Learning Styles

What is a learning style?
Ellis (1985) described a learning style as the more or less consistent way in which a person perceives, conceptualizes, organizes and recalls information.

Where do learning styles come from?
Your students' learning styles will be influenced by their genetic make-up, their previous learning experiences, their culture and the society they live in.

Why should teachers know about learning styles?

Students learn better and more quickly if the teaching methods used match their preferred learning styles.

• As learning improves, so too does self esteem. This has a further positive effect on learning.
• Students who have become bored with learning may become interested once again.
• The student-teacher relationship can improve because the student is more successful and is more interested in learning.

 Blackmore (1996) suggested that one of the first things educators can do to aid the learning process is to simply be aware that there are diverse learning styles in the student population:

There are two perceptual qualities: concrete and abstract.
Concrete: This quality enables you to register information directly through your five senses: sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing. When you are using your concrete ability, you are dealing with the obvious, the "here and now." You are not looking for hidden meanings, or making relationships between ideas or concepts. "It is what it is."
Abstract: this quality allows you to visualize, to conceive ideas, to understand or believe that which you cannot actually see. When you are using your abstract quality, you are using your intuition, your imagination, and you are looking beyond what is to the more subtle implications. "It is not always what it seems."

Teach to Students' Learning Styles

It is especially important to take your students' learning styles into account when you are teaching English language learners. This article gives a brief description of each style and how you can teach to it.

Auditory Learners

Students with this style will be able to recall what they hear and will prefer oral instructions. They learn by listening and speaking. These students enjoy talking and interviewing. They are phonetic readers who enjoy oral reading, choral reading, and listening to recorded books. They learn best by doing the the following:

o    interviewing, debating

o    participating on a panel

o    giving oral reports

o    participating in oral discussions of written material

Visual Learners

Visual learners will be able to recall what they see and will prefer written instructions. These students are sight readers who enjoy reading silently. Better yet, present a information to them with a video. They will learn by observing and enjoy working with the following:

o    computer graphic

o    maps, graphs, charts

o    cartoons

o    posters

o    diagrams

o    graphic organizers

o    text with a lot of pictures

Tactile Learners

Students with this strength learn best by touching. They understand directions that they write and will learn best through manipulatives. These students will also benefit from whole language approaches to reading. They'll learn best by:

o    drawing

o    playing board games

o    making dioramas

o    making models

o    following instructions to make something

Kinesthetic Learners

Kinesthetic learners also learn by touching or manipulating objects. They need to involve their whole body in learning. Total Physical Response is a good ESL method for them. They remember material best if they act it out. These students learn best by:

o    playing games that involve their whole body

o    movement activities

o    making models

o    following instructions to make something

o    setting up experiments

Global Learners

Global learners are spontaneous and intuitive. They do not like to be bored. Information needs to be presented in an interesting manner using attractive materials. Cooperative learning strategies and holistic reading methods work well with these learners. Global learners learn best through: 

o    choral reading

o    recorded books

o    story writing

o    computer programs

o    games

o    group activities

 Analytic Learners

Analytic learners plan and organize their work. They focus on details and are logical. They are phonetic readers and prefer to work individually on activity sheets. They learn best when: 

o    information is presented in sequential steps

o    lessons are structured and teacher-directed

o    goals are clear

o    requirements are spelled out

 LEARNING STYLES AND STRATEGIES

1. ACTIVE AND REFLECTIVE LEARNERS

• Active learners tend to retain and understand information best by doing something active with it--discussing or applying it or explaining it to others. Reflective learners prefer to think about it quietly first.
• "Let's try it out and see how it works" is an active learner's phrase; "Let's think it through first" is the reflective learner's response.
• Active learners tend to like group work more than reflective learners, who prefer working alone.
• Sitting through lectures without getting to do anything physical but take notes is hard for both learning types, but particularly hard for active learners.

How can active learners help themselves?
If you are an active learner in a class that allows little or no class time for discussion or problem-solving activities, you should try to compensate for these lacks when you study.
Study in a group in which the members take turns explaining different topics to each other.  You will always retain information better if you find ways to do something with it.
How can reflective learners help themselves?
Don't simply read or memorize the material; stop periodically to review what you have read and to think of possible questions or applications. You might find it helpful to write short summaries of readings or class notes in your own words. Doing so may take extra time but will enable you to retain the material more effectively.
2. SENSING AND INTUITIVE LEARNERS

• Sensing learners tend to like learning facts, intuitive learners often prefer discovering possibilities and relationships.
• Sensors often like solving problems by well-established methods and dislike complications and surprises; intuitors like innovation and dislike repetition. Sensors are more likely than intuitors to resent being tested on material that has not been explicitly covered in class.
• Sensors tend to be patient with details and good at memorizing facts and doing hands-on (laboratory) work; intuitors may be better at grasping new concepts and are often more comfortable than sensors with abstractions and mathematical formulations.
• Sensors tend to be more practical and careful than intuitors; intuitors tend to work faster and to be more innovative than sensors.
• Sensors don't like courses that have no apparent connection to the real world; intuitors don't like "plug-and-chug" courses that involve a lot of memorization and routine calculations.

Everybody is sensing sometimes and intuitive sometimes.
If you overemphasize intuition, you may miss important details or make careless mistakes in calculations or hands-on work; if you overemphasize sensing, you may rely too much on memorization and familiar methods and not concentrate enough on understanding and innovative thinking.
How can sensing learners help themselves?
Sensors remember and understand information best if they can see how it connects to the real world. If you are in a class where most of the material is abstract and theoretical, you may have difficulty.
Ask your Instructor for specific examples of concepts and procedures, and find out how the concepts apply in practice.

How can intuitive learners help themselves?
Ask your instructor for interpretations or theories that link the facts, or try to find the connections yourself.
You may also be prone to careless mistakes on test because you are  impatient with details and don't like repetition (as in checking your completed solutions).
Take time to read the entire question before you start answering and be sure to check your results
3.VISUAL AND VERBAL LEARNERS
Visual learners remember best what they see--pictures, diagrams, flow charts, time lines, films, and demonstrations.
Verbal learners get more out of words--written and spoken explanations. Everyone learns more when information is presented both visually and verbally.
Most people are visual learners, which means that most students do not get nearly as much as they would if more visual presentation were used in class. Good learners are capable of processing information presented either visually or verbally.

How can visual learners help themselves?
If you are a visual learner, try to find diagrams, sketches, schematics, photographs, flow charts, or any other visual representation of course material that is predominantly verbal.
Ask your instructor, consult reference books, and see if any videotapes or CD-ROM displays of the course material are available.
Prepare a concept map by listing key points, enclosing them in boxes or circles, and drawing lines with arrows between concepts to show connections.
Color-code your notes with a highlighter so that everything relating to one topic is the same color.
How can verbal learners help themselves?
Write summaries or outlines of course material in your own words. Working in groups can be particularly effective: you gain understanding of material by hearing classmates' explanations and you learn even more when you do the explaining.

4. SEQUENTIAL AND GLOBAL LEARNERS

• Sequential learners tend to gain understanding in linear steps, with each step following logically from the previous one. Global learners tend to learn in large jumps, absorbing material almost randomly without seeing connections, and then suddenly "getting it."
• Sequential learners tend to follow logical stepwise paths in finding solutions; global learners may be able to solve complex problems quickly or put things together in novel ways once they have grasped the big picture, but they may have difficulty explaining how they did it.

How can sequential learners help themselves?
Ask the instructor to fill in the skipped steps, or fill them in yourself by consulting references. When you are studying, take the time to outline the lecture material for yourself in logical order.
In the long run doing so will save you time. You might also try to strengthen your global thinking skills by relating each new topic you study to things you already know. The more you can do so, the deeper your understanding of the topic is likely to be.

How can global learners help themselves?

If you are a global learner, it can be helpful for you to realize that you need the big picture of a subject before you can master details.

If your instructor plunges directly into new topics without bothering to explain how they relate to what you already know, it can cause problems for you.

There are steps you can take that may help you get the big picture more rapidly. Before you begin to study the first section of a chapter in a text, skim through the entire chapter to get an overview. Doing so may be time-consuming initially but it may save you from going over and over individual parts later.

Instead of spending a short time on every subject every night, you might find it more productive to immerse yourself in individual subjects for large blocks. Try to relate the subject to things you already know, either by asking the instructor to help you see connections or by consulting references.

AUDITORY LEARNERS	TACTILE/KINESTHETIC LEARNERS	VISUAL LEARNERS
Encourage them to explain the material to you, as if they were the tutor.	Encourage them to pick up the book as they are reading or talking.	Let them take notes during the tutoring session.
Ask them to read explanations out loud.	Have them write while they are reading or talking.	Use a blackboard or notepaper for both of you to write questions and answers.
Ask the student to make up a song using the subject material.  The 'crazier' the better.	Encourage them to walk around the LRC for appropriate books and other resources.	Encourage the use of color-coded highlighting.
Tell the students they can review audio tapes while they drive.	Advise them to sit near the front of their classroom and to take notes. This will keep the student focused.	Use graph paper to help them create charts and diagrams that demonstrate key points.
Advise them that when they are learning new information, state the problem out loud. Reason through solutions out loud.	Advise them to spend extra time in any labs offered.	Have them use mnemonics, acronyms, visual chains, and mind maps.
Ask the student to say words in syllables.	Encourage them to use the computer to reinforce learning using their sense of touch.	Advise them to use the computer to organize materials and to create graphs, tables, charts, and spreadsheets.
Refer them to our study skills videotapes.	Advise them to write with their fingers in sand.	Ask the student to organize the material.
Encourage them to make up and repeat rhymes to remember facts, dates, names, etc.  Make sure they go over all important facts aloud.	Have them write lists repeatedly.	Use visual analogies. Use photographs.
Advise the student to join or create a study group, or to get a study partner.	Advise them to exaggerate lip movements in front of a mirror.	Use visual metaphors.
To learn a sequence of steps, write them out in sentence form, then read them out loud.	Ask them to stand while they explain something to you.	When you ask them to explain something, suggest they do so by writing the explanation down.
Ask the student to use mnemonics and word links.	Ask them to use rhythm (beats) to memorize or explain something.	Ask them to make flashcards, then use them during the session/s. The act of writing (the cards) and viewing them doubles their comprehension.
Involve the student in a discussion of the material.	As the student is explaining something, have the student point to the subject matter in the book, on the board, etc., while reading it out loud.	Encourage them to visualize the scene, formula, words, charts, etc.
Refer them to the Study Skills videotapes.	Ask them to use gestures when giving explanations.	Refer them to the TASC's CD-ROM's or other computer software.
	Advise them to make models that demonstrate the key concept. (The purpose here is the act of making the model.)	Use illustrations.
	Advise students to use hands-on experience when possible.	Refer them to the Study Skills videotapes.
	Make flashcards for each step in the procedure. Put the cards in order until the sequence becomes automatic.
	Use audio tapes from classes. Play them while they walk or exercise.
	Ask them to stretch and move in the chairs.
	Refer them to the Study Skills videotapes.

Listed below are the principal characteristics of the two cognitive styles and the implications of each for L2 learning (Ellis 1993; based on Hawkey: 1982).

Field independence	Field dependence
1. Impersonal orientation i.e. reliance on internal frame of reference in processing information	1. Personal orientation i.e. reliance on external frame of reference in processing information
2. Analytic i.e. perceives a field in terms of its component parts; parts are distinguished from background	2. Holistic i.e. perceives field as a whole; parts are fused with background
3. Independent i.e. sense of separate identity	3. Dependent i.e. the self view is derived from others
4. Not so socially aware i.e. less skilled in interpersonal/social relationships	4. Socially sensitive i.e. greater skill in interpersonal/social relationships