LEARNING STYLES AND GOOD LANGUAGE LEARNERS Presented by: Rizka Nurul Atika

List of today’s discussion 2 Rizka Nurul Atika How do we learn? A C The Importance of Learning style awareness E Principles in Teaching Implication B Background and Definition D Types of Learning Style

3 How do we learn? Do we all learn the same way? Rizka Nurul Atika

4  I work more effectively when I am alone.  I work more effectively in group/with friends.  I am a spontaneous person.  I plan everything in detail before doing anything.  It is hard for me to attend to a long lecture.  I like to move around the classroom. Let’s have a quick reflection Let’s have a quick reflection Is this you? Rizka Nurul Atika

Background and Definition 5 Rizka Nurul Atika

“ an individual’s natural habitual, and preferred ways of responding to and using stimuli in absorbing, processing, retaining new information and skills.” 6 6 LEARNING STYLE Rizka Nurul Atika (Claxton and Ralston, 1978; Kinsella, 1995)

7 Rizka Nurul Atika (Dunn & Dunn, 1992, 1993)

The Importance of Learning Styles Awarenes

 Diverse learning communities  Determine what’s best for your students  Mismatch between instruction and learning styles = disastrous 9

Types of Learning Style 10 Rizka Nurul Atika

Cognitive Styles 11 Field- dependent Vs. Field- Independent Analytic Vs. Global Analytic Vs. Global Reflective Vs. Impulsive Rizka Nurul Atika (Christison, 2003)

Sensory Styles PERCEPTUAL ENVIRONMENTAL Rizka Nurul Atika Visual Auditory Kinesthetic Tactile Physical Sociological (Oxford, 2001)

13 (Fleming and Mills, 1992)

Personality Styles (Oxford, 2001) ▰ extroverted vs. introverted ▰ intuitive-randome vs. sensing sequential ▰ thinking vs. feeling ▰ closure-oriented/judging vs. open/perceiving (Cristinson,2003) ▰ Tolerance to ambiguity ▰ Left brain dominant o visual, analytical, reflective, and self-reliant ▰ Right Brain Dominant o auditory, global, impulsive, and interactive 14 Rizka Nurul Atika

Bilogical Differences ▰ “biorythms ” ▻ Early-not early person ▻ Sustenance to need of food 15 Rizka Nurul Atika (Oxford, 2001)

Assessing Language Learning Style ▰ The Perceptual Learning Style Preference Questionnaire (Reis, 1987) that explores six traits: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, tactile, group, and individual. ▰ The Style Analysis Survey (SAS) (Oxford, 1993) used to determine learners’ general approach of learning. 16

17 Rizka Nurul Atika

Research attempted to define “good language learners ” ▰ Nel, 2008: ▻ field independence affects the ability in imitation and listening comprehension task. ▻ cognitive styles correlate with pronunciation accuracy. 18 Rizka Nurul Atika

19 REFLECTIVE IMPULSIVE  Cautious  Within the task  Anxious  Less tolerant  Introverted  Rigid  Risk-taking  Beyond the task  Relaxed  More tolerant  Extroverted  flexible

Individual / group Sequential/ random Thinking/ feeling 20

21 ▰ Abraham (1985) Field Dependent Field Independent Performs better when learning: inductively with no rule emphasized  More fluent language learners Performs better when learning: deductively rule-oriented  More accurate language learners

What do we learn from good language learners? ▰ No particular learning styles indicates successful language learning as a whole ▰ Adaptation/flexibility 22 Rizka Nurul Atika

Pedagogical Implication 23

What we should do with the knowledge of Learning Styles 24 vary activities and materials make all learning styles value neutral audit your teaching encourage students to stretch their learning styles find ways to employ learning styles to create learning strategies Rizka Nurul Atika (Brown, 2007)

Pedagogical Implication 25 Rizka Nurul Atika (Fleming, 1987; Oxford, 2001)

“ Learning Style is about TENDENCY and PREFERENCE ” Teacher can always try to stretch students’ learning style by giving them options. 26 Remember! DO NOT LABEL STUDENTS TO LIMIT THEIR POTENTIAL Rizka Nurul Atika Learning Style is Multimodal

27 THANKS! Any questions? Rizka Nurul Atika