“Berman felt that there was a clear link between learning language and learning styles. He carried out research and found that in an average class 29% were visual learners, 34% were auditory learners and a surprising 37% were kinesthetic.”

a. Kinestheticb. Auditoryc. Visual

Ellis and Brewster, 2002

Learning styles research

Visual

Auditory

Kinesthetic

Can you remember the activities we did, and the order we did them in? Try to remember the materials we used too.

1) We took various items of clothing out of a bag blindfolded and guessed what they were.

2) We played a game using the clothes. (Kim’s game)

3) We placed flashcards on a Venn diagram.

4) We sang a song twice. The first time we identified the clothes that were in the song using flashcards. Then we did some TPR by holding up flashcards or miming the clothes items.

5) We answered questions about the song.

Can you remember the activities we did, and the order we did them in? Try to remember the materials we used too.

6) We played a memory game all together.

7) We played a memory game with our partner.

8) We played a blindfold game where we had to identify who was wearing what.

Then discuss with your partner what you think was the aim of each activity.

With your partner, can you classify the activities you saw into three stages?

With your partner, can you classify the activities you saw into three stages?

3 71 4 6 82 5Presentation Practice Production

Engage Study Activate

Which of the three learning styles mentioned earlier (visual, auditory and kinesthetic) did each of the activities best cater for? There can be more than one for each.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

visual, kinesthetic

visual

visual, auditory

auditory, kinesthetic

auditory, visual

auditory

visual, auditory

kinesthetic

Now think about the communication focus of each activity (T – P, P – T, P – P).

How did you feel when doing each of the activities?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

T - P

T - P

T - P

T - P

T – P → P – P

With your partner, think of alternatives to the activities you saw that cater to other learning styles while keeping the same aims. Bear in mind the communication focus. What resources could you use?

T – P → P – P

T – P → P – T → P – T T – P → P – P

Can we see any kind of progression here?

Resources

Your first resource should be your Teacher’s Book!

For example, an alternative to using realia for the first activity could be…

Does this change the predominant learning style that’s being catered for?

What about the second activity?

Learning style?

Recording

How can we record the new language?

www.wordle.nethttp://www.ttblog.e-learning.macmillan.es/

We learn our limitations through life

But we need to foster our pupils’ potential

VAK is only one way of classifying learning styles... Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences…

… applied to theEnglish languageclassroom:

The four temperaments:

Research hasn’t proven learning styles theory but variety & balance must be a

good thing

There are many models but VAK is appropriate for Primary levels

Conclusions

Fomenting learning styles means using all available media: stories, crafts, DVDs, songs.

Time for a break!