Monthly Archives: March 2010

Changing Habits, Creating Positive Habits

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This is another post on habits, this time focusing on changing habits. In an earlier post, I looked at automaticity (especially habits). They are important not only for the way they can facilitate or block efforts to work towards goals, but also because what we do or don’t do has a great coloring influence on how we assess what kind of a person we are.

In this post I’d like to look a little at habit change and the formation of positive habits. As you know if you’ve read my other postings on habits and motivation, habits are notoriously difficult to change. There seems to be a sequence of stages associated with habit change according to Prochaska in his  Transtheoretical Model. In addition, a change in habit usually requires great focused effort and/or changes in the environment that cues the habitual response. Thus, changing bad habits requires identifying them, understanding the environmental cues for the behavior, attending to them, taking some sort of action to either avoid the cue or control the response, and continuing to self-monitor for as long as is necessary to cement the behavioral change. It’s a lot to ask of a person so it makes sense that you really have to want to make the change to accomplish it and it requires considerable cognitive resources.

But not all habit management consists of breaking bad habits. For learning, especially learning with technology, the establishment of positive habits should be an explicit goal. A new environment offers a unique opportunity to establish learning-positive behaviors, one that should be seized. Loeher and Schwartz in their 2003 book The Power of Full Engagement refer to this process as establishing positive rituals.

“Positive energy rituals are powerful on three levels. They help us to insure that we effectively manage energy in the service of whatever mission we are on. They reduce the need to rely on our limited conscious will and discipline to take action. Finally, rituals are a powerful means by which to translate our values and priorities into action–to embody what matters most to us in our everyday behaviors” (pg. 166).

In the last few years, implementation intentions have been suggested as a reasonably successful means of establishing positive new  habits (certainly much more effective than just positive intentions).  Implementation intentions are specific action plans that clearly identify the timing, environment and action for behavioral goals (Gollwitzer & Schaal, 1998). By linking an action with time cues and environmental cues connections are created. These time and place connections later serve to trigger the desired action. In their program, Loeher and Schwartz emphasize specificity of timing and precision of behavior for a thirty to sixty-day acquisition period. Gollwitzer, Wieber, Myers, & McCrea (2010)  describe the benefits of using implementation intentions, which they say can go a long way to bring about a “medium to large” improvement in goal achievement (though with some personality types not benefiting as much). They stress the need to make implementation intention statements as specific as possible by making if-then statements (If situation Y arises, then I will initiate behavior Z) to highlight what specific action must be taken under what specific circumstances–the when, where, and how a person intends to realize a goal.

Changing habits and establishing effective new ones can be an effective route toward more successful learning or training. Particularly regarding language learning in Japan we can find many bad habits that need to be addressed and many learners who are in need of more effective learning behaviors. As learners begin to do do more of their language learning in front of a computer or via hand-held devices instead of in rows in classrooms, an opportunity is presenting itself for real change.

Wireless Ready 4 and Learning In Hand

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For the last few years I’ve attended the always-interesting  Wireless Ready conferences organized by Michael Thomas at Nagoya University of Commerce.  As you would expect from a conference on educational technology, each year there are presentations on new technology and novel uses for it.  This year, however, frustration with difficulties in getting (particularly Japanese) learners to more actively make use of Internet and related technology resources–and to learn more actively in general–was palpable in several presentations I attended. Over the past few years, many presenters had reported problems with getting learners to make use of technology or novel approaches to language learning but there was always an underlying sense of optimism and hope and excitement about new technology and the opportunities it afforded. This year you could almost hear the sound of impact into the wall (snowbank? swamp?) of realism.  Every presenter seemed to take pains to point out that technology is only as good as its educational design and implementation. Games featured big this year. Hayo Reinders spoke on the challenges and potential advantages of using them. Darren Elliott interviewed him right after his presentation and you can hear what he had to say here.

At past Wireless Ready conferences, there were lots of presentations about using podcasting, but this yearit seems excitement about podcasting has declined, judging from the number of presentations on that topic. Well, just in time for this cooling off I recently learned (via  a newsletter from Tony Bates) of a website devoted to making use of ipods for education. It’s called Learning in Hand and I think it is a good example of a shift toward a focus on pedagogy even as the gleam of novelty lessens.

March Treasure Hunt: Video for Self Access

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Here is a list of good video sites that could be used for self access by learners.

First is Randall’s Cyber Listening Lounge. I think many people are familiar with this site for listening practice, but recently Randall Davis, who manages the site and the content, has added some videos for culture learning. As with the other activities on the site, the content is well organized and there are activities to promote learning. Much of the video content itself is not really exciting, but it often is connected to other listening content on the site, making it very useful for lower-level learners.

English for All is another well-organized site with high quality videos (maybe too high in quality, and the large file sizes sometimes cause streaming problems). But there are twenty lessons on different life skills with a variety of activities. You can register as a teacher and create a “classroom” for your learners and monitor their progress. The site is probably more appropriate for college learners or adults.

Real English has a large number of videos especially appropriate for lower level learners and younger learners. You’ll find videos connected to many of the topics in language learning textbooks here (greetings, directions, etc.) . I think the site might be a good place to send learners for a little controlled real world listening practice.

And I’ve  introduced it before, but my favorite video site at the moment is English Central. Great for listening and pronunciation practice. New features are being added regularly.