Method of Teaching English Language to Students with Different Learning Styles
INTRODUCTION
Teaching can be defined as engagement with learners to enable their understanding and application of knowledge, concepts and processes. It includes design, content selection, delivery, assessment and reflection. To teach is to engage students in learning; thus teaching consists of getting students involved in the active construction of knowledge. A teacher requires not only knowledge of subject matter, but knowledge of how students learn and how to transform them into active learners. Good teaching, then, requires a commitment to systematic understanding of learning. The aim of teaching is not only to transmit information, but also to transform students from passive recipients of other people’s knowledge into active constructors of their own and others’ knowledge. The teacher cannot transform without the student’s active participation, of course. They differ from each other in their preferences. When it comes to learning a English language, each student receives, processes and stores information differently. Some students may thrive using traditional papers and pencils, while others prefer collaboration and even hands-on activities. If their ideal learning styles are not recognized in the classroom, studying becomes drudgery and students who have a hard time tended to lose their motivation.
METHOD OF TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE TO STUDENTS WITH DIFFERENT LEARNING STYLES
VISUAL LEARNING STYLE
Characteristics
Someone with a Visual learning style has a preference for seen or observed things, including pictures, diagrams, demonstrations, displays, handouts, films, flip-chart, etc. These people will use phrases such as ‘show me’, ‘let’s have a look at that’ and will be best able to perform a new task after reading the instructions or watching someone else do it first. These are the people who will work from lists and written directions and instructions.
Method for Accommodating
- Use maps, flow charts, or webs to organize materials
- Highlight and color code books/notes to organize and relate material
- Have students pick out key words and ideas in their own writing and highlight them in different colors to clearly reveal organizational patterns
- Write out checklists of needed formulas, commonly misspelled words, etc.
- Write out and use flash cards for review of material
- Draw pictures or cartoons of concepts
- Write down material on slips of paper and move them around into proper sequence. (Can be done on PC too)
- Use the chalkboard (them and you) to note important information
- If using the computer, have the student experiment with different font sizes and styles to enhance readability.
AUDITORY LEARNING STYLE
Characteristics
Someone with an Auditory learning style has a preference for the transfer of information through listening: to the spoken word, of self or others, of sounds and noises. These people will use phrases such as ‘tell me’, ‘let’s talk it over’ and will be best able to perform a new task after listening to instructions from an expert. These are the people who are happy being given spoken instructions over the telephone, and can remember all the words to songs that they hear!
Methods for Accommodating
- Engage the student in conversation about the subject matter
- Question students about the material
- Ask for oral summaries of material
- Have them tape lectures and review them with you
- Have them tape themselves reviewing material and listen to it together
- Read material aloud to them
- Use a talking calculator
- Have them put material to a rhythm or tune and rehearse it aloud
KINESTHETIC OR TACTILE LEARNING STYLE
Characteristics
Someone with a Kinesthetic learning style has a preference for physical experience – touching, feeling, holding, doing, and practical hands-on experiences. These people will use phrases such as ‘let me try’, ‘how do you feel?’ and will be best able to perform a new task by going ahead and trying it out, learning as they go. These are the people who like to experiment, hands-on, and never look at the instructions first!
Methods for Accommodating
- Write out checklists of materials to be learned or looked for
- Trace words and diagrams on paper
- Use textured paper and experiment with different sizes of pens, pencils, and crayons to write down information
- Use role play or dramatize concepts. Students can move objects around to dramatize a concept or act out the concept themselves.
- Ask the student to envision a scene in which the material to be learned is being used or acted out somehow. For example: a student could imagine being a character in a novel.
- Have the student take notes (on paper, word processor, in textbooks) while reading or listening.
- Use some form of body movement (snapping fingers, pacing, mouthing ideas) while reciting material to be learned.
CONCLUSION
“Methods are the combination of techniques that are used and plasticized by the teachers in the classrooms to teach their students and approaches are the philosophies of teachers about language teaching that can be applied in the classrooms by using different techniques of language teaching.”
Language teaching, like any other topic, has undergone a lot of changes. It has shifted to role-plays, interactive games, short visuals, etc. from the traditional ways, such as lectures by facilitators with only a blackboard to support and spell repetition and grammar worksheets, have shifted to role-plays.
In general, everything a teacher teaches needs to be relevant to the students’ environment, as students are the focal point of the teaching and learning process.