even

though all the principles were absolutely useful and interesting, I particularly agreed with

three ones: Automaticity, Meaningful Learning, and Intrinsic Motivation.

The first one is the most amazing one for me. Stated by Brown: “subconscious

absorption of language through meaningful use” (p. 64). In other words, the Automaticity

consists of the learners capacity of acquiring language without even thinking about it. This

principle could be supported by Chomsky’s theory of Language Acquisition Device,

proposed in the 1960s. Since it doesn’t focuses on grammar, it’s more probable that the user

can attain fluency and efficiency over the target language. What I find magnificent is the

ability of human brain for keeping a great part of the input and processing it while the subject

is performing an activity. That last part leads us to the next principle.

Meaningful Learning is all about Constructivism. In words of Brown, it is the

subsume of “new information into existing structures and memory systems, and the resulting

associative links create stronger reflection” (p. 65). It is like if our brain were like a big shelf

full of folders; where would we put a new file in if there were no folders related to its

content? Nowhere. Exactly the same happens to us: if we don’t have any related information

to the new one we’re perceiving, we’re not going to remember anything. That’s why

language has to be taught meaningfully: if we get to know our learners, we can figure out

what kind of folders exist in their mind shelves.

Lastly, Intrinsic Motivation. Douglas Brown rightly said that “The most powerful

rewards are those that are intrinsically motivated within the learner” (p.68). This has a lot to
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do with our likes and self-gratification. It’s way easier to develop this kind of motivation

when your goals are clear and realistic: for example, that student that goes to school happily

to study Japanese because he wants to understand what his favorite series say, or that girl

who really puts an effort on Italian because she’s an art lover and dreams about traveling.

Intrinsic Motivation is the reason why learners want to add the target language to their lives,

and it is a crucial part of learning: the beginning of everything.

In conclusion, it was hard to choose only three, but I think these are the most

important ones: Automaticity, for showing the astonishing capacity of human brain,

Meaningful Learning, for reminding that even knowledge is ruled by hierarchy, and Intrinsic

Motivation, for suggesting that we are not only minds, but also souls.
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3/6/2020
References

Brown, H. D. (1994). Chapter 4. Teaching by Principles. In H. D. Brown (Ed.), ​Teaching by

Principles​ (Ed. rev., pp. 64–68). Recuperado de

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Rf6ml2PEwj2Q89Kt8W9Sq6Q9WxcAtZTI&auth

user=0