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In a learner-centered classroom, learning experiences are related to learners’ own out-of-class experiences.

The American psychologist David Pearson said that learning is a process of building bridges between what we already know and what we need to learn. This is the basis of the experiential approach to education. We begin with the learners’ own experiences, with what they already know, and we find ways to ‘hook’ new learning onto this pre-existing knowledge.

In a learner-centered classroom, learners take responsibility for their own learning. We tend to think that this is fine for adults, but is not feasible for children. This is not true. The educator Gene Bedley once said that whenever we do something for children that they could do for themselves we are taking away from them an opportunity to learn self-responsibility and independence.

In my own work, I have found that children as young as eleven can begin to take control of their own learning. In a learner-centered classroom, learners are engaged in their own learning. If they are not engaged, it is unlikely that they will learn. If you spend time in pre-school classrooms (and I strongly recommend that you do, regardless of the age level you teach or plan to teach) it will be easy to see when a child is disengageD) He or she will simply get up and wander away.

In a learner-centered classroom, learners are involved in making decisions about what to learn, how to learn, and how to be assesseD) Teaching and learning are in harmony, and the educational enterprise is a collaborative process between the teacher and the learner. Learners are active participants in their own learning, rather than passive objects to be manipulateD) In a learner-centered classroom, there are two sets of goals: language goals and learning goals.

In a language classroom, of course, we have language goals. Why have learning goals? The answer is that most learners do not come into the classroom with skills and knowledge to make informed decisions about what to learn, how to learn, and how to be assesseD) They need to learn these skills, and to be sensitized to their own preferred ways of learning.

In a learner-centered classroom, the strategies underlying the pedagogical tasks in which learners are engaged will be made transparent. All tasks are underpinned by one or more strategies. Learners are more likely to incorporate these into their language learning if they know what they are and how they can be used.

Source: NUNAN, DaviD) Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages: An introduction. [s.l.]: Routledge, 2015. (Adapted)

In the sentence: “If they are not engaged, it is unlikely that they will learn”, what is the function of the underlined connective?