Needs Analysis & Self-Assessment (NASA) for ALL (Autonomous Language Learning)

A NASA module to promote ALL and enhance teamwork �by María del Carmen Arau Ribeiro, Instituto Politécnico da Guarda (IPG)

A CORALL Partnership Production

Coaching-oriented

Online

Resources for the

Autonomous

Learning of

Languages for Specific Purposes

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https://corallprojecteu.wixsite.com/presentation�Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships for Higher Education �2019-1-HU01-KA203-061070

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author of the NASA for ALL module

… and special advisors

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Instituto Politécnico da Guarda, IPG

[Polytechnic Institute of Guarda]

Portugal

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… and other participating students

in these IPG courses:

Computer Engineering

Cyber Security

Software Development

Data Analysis

Auto Repair & Maintenance

María del Carmen

Arau Ribeiro

Erika

Alves Evangelista

Components of the Module

Needs Analysis & Self Assessment for ALL (Autonomous Language Learning)

General Background of CORALL

Introduction to the Module (MO if you prefer a Word document): Key Performance Areas (KPAs) and SMART(ER) goals

A selection of warm-ups (your choice before each sub-module) → dark blue � Your responsibility on the Resilience Spectrum - Learner as social agent - Confirmation bias

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color guide

yellow M1: QUIET (Susan Cain)

�aqua M2: Index of Learning Styles (ILS - Richard Felder and Barbara Soloman)

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green M3: The Five-factor Personality Test (OCEAN/CANOE)

red and the DISC Personality Test (Kevin Eikenberry)

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sand M4: The Wholehearted Inventory (Brené Brown)

white and the 5 Love Languages (Gary Chapman)

NASA for ALL

The introduction and instructions in MO reveal� THREE ongoing activities:

1. Before each activity, do a warm-up �of your choice.
2. Consider KPAs and SMART(ER) goals �for every colored step.
3. Enjoy what you do!

General Introduction

The CORALL Tools and Modules for ALL aim to help you become a full partner in your language learning. You will practice making informed choices and gradually take on more responsibility.

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As teachers, we hope to offer you intentional transparency to enhance your learner awareness and learner control. We will do this by allowing you time for reflection and providing a coaching attitude while teaching.

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Ironically, CORALL research has confirmed [is confirming] that autonomy is really more about INTERdependence (Little, Ridley, & Ushioda 2002: 7, my bold and caps) rather than working ALONE.

🡪 Whenever possible, do these activities with others and practice working with your colleagues to improve your skills as a team worker and as a team leader in preparation for your professional activity.

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Finally, please note that both autonomy and teamwork are only possible with a strong sense of active commitment.

Instructions for the Module NASA for ALL

This module on Needs Analysis & Self-Assessment provides an opportunity to (re)consider how you do things, which can include learning, interacting, behaving, and receiving expressions of appreciation.

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M1-M4 are based on known tools in Open Educational Resources (OER) that incorporate further analysis to engage you and your learning with meaningful self-assessment for your personal growth and development as a team player and/or leader. Each activity includes an added value for you, the learner, to compare and contrast your results with your personal experience and understanding of self.

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By establishing your KPAs (key performance areas/indicators, see next page for HOW TO…), you have the opportunity to move beyond your initial reaction (or even rejection) to find the relevance in your learning activities. Finally, as you put your reading into greater action, the RESET will build your resilience.

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How to find your KPAs/KPIs

When you find your key performance areas/indicators (KPA/KPI, adapted from Maurice Remmé, 2021) you will be able to learn more strategically. To be effective and meaningful, KPAs/KPIs - understood as your own measurable areas of strength - must be aligned with your strategic objectives. Follow these steps and notice the sample open-ended questions adapted here from a corporate context for personal language learning:

1 – Identify your own strategic objectives� → You could try seizing more opportunities to communicate or writing more often…

2 – Define the criteria to measure your success� → How about increasing your vocabulary or growing awareness of your errors?

3 – Develop key performance questions to guide your progress� → What is most important to you in learning a language? � → What do you hope to do with the language?

4 – Collect supporting data as evidence of your success� → Why not gather and annotate this data in a language learning portfolio or journal?

5 – Determine WHAT to measure and HOW FREQUENTLY to assess your progress� → Here you will want to be sure to guarantee that your goals are SMARTER.

Image source: https://www.deepthink.nl/how-to-write-kpis/

Setting SMART(ER) goals for each activity

• Specific - simple, significant, case-sensitive, supportive, sensible
• Measurable - motivating, meaningful
• Achievable - attainable, agreed upon
• Relevant - reasonable, realistic, resource-based, results-based
• Timely - time-based, time-limited, time/cost-limited, time-bound, time-sensitive

You can have fun thinking of other terms that reflect your SMART goals as we have done here. Notice however that, to prepare SMARTER goals, you need to (re-)assess your goals regularly…

• Evaluated
• Reviewed

Your SMART(ER) goals will recognize your KPAs (Key Performance Areas) as you apply your knowledge about yourself to action plans for effective results.

Beyond the KPAs that become clear to you from the test results, think about how you can actually affect change in your work habits and behavior…

Revealing a sustainable action plan for learning

A sustainable action plan for learning language will emerge as you become more adept at reviewing and updating your progress.

Remember that the process is iterative so you can actually do a warm-up at any time, just like you can re-assess your goals and what you are good at whenever you want.

Most of all, enjoy yourself! Find joy in supporting your growth and even the growth of those around you. If an activity feels tedious at first, remember that new habits require reinforcement so that, even when you feel like rejecting a new way of working, thinking, or behaving, you can take a moment to recognize that you can actually choose to experiment and engage with these significant learning activities and material. Perhaps the recognition that you do have volition as an autonomous language learner will give you greater inspiration to participate in guiding your learning. You can choose to reset and apply these opportunities in transformative learning to expand your growth mindset and accomplish more than you originally imagined. Become resilient like the other learners who have accepted the challenge!

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For each module – Transactivity & Coaching

A variety of warm ups�to use as you go…

• What is your role in collaborative autonomy?

→ the Resilience Spectrum

• The language user/learner as social agent
• Practice identifying confirmation bias

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Warm up: What is your role in collaborative autonomy?

Never before have learners had such unprecedented access to virtual interaction, experiences, and information along with the potential to create knowledge independently. What you do with that privilege is up to you.

On this 3R spectrum, set your own pace to reap the benefits of learning today. Remember that an iterative approach that respects your needs for interacting with knowledge, experience, and information over time will mean that each of the Rs below - reject/relevance/reset - will be part of building your resilience and learning to deal with greater responsibility.

Reflect on how you feel at each of these points on the Resilience Spectrum on your own and then with your team.

🡪 Share examples of moments when you have fit into different parts of the spectrum. �🡪 Invent and discuss other Rs to describe the way you deal with (new) types of learning.

Warm up: What is your role in collaborative autonomy?

Never before have learners had such unprecedented access to virtual interaction, experiences, and information along with the potential to create knowledge independently. What you do with that privilege is up to you.

On this 3R spectrum, set your own pace to reap the benefits of learning today. Remember that an iterative approach that respects your needs for interacting with knowledge, experience, and information over time will mean that each of the Rs below - reject/relevance/reset - will be part of building your resilience and learning to deal with greater responsibility.

Reflect on how you feel at each of these points on the Resilience Spectrum on your own and then with your team.

🡪 Share examples of moments when you have fit into different parts of the spectrum. �🡪 Invent and discuss other Rs to describe the way you deal with (new) types of learning.

Warm up: New vision of the CEFR Companion Volume (2018)

Language user/learner as social agent (CEFRCV, CoE) 🡪 interaction 🡪 mediation

You know the blue already…

The aqua values you in mediation…

The yellow involves you in interaction…

Warm-up: Beware of confirmation bias

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• It’s natural.
• We all do it!

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To counter this effect, you could try these activities…

• Process information without being defensive
• Listen carefully and ask questions. Lots of questions.
• Remember what you value most so that you will not be so easily convinced.
• Write out, sketch, or paint your own values regularly.
• Practice using unbiased language at YourDictionary. The singer shook their hair on stage.
• Try to avoid using hindsight bias, like I knew it! to boast that you have been proven right.
• (Add more of your own ideas here).

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NEW HABITS

• information
• activities
• reminders
• routines

What is it?

Image source: Verywell / Daniel Fishel

Warm-up: Where to find confirmation bias

Extremism in politics, religion, and culture (including science)

• Extremist language and behavior can influence you to see others as ignorant fools when you are better served by examining bias on all sides. When you “other-ize” you are letting sensationalism and fake news have more control in your life than your capacity to empathize and engage in conversation before drawing conclusions.

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Social media

• Posting and re-posting and likes all reinforce your pre-existing beliefs.
• Then to control “pollution”, you block/unsubscribe/unfollow what is offensive to you.
• The echo chamber you are creating effectively tells you again and again that you are right.

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Discrimination, prejudice, judging a book by its cover

• In your social context, you tend to pick up clues that you see that confirm your pre-existing sentiments (this is a bias). These clues then confirm your feelings about people that look or behave a certain way…  
• Think here about color, politics, accents, body shape and ability, age, social class…

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Warm-up: Where else can you find confirmation bias?

Filter bubbles (Be sure to POP these bubbles! See Eli Pariser, online democracy expert)

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• You can blame the algorithms of your search engine for your news feed and personalized ads but....

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Why not do something about it?

• Step out of your own circle of friends for a week.
• Use purpose and intention in your activities.
• Observe and interact with the people around you. Be curious.
• Get out of your comfort zone – Try doing things in a different way than you usually do.
• Learn how it feels to be uncomfortable, how to be the odd one out.
• Practice loving learning. Get more engaged. Ask more questions.
• Have high expectations and work hard.
• Talk to someone you have been avoiding.
• Become color brave instead of color blind (see Mellody Hobson, CEO, Ariel Investments).
• Be aware of your own preconceived ideas.
• Engage in conversation with people who have alternate views.
• Interpret the validity of new information using critical thinking.

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Warm-up: How to avoid confirmation bias

QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF REGULARLY WHEN CONSULTING A SOURCE

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• Do you usually read articles completely or come to a conclusion based on the headlines?
• What aspects of the information in this source speak to you and make you believe it is true?

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• Why do you feel you can trust the source of this information?
• Is this publication or site usually your only source of information?
• Do you get more than 50% of your daily/weekly reading and new information from this source?

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• How many of your colleagues, friends, or family have different views than yours?
• How do you react to different perspectives that contradict your own?
• Did you already have a formed opinion about this information?
• Does this information support or challenge your perspective?
• Have you considered that you might be wrong? What would that mean?

Warm-up: Discover other sources

• (2019) Factfulness: Ten reasons we’re wrong about the world� - and why things are better than you think

by Hans Rosling with Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Rönnlund

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• Use design thinking to find solutions over a greater range

https://www.designuni.eu/ 

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https://www.gapminder.org/

The Social Progress Index

https://www.socialprogress.org/ and Michael Green’s TED talks

QUIET: The power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking

A self-assessment tool created by Susan Cain (2012)

• Take the QUIET survey on the next page to work on your self-awareness.
• Record your results and consider the advantages of intro/extroversion.

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Some alternative activities

• Work with a partner or in groups to do this as a dictation.
• Try to translate the survey from English.
• Compare the survey with the original on the link (Cain 2012/2018) to understand the simplification of language for maximum communication.

The Quiet Survey (adapted by Arau Ribeiro from Susan Cain 2018)

Respond with TRUE or FALSE. Expect it to be difficult to choose but go with your natural tendencies.

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I like talking to a single person more than to a group.

I like writing more than talking.

I enjoy being alone.

I do not care about wealth, fame, or status.

I avoid small talk but I enjoy talking about topics that matter to me.

I do not usually take risks.

I do not usually like big parties.

I really like to “go down the rabbit hole” when I work.

People say that I’m a good listener.

People describe me as calm, soft-spoken or mellow.

I prefer to finish my work before discussing it with others.

I avoid conflict.

I avoid answering the phone so people will send a message instead.�

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I do my best work on my own.

I tend to think before I speak.

I feel drained after being out and about, even if I’ve enjoyed myself.

If I had to choose, I’d prefer a weekend with absolutely nothing to do to one with too many things scheduled.

I don’t enjoy multi-tasking.

I can concentrate easily.

In classroom situations, I prefer lectures to seminars.

• The greater the number of TRUE responses, the more introverted you may be.
• If you are an extrovert, you will have more responses that are FALSE.
• If your responses are practically even, you may be an ambivert.
• Note that the italicized statements are verbatim from Cain (2012). You can see the original questions online at https://nextbigideaclub.com/magazine/susan-cain-the-introvert-quiz-are-you-an-introvert-or-an-extrovert-and-why-does-it-matter/4319/

Overview of…

the ILS activities

link to extended activity

The ILS: Index of Learning Styles (and Strategies)

A self-assessment tool created by Richard Felder and Barbara Soloman, North Carolina State University

Respond to 44 questions to receive immediate feedback on your learning styles

• Acquire the terminology for thinking critically about yourself
• Get to know yourself
• Understand potential benefits for making concerted changes in your style

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Define SMART(ER) goals based on your key performance areas (KPAs) and aims for change.

Study your ILS results

Your results are based on this

spectrum of four contrasting parameters:

active 🡨🡪 reflective

sensing 🡨🡪 intuitive

visual 🡨🡪 verbal

sequential 🡨🡪 global

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Example: These results are both mine. To obtain the best data, I took the average when the results were different. These modified final results show that I am exactly balanced between active and reflective and then also between visual and verbal.

Steps to work with your ILS results

• Copy/paste your personalized chart into a document for easy access and referral.
• Then do the test again since its binary nature will make you repeatedly say, “It depends”...
• After you have pasted two result charts, follow the link that is provided to help understand your results.
• Without simply repeating the information you learn from analyzing your results, use your own words to make a case for your agreement or disagreement with the evaluations.
• Support your affirmations with storytelling that confirms or contrasts with your results.
• Determine your strengths and weaknesses to identify the areas where you intend to try to change.
• Determine your KPAs and propose action plans for effective results. How can you actually affect change in your work habits?

Overview of…

the OCEAN/CANOE &

DISC activities

link to extended activities

Defining the acronyms OCEAN/CANOE

Predict your results before taking the test by selecting your place on the spectrum for each factor.

The five-factor personality test provides a practical opportunity to work with descriptive terms for yourself and your clients, colleagues, friends, neighbors, and family.

As you build your lexical advantage, remember to apply the new vocabulary to people you know or know about in vivid examples that will help you remember.

Image source: Desdemona72. Shutterstock

Five-factor Personality Test - The Big Five

Find a free version of the test*, also known by the acronyms OCEAN or CANOE.

Copy/paste the site you selected (your source) and your results.

As with all tests, take the same test twice to be sure you have understood the questions then copy/paste your results to compare and contrast.

Determine your most accurate results by finding an average of the two results.

If you are working in a group, predict the best representatives for each of the factors before sharing your individual results. Give those who are nominated an opportunity to (dis)agree and justify with stories about their past experience(s).

If you are working alone, consider your friends and family to determine who you know that tends to exhibit a particular behavior or attitude.

* Note that in most of the module, you are directed to a specific site. �Here you are encouraged to research and select the best version on your own.

The Big Five, further activities

Although this test is better known from its roots in the 1980s, the five factors were originally determined by Ernest Tupes and Raymond Christal in 1961, as

• Surgency
• Agreeableness
• Dependability
• Culture
• Emotional Stability, which you may have noticed has made a comeback as an alternative to the negative connotations of Neuroticism.

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• Compare the current with the original descriptors.

HEXACO is a six-factor model that includes the factor Honesty/Humility.

• Since OCEAN was built on research with English language speakers, what are the advantages of building a model on more languages and cultures?
• Discover the other languages and cultures involved in the study.
• Compare the descriptors to develop your understanding of the advantages proposed by HEXACO. Consider the roles played by emotion and of altruism vs. antagonism in your own behavior.
• Update your OCEAN profile to include the factors for HEXACO.

As trait-based taxonomies of personality, these models are naturally subject to criticism.

• Read some of the criticism
• Copy/paste your sources
• Prepare a presentation with the following characteristics. Note that you are trying to communicate as a mediator in the co-creation of knowledge:
• simplified, accessible language so that non-experts can participate
• Illustrations and images for enhanced communication with visual learners

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DISC Personality Test

DISC (Eikenberry) is based on the 1920s work by

Harvard psychologist William Moulton Marston.

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The concept of self is based on one of four factors —

1. Dominance
2. Inducement (now Inspiring)
3. Steadiness
4. Compliance (now Cautious and Supportive).

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The DISC personality test recognizes two motivating forces at work

a preference for �working fast or slow AND �for being outgoing or reserved

an orientation toward prioritizing tasks or people

Image source: https://newinceptions.com/the-disc-profile-placing-people-on-the-map/

Steps to work with your DISC results

• Copy/paste your personalized chart into a document for easy access and referral.
• Then do the test again. Some of the vocabulary is difficult and you may need to work with it again to understand your preferences better.
• After you have pasted two result charts, use your own words to make a case for your agreement or disagreement with the evaluations.
• Remember that, as with the ILS, it is important to resist repeating the words used to report your results.
• Support your affirmations with storytelling that confirms or contrasts with your results.
• Determine your strengths as KPAs and your weaknesses to identify the areas where you intend to try to change.
• Propose action plans for effective results. How can you actually affect change in your work habits?

Overview of…

the activities for the Wholehearted Inventory

& The 5 Love Languages

Link to extended activities

Wholehearted Inventory (Brown)

Discover your social strengths and opportunities for growth

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Which image (left or right) do you respond to best? Why?

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Select some areas for improvement BEFORE you take the test and make a short vídeo to explain why you would like to improve in these areas.

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Find someone else who is better than you are in an area where you need to improve and ask for suggestions…

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Jot these ideas down and come back to them the next day or later to reflect again.

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Image source: Andrea Pippin

Image source: Avalon McKenzie

The 5 Love Languages® (Chapman 2015)

Learn about how YOU best give and receive appreciation.*

Discover strategies for...

• how to communicate
• what action to take with your teammates who identify with another type of language

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* Despite the touchy/feely name of the test, try to avoid an immediate reaction against introducing the concept of love into your academic learning.

Image source: Chapman, Gary, and Freed, DM. (2015).

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Adapted by Arau Ribeiro from Chapman (2015)

Recommended Communication & Action

Learn more about The 5 Love Languages

• Copy/paste your results so you can refer to them in tandem with the previous table of Recommended Communication & Action
• Share your results with your team
• Read at least one of the three recommended articles
• Identify specific communication and activities beyond your KPAs that would help you to communicate with your team members

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Further reading

Nguyen, J. (2020). What are the 5 Love Languages? Everything you need to know. mbg relationships, October 21. https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/the-5-love-languages-explained

Borresen, K. (2018). This is the most common of the 5 Love Languages: And the least common, if you're curious. HUFFPOST, July 23. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/most-common-love-language_n_5b4f906be4b0b15aba8b1d2c

Emery, L. R. (2018). This is the most popular love language on Hinge. Bustle, November 15. https://www.bustle.com/p/the-most-popular-love-language-on-hinge-is-quality-time-13150294

Newly created OERs for CORALL

Module on Needs Analysis and Self-Awareness for Autonomous Language Learning (NASA for ALL)

• Task description and orientation for teachers https://docs.google.com/document/d/18N-zTEXE0DK_gxYm0pPvDYEDh8T3yvVe/edit#
• PowerPoint for learners https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1hriCzOIS7cyBKyXEaUdpe5To96b8GZiz/edit#slide=id.p1

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Tools that offer extended versions of the module activities

• Working with the ILS - How do you like to learn?�https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wpxcPN5P7d_71kdaTEJvMRLghWGu--_z/edit

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• Working with the Five-Factor Personality Test and DISC Personality tool -�Test your personality to contribute to learner awareness through testing, reading, and storytelling�https://docs.google.com/document/d/1E1cjFOdQFGcOojq2OtNDKjR-1vTOZQeS/edit

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• Working with the Wholehearted Inventory and the 5 Love Languages - �Dealing with compliments, praise, shame, and love�https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GAb6m13vt9APKwT-5D1iFV9GrNAooGRx/edit

Existing OER References

QUIET

https://heleo.com/susan-cain-the-introvert-quiz-are-you-an-introvert-or-an-extrovert-and-why-does-it-matter/4319/

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ILS

https://www.webtools.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/

https://www.engr.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/drive/1WPAfj3j5o5OuJMiHorJ-lv6fON1C8kCN/styles.pdf

https://educationdesignsinc.com/index-of-learning-styles/

The Five-factor Personality Test (OCEAN/CANOE)

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DISC

https://discpersonalitytesting.com/

https://www.kevineikenberry.com/about/kevin-eikenberry-group-team/

The Wholehearted Inventory

https://brenebrown.com/wholehearted-inventory/

The 5 Love Languages®

https://5lovelanguages.com/quizzes/love-language

Other references

Ashton, M. C., Lee, K., Perugini, M., Szarota, P., de Vries, R. E., Di Blas, L., Boies, K., & De Raad, B. (2004). A Six-Factor Structure of Personality-Descriptive Adjectives: Solutions From Psycholexical Studies in Seven Languages. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86(2), 356-366. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.86.2.356

Borresen, K. (2018). This is the most common of the 5 Love Languages: And the least common, if you're curious. HUFFPOST, July 23. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/most-common-love-language_n_5b4f906be4b0b15aba8b1d2c

Council of Europe. (2018). Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment Companion Volume with New Descriptors. https://rm.coe.int/cefr-companion-volume-with-new-descriptors-2018/1680787989

Emery, L. R. (2018). This is the most popular love language on Hinge. Bustle, November 15. https://www.bustle.com/p/the-most-popular-love-language-on-hinge-is-quality-time-13150294

Green, Michael. (2018). The global goals we've made progress on -- and the ones we haven't. TED Talk for We the Future. https://www.ted.com/talks/michael_green_the_global_goals_we_ve_made_progress_on_and_the_ones_we_haven_t/transcript#t-174531

Hobson, Mellody. Color blind or color brave? TED2014. https://www.ted.com/talks/mellody_hobson_color_blind_or_color_brave?referrer=playlist-how_to_pop_our_filter_bubbles

Little, David G., Ridley, Jennifer, & Ushioda, Ema (2002). Towards greater learner autonomy in the foreign language classroom: Report on a research-and-development project (1997-2001). Dublin: Authentik Language Learning Resources.

Pariser, Eli. Beware online "filter bubbles". TED2011. https://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles

Nguyen, J. (2020). What are the 5 Love Languages? Everything you need to know. mbg relationships, October 21. https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/the-5-love-languages-explained

Rmmé, Maurice (2021). How To Write KPIs. Deep Think. https://www.deepthink.nl/how-to-write-kpis/

Tupes, Ernest C., and Christal, Raymond E. (1992). Recurrent Personality Factors Based on Trait Ratings. Journal of Personality, June. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.1992.tb00973.x

Image sources

Chapman, Gary, and Freed, DM. (2015). Discovering the 5 Love Languages at School. Northfield Publishing.

Desdemona72. Shutterstock. https://www.scienceabc.com/social-science/what-are-the-big-five-personality-traits.html

Fishel, Daniel. Verywell. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-confirmation-bias-2795024

McKenzie, Avalon. https://brenebrown.com/resources/ten-guideposts-for-wholehearted-living/

Pippins, Andrea. https://brenebrown.com/resources/ten-guideposts-for-wholehearted-living-3/