Three of them were my mates at the University of Miskolc. They are females and they are from 25 to 27. They are active teachers of English. Two of them teach in a private language school, and one of them in a primary school. They are very creative, they have very colourful lessons. Students love them. They spend lots of time at home with planning the lessons. They feel more conscious when there is a written instruction that helps the flow of the lesson. They use visual aids, posters, cards willingly. As learners I know that they learn better in groups, the proof of it is the time what we have spent together in front of a ‘thousands of’ books’ preparing for an exam. When they are learning words they use their imagination and guess the meaning of the word from the context.
The other two are my neighbours. One of them is a boy, who is 15 and attends to a technical school; he is in the first class. He has been learning English for 7 years. He seems to be very talented; he has good grades even the fact, that he never learns English at home. The reason why I have chosen these people for my research is that they are different in personality. The boy, of course, is brisk. I think he never gets tired. It is very hard to imagine him, sitting in the lesson straight for 45 minutes, even though he loves learning English. As I see it he prefers listening, rather than reading, and learns better by audio aids and moving, rather, than by written instructions. He also prefers activities and games where moving is needed.
The girl is 20. He attends to the University of Miskolc, Faculty of Economics. The reason why I have asked her to take part in the research is that I know that she prefers working with numbers rather than words. She is shy and silent, the absolute opposite of the boy. She learns very hard and by heart. She is able to spend long hours with learning. She is very studious, but has to learn much more to succeed than others. She pays attention in lessons and writes down ‘every word’ that was said by the teacher. Even, these difficulties, she does not feel language learning as a waste of time, she just prefers numbers and diagrams, rather than words and phrases.
The procedure of filling in the questionnaire was done at my home. I thought it was more personal, than just sending them to fill in. I wanted to see their reactions to the questions. I thought I need to be there if they have any problem with understanding the statements. I gave them the sheets (see APPENDIX A) and asked them to work on it on their own and do not hesitate too much on one statement. I was curious about their first impression.
According to Rose (1987) there are three kinds of learning styles: visual, auditory and tactile. He designed a questionnaire with which teachers are able to ascertain their students’ learning style and I have used it as a basis of my research. The questionnaire examines ten aspects:
- spelling (Rose 1987)
- talking (Rose 1987)
- concentrating (Rose 1987)
- meeting someone again (Rose 1987)
- contacting people (Rose 1987)
- reading
- doing something new in lessons
- putting together a picture puzzle
- need help with an activity
- have problem with homework
There are three possible answers to the questions: A, B or C, they have to choose the one from these that fits them the best. Answer A is a visual learner, while the one who has mostly B answers is an auditory; the person with more C answers is a tactile learner. The reasons why I have chosen this questionnaire and these statements are that they are easy to understand and last but not least they can be evaluated easily.
After doing the questionnaire, it turned out that the boy is not a tactile, who loves doing, while learning, but an auditory who easily memorizes what he heard from the teacher. As it turned out during the conversation what we had after the questionnaire, he loves listening to English on TV and learns a lot with this technique. He understood that this tactic helps him a lot and promised to keep on doing it. The best proof of his being an auditory is that he forgets faces easily, but remembers their names and the thing they have talked about better (See APPENDIX A).
The result, that the 20-year-old girl was an auditory was not surprising. As I have mentioned earlier she writes down everything, just in the case of spelling. She feels better when she writes down the word before spelling it (see Appendix A). Her response to the statement about the problem with the homework was not unexpected. I knew that she keeps trying it again and again without giving it up.
The teachers of English are both visuals, just like me. They see the word in their mind when spelling it, and learn a new word better when it is shown on a picture. I have said that they use a lot of visual aids when teaching, and as we realized it is the consequence of the fact that they are visuals themselves, which, of course does not mean that their students are visuals, too. It made them think about the methods they used before, and decided to do this questionnaire with their students in order to turn out what their learning styles are. So, they can teach them more effectively. It will help them to find those techniques that will help their learners in the language learning process.
Next, I would like to examine their language learning strategies by making them fill another questionnaire (see APPENDIX B). To design the questionnaire I have used some ideas from Karen Bond’s homepage. Here she tries to identify the characteristics, strategies and techniques of successful language learners (Bond 2002).
Language learning strategies can be categorized in three groups: cognitive, socio-affective and metacognitive language learning strategies. If a student prefers repeating/imitating, matching, memorizing, making associations means that his or her language learning strategy is cognitive. Students who like taking risks, cooperating with peers or the teacher, asking questions are said to be socio-affective and those who organize their learning process and monitor their learning and progress are metacognitive (Heffernan 1999).
To find out whether the people I have examined use cognitive or metacognitive learning strategies I have used a simple questionnaire with ten statements. Each of the statements was the characteristic of either the cognitive strategy or the metacognitive one. (see Appendix B). There were five statements that fit the metacognitive strategy and other five one that fit the cognitive strategy. Every second statement is the characteristic of the metacognitive learning strategy. They had to tic those that fit them better and with this we could find out their language learning strategy. If they have chosen more statements that were the characteristic of the metacognitive one, it meant that they prefer that learning strategy.
The result of it was that the boy prefers the cognitive strategy, as he had chosen those statements that fit that strategy. He prefers to be physically involved in activities and often rehearse silently in English before speaking in English. These statements are the characteristics of the cognitive strategy so we can state that he belongs to that group. The 20-year-old girl uses metacognitive strategies to learn, as she likes self-evaluation and self-monitoring. She organizes the time carefully that will be spent with language learning and always does self-tests before an exam.
One of the teachers of English is cognitive. As she said, she often memorizes words in a list of form, out of context. She also uses her previous knowledge to understand new rules. The other two are of the metacognitive type as both of them chose the statement that they like to make detailed list of what they need to do before starting a project, and they prefer those situation when they are given a goal to achieve in the lesson on their own.
My colleagues who took part in the research have understood the necessity of being aware of the students’ learning styles and strategies. Every student is a different character and our job is to help them find the way with which their learning process will be more effective. The students who were asked to fill in the questionnaire told that they had evolved learning strategies but this research will help them to develop it. The boy, for example, started to think about the possibility that he will write drafts before writing an essay in English. He said it may help him, because in the past he often scrambled his thought when writing an essay. As an opposite, the girl thought that she should not be so stiff, and should let herself to be more creative.
As a conclusion, we can state, that good teaching need to involve more than telling the students about their mistakes all the time; a good teacher motivates students with their successes to continue learning and teaches them the skills and strategies needed for learning a foreign language.
Works cited:
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Harmer J. (1991) The Practice of English Language Teaching, Longman Group UK Limited
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Oxford, R. (1989) The Role of Styles and Strategies in second Language Learning Online ESL Articles Retrieved 08-01-04 from the World Wide Web:
Works consulted:
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Heffernan, P. (2000) Questionnaire on Learning Styles Manitoba Association of Teachers of French, Retrieved 07-01-04 from the Word Wide Web:
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Bond, K. (2002) Identifying the Characteristics, Strategies & Techniques of Successful Language Learners Karen’s Linguistic Issues, Retrieved 07-01-04 from the Word Wide Web:
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Haynes, J. (2001) Teach to Students' Learning Styles EverythingESL.net, Retrieved 07-01-04 from the World Wide Web:
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Hismanoglu, M (2000) Language Learning Strategies in Foreign Language Learning and Teaching The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. VI, No. 8, August 2000, Retrieved 06-01-04 from the Word Wide Web:
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McKeachie, W. J., (1995) Learning Styles Can Become Learning Strategies The National Teaching and Learning Forum, Retrieved 09-01-04 from the World Wide Web:
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Oxford, R. (1990). "Language Learning Strategies: What every teacher
should know." New York: Newbury House/ Harper & Row.
9. Rose, C. (1987) Learning Styles Chaminade College Preparatory Homepage,
Retrieved 09-01-04 from the World Wide Web:
APPENDIX A
- When you spell,
a, you try to see the word
b, you sound out the word or use a phonetic approach
c, you write down the word to see if it feels right
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When you talk,
a, you dislike listening for too long
b, you enjoy listening but impatient to talk
c, you gesture and use expressive movements
-
When you concentrate,
a, you become distracted by untidiness or movement
b, you become distracted by sounds or noises
c, you become distracted by activities around you
4) When you meet someone again
a, you remember faces and the place where you met
b, you remember names and what you talked about
c, you remember best what you did together
5) When you contact people,
a, you prefer direct face-to-face dialogues
b, you prefer speaking on phone
c, you prefer talking while walking or participating in an activity
6) When you read,
a, you like descriptive scenes and imagine the actions
b, you enjoy conversations and the stories told by the characters
c, you prefer action stories and you are not a keen reader
7) When doing something new in English lessons,
a, you like to see diagrams, demonstrations, slides or posters
b, you prefer verbal instructions and talking about it with someone else
c, you prefer jump in and try it on your own
8) When putting together a picture puzzle,
a, you imagine the whole picture and follow the directions set by your mind
b, you listen to the instructions told by the teacher
c, you ignore the directions and figure it out as you go along
9) When you need help to understand an activity,
a, you seek out written instructions, pictures, diagrams
b, you call somebody to explain it and follow his or her verbal instruction
c, you keep trying it on your own, there is no way to give it up
10) When learning new words,
a, you see the action or object it expresses in your mind
b, you relate them to words that you have already heard and known
c, you relate it to an action, or simply act it out to memorize
Adapted from Colin Rose (1987) Accelerated Learning
APPENDIX B
- I memorize meaning of words in a list of form (out of context).
- I like to make detailed list of what I need to do before starting a project.
- I prefer to be physically involved in an activity.
- I always organize the time for learning.
- I rehearse silently in English before speaking in English.
- I ask others to test me in order to evaluate my development.
- I often use my previous knowledge to help solve new problems.
- I like to be given a general goal in lessons and freedom to reach it on my own.
- I memorize English grammar rules in order to apply them.
- I always do self-test in order to prepare for exams.
Adapted from Karen Bond (2002)
