# data[].attributes.headline
Cognitive Load Theory for Emergent Bilingual Learners

# data[].attributes.subject
Cognitive Load Theory for Emergent Bilingual Learners

# data[].attributes.body
This article does a great job of introducing a theory that might aid in helping your future emergent bilingual students! It explains cognitive load theory, what it does, and how to apply it. Main points are:

1. There are two types of memory: Working and long-term memory.

2. Cognitive load theory says that the working memory has limited amount of space, which when overwhelmed, can affect learning.

3. Cognitive overload stops a student from learning.

4. Using schemata can help reduce overload by transferring information from working to long-term memory.

5. Schemata are when new information can be categorized into previously learned information effectively.

These are only some great points found throughout the website. I would recommend reading the rest to see how to incorporate it into your future classroom.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Chris Parker

When teaching ESL, every teacher wants their students to learn English quickly, so it makes sense when new teachers try to provide their students with as much information as possible during lessons. However, regardless of how ambitious you are as a teacher, your students can only remember so much of what you teach them. One way to get around this obstacle is to use cognitive load theory to your advantage. By presenting information in strategic ways, you can make life easier for both your students and yourself.

What is cognitive load theory?

Cognitive load theory (CLT) is based on the concept that your students have two different cognitive functions: one that processes new information, which is called working memory, and one that stores information as long-term memory. The brain can only process so much information at once between these two functions, and new information can be lost and not stored in memory if the brain is overloaded and processing too many things at once.

Working memory vs. long-term memory

Working memory - this is short-term memory where your students briefly remember information they've just learned minutes before but haven't yet stored that information as long-term memories to recall it later.

Long-term memory - this contains the information that your students can remember long after a lesson, even days, weeks, months, or years down the line. The brain has organized this information, which allows your students to store it for longer periods.

The brain can only take in as much as the seat can endure
W.S.Churchill

How can CLT help me as a teacher?

CLT argues that your students have a limited amount of working memory (short-term memory) available and a limited capacity to store long-term memory as well. Using this theory, you can change how you present your information to your students so that they don't experience cognitive overload, which is when their brain stops storing information because it's overloaded with too much already.

CLT can be used to help your students use both their working memory and long-term memory more efficiently. This means that you'll be spending less time repeating things and wondering why your students aren't remembering what you've taught them and more time moving on to the next topic, as your students can learn and remember new concepts more easily and quickly.

What are the benefits of reducing cognitive load?

Reducing your students' cognitive load can help in the following ways:

Improves memorization of new concepts

Enhances comprehension of information

Maintains student interest in new topics

English taught is acquired more quickly

Makes your job as a teacher much easier

Using schemata to reduce cognitive load

When your students receive new information, they use schemata to then convert that new information into long-term memory. Schemata are the different ways that the brain organizes information, which makes it easier for it to be recalled later. This also helps to reduce cognitive load, as your students don't have to think as hard about something to remember it.

An example of this would be if you were to store and recall the word "toad" by remembering that it rhymes with a word you already know, such as "road." Another example would be how your brain might remember the word "blue" by associating it with the sky or water and thinking about these things when trying to recall the word.

Strategies to reduce cognitive load

As an ESL teacher, you can use the following strategies to reduce your students' cognitive load:

Use chunking to present new information

Chunking is taking bits of new information and putting them into groups so they're easier to remember. Think of these groups as categories, which helps to break down information into smaller bits while creating associations between words.

An example of this would be if you were teaching your students about modes of transportation, and instead of simply naming different modes, which can be difficult to remember, you group them based on their characteristics.

You would group land modes (e.g. cars, trains, etc.) by presenting them first and purposely telling your students that they all use land. You would then present modes that use the air in a group (e.g. airplanes, helicopters, etc.), and then aquatic modes (e.g. boats, submarines, etc.).

Research shows that chunking helps students retain and recall new information more easily, though it also shows that learners can only recall about three to five chunks at a time, and knowing this can help you predict student mistakes if you know that they'll have to recall more than three to five groups at a time.
Tip: use broader categories as chunks
You should therefore consider chunking all information you present to your students and plan your lessons out to include only three to five chunks. If you have a lot of information to cover that won't fit in three to five chunks, you should consider using larger chunks instead.

Categorize the information into larger, broader categories if you need to, and always remember to explain to students why each word or concept falls into a specific category (e.g. "The car goes in the land category because it has wheels.")

Activate prior knowledge

Students learn better when they can use what they already know as support to better comprehend new concepts. Long-term knowledge of information, also known as prior knowledge, lasts longer than the type of short-term knowledge that's stored temporarily in working memory.

You'll therefore want your students to activate and use this as much as possible, and the best way for you as a teacher to do this is to build associations between new information and older, stored information.

You should think about what your students already know, whether it's something you've taught them in a previous lesson or something they've learned in their everyday life. A simple example of this would be if you were to carry out a discussion about a previous topic and then use similarities between that topic and a new one to introduce the new one.

Benefits of activating prior knowledge
Activating prior knowledge offers two main benefits:

Helps build associations
Schemata help your students remember and recall information, and by building associations between what students know and what they're currently learning, you're giving them a framework that they can use to build schemata (e.g. recalling something more easily by thinking about something associated with it.)

Reduces cognitive load
The cognitive load of having to remember new information can be lightened by making it easier for the brain to retrieve that information. Prior knowledge is easier for your students to recall than new information. Once stored information is associated with new information, your students will expend less cognitive energy trying to remember the new information.

Use imaginative activities

To strengthen long-term memory, you should teach your students to remember things using schemata in their brains rather than simply relying on visual, auditory, or other associations. Students learn in different ways and things like text, audio, and video can all help support that learning in the beginning but should serve as temporary scaffolding that's eventually removed.

Your students need to learn to remember and recall things on their own, without being able to use these things for support. Long-term memories are strengthened through visualization and imagination, so simply asking your students to imagine things or think about them can help transfer information from working memory to long-term memory. This is a great way to develop automaticity in your students, which is the ability to recall or perform things without thinking much about them.

Tip: have students visualize concepts without support
To encourage your students' imagination, you can slowly remove the temporary support they're using, whether it's text in a book or images associated with words. After your students can recall information with these supportive aids, remove them and ask your students to recall or use the information using just their memory. You can also use imagination-based worksheets to encourage this.

Eliminate extraneous cognitive load

The three different types of cognitive load can be defined as:

Intrinsic cognitive load - the amount of mental processing your students direct toward a topic or problem.

Germane cognitive load - the amount of mental processing your students use to turn working memory into long-term memory.

Extraneous cognitive load - the amount of mental processing your students direct to things not related to the topic or problem at hand.

Tips for eliminating extraneous cognitive load
Extraneous cognitive load can negatively affect your students' learning, so your focus should be to remove it completely by presenting your information to students in a simpler way, giving them less to think about.

You can eliminate this type of cognitive load by doing the following:

Make all instructions as clear as possible

Ensure that students can access resources

Leave out any non-essential information

Write all words in an easy-to-read way

Remove all distractions from the room

Number steps to reduce students' stress

Parting advice: always consider emotional load as well

When your students are worried about something or experiencing stress, this emotional load can have a major impact on their cognitive load because they're thinking about things unrelated to learning (i.e. extraneous cognitive load). While numbering steps was suggested as one way of countering this because it can make certain processes less intimidating, you should continue to think of other ways that you can eliminate unnecessary stress in the classroom to reduce cognitive load and enhance learning.

Leave a comment

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Use Cognitive Load Theory to Improve Your (ESL) Teaching

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
An article discussing the theory of cognitive load and how it affects student learning, as well as tips for using it to your advantage in an ESL classroom

# data[].attributes.body
This slideshow provides excellent information on Cognitive Load Theory in a straightforward way. However, some videos are no longer available, so watch the other videos on this Padlet! Here are the main ideas from this resource:

1. Reduce redundant information in the classroom.

2. Learning requires that working memory be engaged.

3. Germane cognitive load helps process, construct, and automate schemas.

4. Intrinsic cognitive load is the "difficulty" associated with learning a new idea.

5. Extraneous cognitive load is how that idea is presented or taught.

As mentioned before, this slideshow explains the three categories of cognitive load: germane, extraneous, and intrinsic. I definitely recommend going through the slideshow as it offers a lot of information about the cognitive load theory.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Download Presentation

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
PPT - The Cognitive Load Theory PowerPoint Presentation, free download - ID:3459785

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Cognitive Load Theory. "A theory that focuses the load on working memory during instruction." John Sweller. Overview. Slideshow 3459785 by parker

# data[].attributes.headline
Strategies that can make instruction fun and informative for your Emergent Bilingual Learners

# data[].attributes.subject
Strategies that can make instruction fun and informative for your Emergent Bilingual Learners

# data[].attributes.body
This article gives great advice on how to format your instruction to best meet ALL learners. This can make learning less stressful and accommodate various student needs.The main strategies noted in this article include:

1. Adding technology to instruction

2. Using visual aids

3. Making the classroom inclusive

4. Build vocabulary and use basic language

In summary, this article details how to prevent cognitive overload in emergent bilingual students.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
BridgeUniverse - TEFL Blog, News, Tips & Resources

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
10 Strategies to Help Struggling English Language Learners - BridgeUniverse - TEFL Blog, News, Tips & Resources

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Looking for ways to help struggling English language learners be successful in your classroom? Explore these 10 strategies to support your students and improve learning outcomes.

# data[].attributes.headline
Interesting Research About Speech and Cognitive Overload

# data[].attributes.subject
Interesting Research About Speech and Cognitive Overload

# data[].attributes.body
This research report from the University of California details how when a person is under cognitive load, speech can sound faster than it is. This can potentially affect how Bilingual Emergent students learn and perceive speech. Additionally, when under cognitive stress, it is more difficult to encode, or write down, incoming speech. This research may help in the classroom by having a teacher take into account that stress can impact how spoken language is perceived to an emergent bilingual student.

# data[].attributes.headline
Symptoms and Categories of Cognitive Overload

# data[].attributes.subject
Symptoms and Categories of Cognitive Overload

# data[].attributes.body
While searching for symptoms of cognitive overload in students, I found this blog that details the different types of overload and the symptoms that may occur from cognitive overload in students. You may have to scroll down to find the symptoms, but I have also listed some below:

1. Anxiety

2. Difficulty focusing

3. Decrease in motivation

4. Confusion

Although this article gives symptoms of cognitive overload, it is also a great resource for explaining what cognitive overload is.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What Is Cognitive Overload: How To Spot The Signs And Prevent It In Your Classroom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Cognitive overload occurs when demands in memory exceed its capacity. Using these strategies in your teaching can reduce and prevent it.

# data[].attributes.headline
Research on Cognitive Overload in an Online Classroom with Focus on Emergent Bilingual Learners.

# data[].attributes.subject
Research on Cognitive Overload in an Online Classroom with Focus on Emergent Bilingual Learners.

# data[].attributes.body
This research, done in Japan, details how cognitive overload can affect students in a regular classroom and an online classroom and how it can affect Emergent Bilingual Learners.

The main points in the article are:

1. Classes that were face-to-face performed better than classes online.

2. Implementing strategies to reduce cognitive overload can help improve performance in both face-to-face and online classes.

3. The article centers on classes where students are learning English.

While reading this article, it is important to consider that not all students in the online class got lower grades. In fact, some did better than those who were at in-person classes. This could suggest that cognitive overload affected students differently because of outside forces. Regardless, I believe this research is a great one to read.

# data[].attributes.headline
Details the Effects of Anxiety when it Comes to Language Learning in School

# data[].attributes.subject
Details the Effects of Anxiety when it Comes to Language Learning in School

# data[].attributes.body
This research asks questions about language learning and anxiety in the classroom. It talks about how students who have anxiety will struggle in their academic performance. That is because anxiety requires resources from working memory, which is unfavorable since working memory is central to learning new topics. In regards to ESL, anxiety can have a significant impact on language acquisition. Lastly, this research paper includes ways that an educator can reduce anxiety in the classroom.

# data[].attributes.headline
Video that gives a simple explanation of Cognitive Load Theory

# data[].attributes.subject
Video that gives a simple explanation of Cognitive Load Theory

# data[].attributes.body
In the video, it explains what Cognitive Load Theory is and how to use it to help our students.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Teaching Strategies: Cognitive Load Theory

# data[].attributes.body
If you're a visual learner like me, you might need a visual for Cognitive Load Theory. This picture above does a great job of simplifying it. I recommend reading the other resources provided on this Padlet before looking at this picture. That way, you can put it all together. I will also provide the link if you need to zoom into the picture. Link: IQ's Corner: Nice visual graphic of cognitive load theory (iqscorner.com)

# data[].attributes.headline
A More In-Depth Video on Cognitive Load Theory

# data[].attributes.subject
A More In-Depth Video on Cognitive Load Theory

# data[].attributes.body
The video above delves more into the Cognitive Load Theory and how to use it in the classroom for all students.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Cognitive Load Theory (Definition + Examples)

# data[].attributes.headline
Cognitive Load Theory for Language Acquisition

# data[].attributes.subject
Cognitive Load Theory for Language Acquisition

# data[].attributes.body
This article, from the founder of CLT himself, details the benefits of CLT when it comes to learning a new language. It explains the process and why that process works. I highly recommend that you read it.