Friday, December 5, 2014

UNIT 13. LEARNER CHARACTERISTICS


 LEARNER CHARACTERISTICS





In this unit I learnt that the characteristics of learners are factors that influence their attitude to learning a language, the way they learn it, the way learners respond to the different learning styles and approaches in the classroom.  The characteristics are:

Learners’ motivation, a matter that has to do with positive thoughts and feeling and we have learnt before that motivation on learners is one of the most important factors in order to have a successful language learning.

Learning style, there are many different learning styles and those are ways in which a learner naturally prefers to process and remember all the skills and other information. The main goal of any style is to find a way of interacting with others.
Some of the learning styles are: Visual, auditory, Kinesthetic and autonomous.

Learning strategies on the other hand are the ways learners choose and use to learn a language. Different learners use different strategies. Some of them are for example repeating new words, asking for feedback, memorise words, paraphrasing.

Maturity is the ability to respond to the environment in an appropriate manner which shows the grown up physically, mentally and emotional aspect of a person. According to the age there are different levels of maturity which means they learn differently.

Past language learning experience has a lot to do in this unit as adults and teens have learnt English as their L1 before, so as teacher it is important that teachers know how they learnt it and how they want to learn now and also taking into account personal factors.

In real teaching situations I have experienced that in order a teacher to approach students what I have done is to be aware each student learning style and strategies which is part of learning training and then through the past of the days provide confident on students so that they ask or give suggestions about the needs they have in the class according their characteristics.
 

Extra useful materials:







  • Angelo, T.A., & Cross, K.P. (1993). Classroom assessment techniques: A handbook for college teachers (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

  • Keefe, J.W., “Learning Style: An Overview,” in Keefe, J.W., ed., Student Learning Styles: Diagnosing and  Prescribing Programs , Reston, Va.: National Association of Secondary School Principals, 1979
     


 






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