The term "formal learning" refers to all learning which takes place in the classroom regardless of whether such learning is informed by conservative or progressive ideologies. "Informal learning", on the other hand, is used to refer to learning which takes place outside the classroom.
These definitions provide the essential difference between the two modes of leaning. Formal leaning is separated from daily life and may actually promote ways of learning and thinking which often run counter to those obtained from practical daily life. A characteristic feature of formal learning is the centrality of activities which can prepare for the challenges of adult life outside the classroom, but it cannot, by its nature, consist of these challenges.
In doing this, language plays a critical role as the major channel for information exchange. The language of the classroom is more similar to the language used by middle-class families than that used by working-class families. Middle-class children thus find it easier to acquire the language of the classroom than their working-class classmates.
Informal learning, in contrast, occurs in the setting to which it relates, making learning immediately relevant. In this context, language does not occupy such an important role: the child's experience of learning is more direct, involving sight, touch, taste, and smell senses that are under-utilized in the classroom.
Whereas formal learning is transmitted by teachers selected to perform. this role, informal learning is acquired as a natural part of a child's socialization. Adults or older children who are proficient in the skill or activity provide—sometimes unintentionally—target models of behavior. in the course of everyday activity. Informal learning, therefore, can take place at any time and place.
The motivation of the learner provides another critical difference between the two models of learning. The formal learner is generally motivated by some kinds of external goals such as parental approval, social status, and potential financial reward. The informal learner, however, tends to be motivated by successful completion of the task itself and the partial acquisition of adult status.
Given that learning systems develop as a response to the social and economic contexts in which they are fixed, it is understandable that modern, highly urbanized societies have concentrated almost exclusively on the establishment of formal education systems. What these societies have failed to recognize are the ways in which formal learning hinders the child's multi-sensory acquisition of practical skill. The failure to provide a child with a direct educa-tion may in part account for many of the social problems which trouble our societies.
Formal learning and informal learning are mainly distinguished by_____ .

A. the place where they take place
B. the kind of knowledge to be obtained
C. the people who learn
D. the language used in instruction