Bloom’s Taxonomy in ESL

Memorization, or rote learning, is a lower-order thinking activity that once served as the basis for much traditional instruction. Its demise as a structuring element of formal education is due to its largely passive nature. While it is true that retrieval is more cognitively involved than mere recognition, that recall does not yet interact with the material in a productive manner. If we want our students to generate language rather than merely understand it, we need to focus on creating higher-order learning experiences that cause students to ascend the taxonomic pyramid by drawing on the entirety of their lower-level skills in being pulled upward by the challenge.