Learning Styles

The individual learners in foreign language classes differ in many ways, at every level of instruction. Writers and researchers on learning styles have provided a plethora of ways to analyze and describe learner differences, and all are useful. Learners can be characterized as visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners; they can also be classified as holistic or linear learners. Some researchers place learners on a continuum from concrete to abstract or from sequential to random. Perhaps the most important insight from this information is the realization that almost all students are different from their teachers, and from each other, in a large variety of ways. This section describes a few of them. Some learners thrive in a highly social and interactive environment; others feel more comfortable and may do better when they can think and learn alone. Some learners are motivated and empowered by carefully structured, linear tasks and unvarying routines; they may find it annoying and distracting when bulletin boards or visuals are not carefully aligned and the classroom isn’t neat and orderly. Other students feel suffocated by so much structure and long for the freedom to solve problems and be creative. These same students enjoy classes in which the teacher keeps them guessing and sometimes makes random leaps from one topic to another. These students don’t usually mind a little clutter— it makes them feel at home! Many students need a supportive emotional climate in which to learn, and regular assurance that they are valued as people, regardless of their performance. A few students, on the other hand, just want to be left alone to learn—on their own! Some students need to touch, or move, in order to learn. (That’s probably true of almost every primary school child.) Some students benefit most from visuals and teachers’ gestures when they are learning or reviewing language; others won’t feel confident of the information until they see it written out; still others, with poor vision or a brain that processes visual input poorly, don’t benefit from either. Some children learn very well just from listening attentively to what is taking place—they may remember well without ever writing things down. Still others need to take notes and rework the information several times before it is firmly anchored. These examples just begin to describe the ways in which students differ from one another—and from their teacher! There are many other differences, too. Does a student learn best in a busy environment, perhaps with a music background, or in a quiet setting? Some students learn best when they can volunteer and try things out; others need to feel very secure before trying anything new. Nancy Foss (1994) points out that when students are asked to learn in a way that makes them uncomfortable, they experience stress. In a classroom where a student’s learning style is never included, that student is constantly operating under stress, and learning is likely to be seriously affected. Foss recommends that teachers should be aware of when an activity or an assignment will cause stress for one or more groups of students, and try to find ways to make the activity more comfortable. For example, some students who prefer very linear, clearly defined tasks will be under stress when assigned to create a skit with a group. Providing clear written directions and a template for the skit, as well as a written component as part of the skit preparation, will help to make these students more comfortable and help them to learn more effectively.