INDIVIDUAL FACTORS IN FOREIGN / SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING

INDIVIDUAL FACTORS

When learning a foreign or second language there are three main factors that influence this process.

One of them is the Cognitive Style each of our students bring with them. Have a look at the following presentation:

Individual Factors: Cognitive Styles in Learning a Foreign Language

Then, the Psychological factor does play quite an important role as attitude and motivation may determine whether the learner's affective filter as Krashen suggests is ready for learning or not.

LEARNING STYLES AND ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING

"My learning style as regards language learning"

‘When are we listening to music?’ ‘Not now, sit down!’ ‘When are we playing?’ ‘You’ve come here to study, not to play’  ‘When are we watching a film?’ ‘We don’t have time for that.’ Are these questions familiar to you? Are the answers familiar to you? In the English language learning classroom students are likely to expect to do all of the former activities; is it because they only want to have fun? The physiological, social, psychological, cultural and other characteristics of the learner influences the way they assimilate the learning process taking place in the classroom, this is known as learning style (MacKeracher, 2004). Personally, since language learning is closely related to the use of it in real life situations, it offers a great opportunity to cope with the different learning styles our students have; however, this seems not to be taking place in the classroom.

To start with, the student must be aware of the manner in which they will be more successful in learning. In other words, they ought to know what learning style they have. According to Biggs (2001) ‘The more successful the individual is at solving the problems she/he faces, the more she/ he will take over their lives”. Identification and knowledge of the learning style makes the student take responsibility for their own learning process and future success. Unlike a learner who is oblivious to how he learns, a better informed student will even give direction to what is given in the classroom and even suggest activities to the teacher. Thus the teacher must encourage this identification of learning styles by using for example the Perceptual Learning Style Preference Questionnaire (PLSPQ) (Reid, 1987). So, what are those learning styles our students must recognise?

There are various categorisations or models of the learning styles which have increased in number through the years. For instance the Myers-Briggs type indicator (MBTI) which classified students into extraverts, sensors, thinkers and judgers and was based on Jung’s studies in the early 1900’s proved to be complicated to categorise the different combinations of these types for individuals. Since then, many a theorists have attempted to make this classification easier and more accurate being one of them Kolb and his Learning Style Model presented in 1984. Four different types of learning were presented by Kolb: concrete, reflective, abstract and active. Nowadays the most widely used and accepted model is the one presented by Flemming (2001), the VAK model (Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic). Although there is a tendency for individuals to have developed only one type of learning more than the others, it has been proved in later studies that the VAK model clearly shows the dominance of two of these types are plausible. The predominance of one style of learning may respond to the preference of the individual and the kind of task he / she is faced to. That is to say that for one task he/ she may use certain learning styles and for a different task others.   

Then, the question is: how do these different learning styles can enhance language learning?

A Visual learner may prefer to watch and receive visual stimuli. They like to learn through reading or writing; however, they have difficulty with the written language and do better with charts, pictures or graphic organisers. Shouldn’t we offer activities which involve watching a film?

Auditory learners would often talk to themselves, reading out loud, listening to audios and talking to others about the things they are to learn. Here is the one who likes singing.

Kinesthetic learners prefer active participation experiences like role-plays or moving around. Games are suitable for these learners.

To sum up, the identification of the learning styles that our students have is as important as the students’ self-awareness about them. Our classes must involve activities for students who learn by watching, hearing and doing otherwise, our students’ success in language learning is quite limited and predictable to failure and even cause frustration in students and teachers. This individual factor must be present in our everyday teaching practice. If only my English teacher in Secondary had known, I had the auditory and kinesthetic learning styles!

REFERENCES

James Cook University. Australia.Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic (VAK) learning style model. Retrieved from: http://www.jcu.edu.au/wiledpack/modules/fsl/JCU_090460.html

Institute for Learning Style Research. Overview of the seven Perceptual Styles. Retrieved from.  http://www.learningstyles.org/styles/visual.html on June 19th, 2011.

Pourhossein Gilakjani,  Abbas. (2011) Visual, Auditory, Kinaesthetic Learning Styles and Their Impacts on English Language Teaching. Islamic Azad University, Lahijan, Iran

English Language Department.

Šabatová,  Jarmila. (2008) Learning Styles in ELT. Masaryk University- Faculty of education. Department of English Language and Literature.