El Enfoque de Reactivacin Neuronal en la Enseanza y Aprendizaje de

Ingls para el Adulto Mayor

Mairene Duran Garbanzo
Este es un estudio reciente y contextualizado en Costa Rica en el 2009.
El enfoque es cualitativo y descriptivo con el objetivo de aprender y entender
sobre los procesos, fisiolgicos y cognitivos del aprendizaje del ingls del adulto
mayor. Los alcances de esta investigacin ayudan a comprender los procesos
cognitivos y fisiolgicos que se dan en forma natural en los seres humanos y
que intervienen en el aprendizaje; en este caso en particular el aprendizaje del
ingls del adulto mayor.
En la investigacin participaron estudiantes de Ingls del programa del
adulto mayor (PIAM) de una universidad pblica y dos instituciones privadas.
Para la recoleccin de datos se utilizaron cinco diferentes instrumentos:
encuestas, fotos, entrevistas y observaciones con notas de campo. Para el
anlisis de la muestra, se tabularon los datos de la encuesta y se reportaron los
porcentajes de los patrones que surgieron de los datos

recolectados. As

mismo, se procedi a describir los patrones y a resumir la informacin para

lograr las recomendaciones y las conclusiones.
Las recomendaciones del estudio estn dirigidas a diseadores y
profesores de programas de enseanza para la persona adulta mayor. As
mismo, una de las recomendaciones ms relevantes del estudio; es la
aplicacin de un mtodo de enseanza que logre la reconstruccin y conexin

neurolgica para que el adulto mayor reactive el sistema de aprendizaje

conectando experiencias de vida

con el nuevo aprendizaje. Eso se logra

implementando un enfoque de enseanza y aprendizaje que sea diferente al

que se usa para otros estudiantes ms jvenes que en su mayora estudian
para lograr metas profesionales muy diferentes a las de los estudiantes
mayores.
Por eso el estudio concluye que la enseanza y el aprendizaje del ingls
para el adulto mayor debe ser orientado a construir

el conocimiento de

diferente manera, ms entretenida, con menos stress y velocidad que el de

poblaciones ms jvenes.
En

la investigacin se descubri adems que debido a cambios

neurolgicos y fsicos que intervienen en el aprendizaje conforme envejecemos,

el proceso y asimilacin del conocimiento se debe desarrollar con tcnicas y
material adecuados que faciliten el aprendizaje por medio del estmulo
neurolgico y la conexin entre el conocimiento existente y el conocimiento
nuevo que recibe el aprendiz, el adulto mayor. Esta estimulacin neurolgica se
desarrolla por medio de actividades recreativas y sociales en un ambiente de
participacin activa y una evaluacin formativa durante todo el proceso de
construccin del conocimiento de un segundo idioma.
Palabras claves: Procesos cognitivo y fisiolgico / Memoria a corto y a
largo plazo / Estrategias de Aprendizaje y Entretenimiento / Mtodos de
enseanza y aprendizaje / Plasticidad cerebral / Construccin
Aprendizaje y Madurez cognitivas.

neural/

TEACHING ENGLISH TO SENIOR CITIZENS: A NEURAL REACTIVATING

APPROACH
This qualitative and descriptive research is about a neural reconstructive
approach to teach English to the senior citizens in Costa Rica. The main
objective of the study was to learn more about the natural cognitive and
physiological changes in all the humans and how those natural changes affect
second language learning processes. For this purpose, the investigation has
been carried out about the teaching and learning processes that intervene in the
senior citizens learning English as a second language. This research aims to
contribute that teachers, curricula designers and professionals in the field who
are interested in offering better language programs to the older English students
have more information about the natural aging effects to be taken into account
when teaching second languages to this population, the older learners.
Through this study about the natural cognitive and physiological changes,
of the older learners, we teachers and people in charge of senior citizens
learning processes can offer the older learners more adequate English learning
programs that stimulate the neurons to construct knowledge from the already
stored and constructed from life experiences. The neural reconstructive
approach results from the cognitive entertainment class activities and motivate
the elderly to learn a second language within a formative assessment rather
than testing objectives to process knowledge.
The results of the investigation demonstrated that the older adults
continue learning through aging. The humans learning system can be naturally
stimulated; even thought, the capacity to retain and restore neurons that function
to make new knowledge fail with age, if the elderly are exposed to adequate
teaching and learning strategies, new knowledge is processed from a neural
reconstructive relation made from accumulated life experiences.
The participants of the research were adults up to 55 years old, from
three different settings: one public university, and two private institutions. They

were selected based on the principles of ethnographic research. Therefore, the

four sample groups were homogenous in age, learning reasons, English
proficiency level, genders and nationalities.
Key Words: Cognitive and physiological processes/Short and long term
memory/Cognitive

Entertainment/Teaching

and

Plasticity/ Neural construction/ Cognitive maturity.

learning

strategies/Brain

DURN 1

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