By Tim Murphey

 

Today we learned juggling, but I'm not sure what Mr. Murphey wants us to do. It can't be only learning juggling. I thought it in two ways. First, Mr. Murphey wants us to learn English used in learning juggling. Second, he wants us to learn that there are also some steps in learning English. I don't know which of these or another Mr. Murphey wants us to learn, but its good to get used to many things. (Satoru - in his student journal)

 

COMMUNICATIVE JUGGLING

 

Imagine for a moment walking down the halls of a university classroom building and as you pass by one class you see 40 students throwing juggling balls up in the air, getting very excited as they succeed and shout "I did it!" I admit, I would be curious for an explanation myself.

 

For several years I have used juggling as a learning metaphor for my students in English and language acquisition courses. Other professors and students probably think its a bit odd.

 

Especially when they see my class in our campus's green area or out in the main street at the end of a class for some juggling. Others are not always aware of the deeper understandings of learning that my students are acquiring through the risk-taking activity of learning to juggle. Such risks as being seen, being different and making mistakes in front of others:

 

We went out and tried to juggle. It was wonderful. I love it! I was not ashamed to be seen by passersby at all. There was no time for thinking about such a thing. I was absorbed in juggling and speaking English. This class teaches me a lot of things! - (Etsuko)

 

Many students inevitably get hooked on juggling and borrow the balls for a while. I loan them on the condition that they have to teach others how to juggle, do it in English, and write a short report about it.

 

I played with the juggling balls almost every day (during the summer). I taught 5 people how to juggle. Of course in English. I taught my father, sister, mother, grandmother and one of my friends who lives in Hiroshima. Now my sister plays it better than me. To my surprise my grandmother became a juggler after practicing for 15 minutes. - (Cherry)

 

Learning to juggle teaches students that they can learn if they continue to try.

 

Juggling taught me that the more I exercise the better I can do. - (Chiho)

 

It also allows them to examine their learning beliefs, emotions, and strategies. It increases their self-esteem, which makes learning other things easier. It allows one to observe how our attitudes interact with our brains and bodies.

 

To our surprise, we dropped the ball as soon as we became conscious and tried to juggle very well. It was interesting! - (Sanae)

 

Juggling takes the theory of learning out of the textbooks and puts it in your hands, in front of your eyes, in your voice as you scream "I did it!"

 

Most of you reading this magazine know all of this intuitively because of the great amount of experience you have with juggling. But have you analyzed the marvelous learning processes that have gotten you there so you can generalize them to other aspects of your life?

 

LEARNING UNIVERSALS

 

There are certain things that are present in learning anything, whether a language, juggling, or pancake tossing:

1) beliefs,

2) emotions,

3) strategies,

4) a learner's level, and

5) small steps and chunks that allow for easier learning.

 

I'm sure there are more but let's just juggle with these for a moment and see where they take us.

 

Beliefs:

I remember the first class when we started juggling. I couldn't believe that I would be able to juggle, at first. I couldn't believe the power of beliefs, at first. But I do believe it now. . . I'm trying to be more active and to believe in my possibility. - (Aki)

 

You have a set of beliefs about your ability to lea~ something. Very often, what you expect is what you get. Much has been written in the medical fields about self-fulfilling prophecies: what you believe has a way of becoming true because you have programmed your brain to expect it, and your brain does its best to respond and gets you to do certain things that will help you do it.

 

If right now you were going to learn something you had never done before, like juggling "x" number of water balloons, or flying a rocket into space, what would your reaction be? Listen to your self-talk for a moment. Feel what you would feel. Write it down and think about it.

 

Emotions:

You always have some emotional state. If you are excited about learning something, this will usually help you. Our emotions can change a lot. The question is, can you change them yourself to help you learn easier? For example, what happens if right now you were to think of a time when you were very curious about something and learned it well and got excited about it, like riding a bicycle, doing a sport, or learning to drive? How do you feel now just remembering succeeding in that learning?

 

Chances are, even thinking of such a time puts you into a more resourceful state, makes you sit up and breathe deeper, gives you confidence that you can learn new things - and this makes actually learning them much easier (self-fulfilling). Our physiology is greatly ef­fected by the mental nourishment we regularly feed ourselves.

 

Performers know the value of being in a certain state before going on and typically have certain routines (mental affirmations) and postures to get them there "now."

 

Strategies:

Your particular strategies, how you prefer to learn, will also affect how fast you'll learn. We have dominant learning styles and when teachers teach that way it is easier. However, when you are open to try to learn in many different ways, you increase your chances of learning quickly and learning many things from many people.

 

You may have a preference for visual (pictures), auditory (talk and music and sounds), or kinesthetic (body movement and feelings) information. Little children typically learn a lot by actually doing things in rich experiences and love to move their bodies, see picture books, and sing songs. Later in school, we mostly just read and listen to words. Some students make movies of the information in their minds and tell other people about what they are learning. They turn this "dry-word" information into "musical rainbows of dance" which become memorable and useful.

 

If you were going to learn a new juggling trick just now; would you want an explanation (auditory), would you like a demonstration (visual), or would you simply like to have the balls and try it (kinesthetic)? Advanced jugglers who have been at it for quite awhile probably only need to see it once - at which time they make their own internal movie and put themselves into the position of doing it so that seeing is already doing it for them.

 

Less advanced jugglers may be helped by some explanation and lots of demonstrations because they haven't had the experience necessary for their minds to construct an "automatic mapping over" program from what they see to their bodies, as most professionals probably have.

 

This can make professionals very poor teachers sometimes, because they are working with very different neurologies from their students. It seems so natural and easy to them. That's why sometimes intermediate learners are better teachers than the pros. Intermediates usually can adjust to a beginner's level easier and provide more appropriate chunks.