Language Learning Styles and Strategies

1
Language Learning Styles and Strategies

• Lecture 6

2

• Objectives
• by the end of this lecture you will be able to
• Distinguish between learning styles and
  strategies.
• List the main four domains of learning styles and
  give an example for each domain.
• List the main six categories of learning
  strategies and give an example for each category.
• Recognize the implications of these learning
  styles and strategies on L2 teaching.

3

• What is a learning style?

• What are the four domains of learning styles?

Refer to p. 359
4

• What is a learning strategy?

• Learning strategies can be classified in six main
  categories. What are they?

• Refer to p. 359

5

• Why is it important to have harmony between the
  students learning styles and strategies with the
  teachers instructional methodology?
• Refer to p. 359

6
Learning Styles

• What are the Learning Styles ?
• ?The general approaches to learning
• How many Learning Styles are there?
• ?Four main dimension and many among each

7
(No Transcript)
8
Sensory Preferences

• What are the four sensory preferences?
• What does sensory preference means?
• Can people vary with their sensory preferences
  based on their cultural background?
• Refer to p. 360

9
(No Transcript)
10
Visual Preference

• Visual students like to read and obtain a great
  deal from visual stimulation.
• Stimulations such as words, images, motion
  pictures and live performances
• Conversation and oral instruction
• ?might be confusing to them

11
(No Transcript)
12
Auditory Preference

• Comfortable without visual input
• Excited by the classroom interactions in role
  plays and similar activities.
• However!!!
• ?They sometimes have difficulty with writing

13
(No Transcript)
14
Kinesthetic and Tactile Preference

• Kinesthetic Tactile
• Like lots of movement and enjoy working with
  tangible objects, collages and flashcards.
• Instead of sitting still, they prefer walking
  around the classroom

15
(No Transcript)
16
QA

• What sensory preference do you prefer?

17
(No Transcript)
18
Extroverted vs. Introverted

• Extroverted
• ?energy from external world.
• ?enjoy interacting with people and making
  friends
• Introverted
• ?energy from internal world
• ?seeking solitude
• What should a teacher do with these two
  personalities? (refer to p. 360)

19
Intuitive-Random vs. Sensing-Sequential

• Intuitive-Random
• ?Think in abstract, futuristic, large-scale, and
  nonsequential ways
• ?Like to creat theories and prefer to guide
  their own learning
• Sensing-Sequential
• ?Like facts rather than theories
• ?Want guidance and specific instruction from
  teachers
• What should a teacher do with these two
  personalities? (refer to p. 360)

20
How do teachers teach them both?

• To offer variety and choice
• Sometimes a highly organized structure for
  sensing-sequential learners
• At other times multiple options and enrichment
  activities for another kind

21
Thinking vs. Feeling

• Thinking
• ?Oriented toward the stark truth
• ?Want to be viewed competent and do not give
  praise easily
• Feeling
• ?Value other people in personal ways
• ?Show empathy and compassion
• What should a teacher do with these two
  personalities?

22
Closure-oriented/Judging vs.Open/Perceiving

• Closure-oriented/Judging
• ?Reach judgments or completion quickly
• ?Enjoy being given specific tasks and deadlines
• ?Desire for closure
• Open/Perceiving
• ?Take learning less seriously, treating it like
  a game
• ?Dislike deadlines and like to have a long
  time soaking up information by osmosis.
• They both provide good balance to each other

23
QA

• What personality type do you think you are?

24
(No Transcript)
25
Desired Degree of Generality

• Global or holistic
• ?Like socially interaction, communicating events
• ?Feel free to guess from context
• ?Tend to make grammatical mistakes
• Analytic
• ?Concentrate on grammatical details
• ?Do not take risks guessing from contexts
• What should a teacher do with these two
  personalities?

26
(No Transcript)
27
Biorhythms

• Learners have their best time for studying
• Some perform well in the morning some in the
  evening

28
Sustenance

• The need for food and drink while learning.
• Quite a number of L2 learners feel very
  comfortable learning with a candy bar, a cup of
  coffee or a soda in hand while some tend to be
  distracted from studying

29
(No Transcript)
30
Location

• Involves the nature of environment
• Temperature
• Lighting
• Sound
• And even the firmness of the chairs

31
Learning Strategies

• What are learning strategies?
• ?Specific behaviors or thought processes that
  learners use to enhance their learning
• How many learning strategies are there?
• ?Six main categories

32
About strategies

• A strategy is neither good nor bad
• A strategy is useful if
• ?a. It relates well to the L2 task at hand
• ?b. It fits the particular students learning
  style
• ?c. The student employs it effectively
• Enable students to become more independent,
  autonomous, lifelong learners.
• What should teachers do with these strategies?

33
(No Transcript)
34
Cognitive Strategies

• Enable learners to manipulate the language
  materials
• E.g., through reasoning, analysis, notetaking,
  summarizing, outlining, reorganizing, etc.

35
Metacognitive Strategies

• Identifying ones own learning style preferences
  and needs
• Manage the learning process overall.
• Give examples. P.364

36
Memory-related Strategies

• Help learners to link one L2 item or concept to
  another, but do not always involve deep
  understanding
• Enable learners to learn and retrieve information
  in an orderly string
• Learners need such strategy much less when they
  become better
• Give examples p. 364

37
Compensatory Strategies

• Guessing from context in listening and reading
• Use synonyms and talk around the missing word
  to aid speaking and writing
• Use gestures or pause words
• Help learners to make up missing words

38
Affective Strategies

• Identify ones mood and anxiety level
• Use deep breathing or positive self-talk
• Students who progress toward proficiency seldom
  need it

39
Social Strategies

• Work with others and understand the target
  culture as well as the language
• Intensive interaction with people
• Give examples p. 365

40

• what are the implications of learning styles and
  strategies for L2 teaching?
• Refer to p. 365

41
Literature as Content For ESL/EFL

• Lecture 7

42
objectives

• List the benefits of using literature as content.
• The importance of literature to extent learners
  awareness of their own communication.
• List the six aspects of language development in
  literature.
• Compare between efferent and esthetic reading.
• List the advantages of stylistics
• Use characterization and point of view in
  language development.
• Use literary texts in integrating the four
  language skills.

43
The three benefits of using literature as content

1. Show the importance of form in communication.
   (how the language is used)
2. Good resource for integrating the 4 skills.
3. Raises cross-cultural awareness.

44
Defining literary texts

• Language is used to convey a message by relating
  information.
• Literature convey an individual awareness of
  reality
• What makes literary texts unique is that the WHAT
  and HOW of the text communication are
  inseparable.
• This makes literature valuable for extending
  learners awareness that how they say something
  is important in two ways.
• What are those two ways? (refer to p. 319)
• Example p. 319-320

45
Defining literary texts. Cont.

• How something is said often contributes to
  speakers achieving their purpose in
  communication.
• Deciding how something is said, speakers often
  communicate something about themselves.
• The writer have the choice of what to say and
  what not to say.
• The writer make grammatical and lexical choices
  to define spatial and temporal frames.
• Kramsch example. (1993)

46
Defining Literary Text. Cont.

• The particularity of literary text rests on the
  authors use of six aspects of text development.
• What are these six aspects? (refer to p. 320).
• These dimensions of literary texts that
  contribute to the what/ how of literary
  communication.

47
Examples

• Novels
• Stories
• Advertisements
• Newspapers headlines
• Jokes
• Pun

48
Literary Text And The Reader

• Rosenblatt(1978) defines literary texts in terms
  of how readers interact with them.
• Interaction can be
• Efferent reading (the focus is on
  the message)
• Aesthetic reading (is for
  entertainment(
• Efferent vs. Aesthetic Reading
• Define the two terms. Refer to p. 320

49
Stylistics and its advantages

• Stylistics literary text analysis.
• Advantages
• A key to decode the text
• Basing the interpretation of systematic verbal
  Analysis reaffirms the centrality of the language
  as the aesthetic medium of literature.
• Easy for non-native speakers since they already
  have the systematic knowledge of the language.
• other researchers say the focus on stylistics
  will prevent the reader from enjoying the text.
• What do you think? Refer to p.321 to define
  practical stylistics.

50
Using Literary Texts to Develop Language

• Pick a partner and choose one of the stories
  mentioned in p. 321-322
• What things did you like about the story?
• What things did you not like about the story?
• If you wanted to give your students a story to
  read, what characteristics should it carry to
  achieve language development?

51
Characteristics of a chosen literary text

• Students will enjoy reading literature only if
  the text is accessible to them.
• The teacher should make sure that
• the theme of the text is engaging
• The linguistic and conceptual level are
  appropriate for the students.

52
Literary texts in language development

• teachers can help students develop their language
  through literary texts by means of using
• Characterization
• Point of view

53
Characterization

• Readers assess characters in a story based on
  what the character says and does.
• How to assess
• Listing the adjectives they believe best describe
  each character.
• return to the text to justify their
  interpretations
• Examine the language of the text.

54
Point of view

• Three types of point of view Refer to p. 323 and
  define the three types of point of view.
• Spatio-temporal point of view
• (tenses order of events)
• Ideological point of view
• ( set of values, or belief system, communicated
  by the language of the text)
• Critical literacy/ Critical reading (Critical
  literacy encourages readers to actively analyze
  texts and offers strategies for decoding the
  messages)
• Critical readers thus recognize not only what a
  text says, but also how that text portrays the
  subject matter.  They recognize the various ways
  in which each and every text is the unique
  creation of a unique author.

55
Point of view cont.

• Psychological point of view
• Internal (the story is told from 1st person
  point of view by a character who shares his
  feeling or told by someone who know the
  feelings of the characters)
• External ( the narrator describes the events and
  the characters from a position outside of the
  main character with no access to their feelings)

56
Using literary texts to integrate skills

• How to integrate the 4 skills?
• Reading refer to p. 326
• Listening refer to p. 326
• Speaking refer to p. 327
• Writing refer to p. 328

57
Using literary texts to develop cultural
awareness.

• Four dimensions of culture
• The aesthetic sense.
• (in which the language is associated with the
  literature, film, and music of particular
  country)
• The sociological sense
• (in which the language is linked to the costumes
  of a country)
• The semantic sense
• (in which a cultures conceptual system is
  embodied in the language)
• pragmatic sense
• (in which the cultural norms influence what
  language is appropriate for what context)
• Refer to p. 328 to look up the meaning of these
  four dimensions

58
How to use a literary text to raise cultural
awareness?

• Choosing different texts from different cultures
  provides a medium for sharing and illuminating
  the differences and similarities of two cultures.