“The relevance of including activities that promote learning styles to the process of language learning”

Learning styles have been an issue researched by a lot of teachers and pedagogy academicist however, it is important to analyze those styles in the process of language learning. But first, Let’s define what a language learning style is, according to Scarcella & Oxford, (1992) they are “specific actions, behaviors, steps, or techniques --such as seeking out conversation partners or giving oneself encouragement to tackle a difficult language task -- used by students to enhance their own learning” (quoted by oxford, 2003). According to this definition, we must say that learning styles are individual paths that each student follows in order to learn.  But we must ask, how important is this for my language classes?

 

They are very important to plan the lessons, but the most important is that teachers must know their group and the learning style that stands out in it. Why? Imagine that you have the solution to give an excellent class and students are going to be very interested in it, would not you take it? The reason that teacher knows the learning style of their students will allow him to take the right paths in their classes; if the the teacher knows that they are auditory, visual o kinesthetic, he/she will plan their classes according to these learning styles.

 

Even though there are so many different classifications for language learning styles, we are going to highlight the most important, that is, the sensory preferences. Oxford (2003) says “Sensory preferences can be broken down into four main areas: visual, auditory kinesthetic (movement-oriented), and tactile (touch-oriented)”. According to this classification, how can we apply them in our classrooms?

 

A visual learner can learn using pictures to find differences, to talk about them; we van use diagrams, charts, movies among other activities. For an auditory learner, we can use videos in which they explain the grammar, audios to find the principal from it, conversations, dialogues. For kinesthetic learners, we can use our classes basing them on the total physical response method, that combines the movement of the body with the learning of the language. Finally, with the tactile learners, we can look for strategies that utilize the use of the hands, for example, to take to the classroom an activity that involves the elaboration of a craft by following instructions in English.

As we just described, there are many different strategies that teachers can implement in the classroom to get student’s engagement and attention. It is important for educators to understand the differences in their students’ learning styles so that they can implement best practice strategies into their daily activities, curriculum, and assessments.

Oxford, R. L. (Ed.). (2003). Language learning styles and strategies. Mouton de Gruyter. 1 25. Retrieved from

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