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Didactics September 26Th, 2019 Describing Learners - Chapter N°5 Questionnaire

The document describes different types of language learners and their characteristics. It discusses common myths about language learning at different ages and provides a comparative chart highlighting the main differences between young children, adolescents, and adults. It also describes two learner categories: convergers, who prefer independent and analytic learning, and conformists, who prefer learning about language from an authority figure. Finally, it lists some learner styles and intelligences, noting that individuals vary in their preferred learning styles and strengths.

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Sabrina Romero
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19 views

Didactics September 26Th, 2019 Describing Learners - Chapter N°5 Questionnaire

The document describes different types of language learners and their characteristics. It discusses common myths about language learning at different ages and provides a comparative chart highlighting the main differences between young children, adolescents, and adults. It also describes two learner categories: convergers, who prefer independent and analytic learning, and conformists, who prefer learning about language from an authority figure. Finally, it lists some learner styles and intelligences, noting that individuals vary in their preferred learning styles and strengths.

Uploaded by

Sabrina Romero
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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DIDACTICS SEPTEMBER 26th,

2019

DESCRIBING LEARNERS – CHAPTER N°5

QUESTIONNAIRE

1. Which are those myths related to learners and language learning along their whole intellectual
development? Prioritize the most relevant ones.
2. Build a comparative chart emphasizing those aspects that cause the main difference among young
children, adolescent and adults.
3. Choose two learner categories and describe them.
4. Among the numerous different learners descriptions make a list of those you consider is/are your own
style.

ANSWERS

1. The most popular myths related to learners and language learning are:
 Young children learn faster and more effectively than any other age group.
 Lynne Cameron suggests that children “reproduce the accent of their teachers with deadly
accuracy”
 Carol Read recounts how she hears a young students of hers saying Listen, Quiet now, Attention,
please! In such a perfect imitation of the teacher that “the thought of parody passes through my
head”
 Children from about the age of 12 “seem to be far better learners than younger ones in most
aspects of acquisition, pronunciation excluded”.
 Patsy Lightbown and Nina Spada, reviewing the literature on the subject, point to the various
studies showing that older children and adolescents make more progress than younger learners.
2. Comparative chart

YOUNG CHILDREN ADOLESCENTS ADULTS


 They respond to meaning even if  Adolescents are often seen as  They can engage with abstract
they do not understand individual problem students. thought. This suggests that we do
words.  Most of them understand the need not have to rely exclusively on
 They often learn indirectly rather for learning and, with the right activities such as games and songs –
than directly- that is they take in goals, can be responsible enough to though these may be appropriate
information from all sides, learning do what is asked of them. for some students.
from everything around them rather  Adolescence is bound up, after all,  They have a whole range of life
than only focusing on the precise with a pronounced search for experiences to draw on.
topic they are being taught. identity and a need for self-esteem;  They have expectations about the
 Their understanding comes not just adolescents need to feel good learning process, and they already
form explanation, but also from about themselves and valued. have their own set patterns of
what they see and hear and,  Teenage students often have an learning.
crucially, have a chance to touch acute need for peer approval.  Adults tend, on the whole, to be
and interact with.  more disciplined than other groups,
 They find abstract concepts such and, crucially, they are often
grammar rules difficult to grasp. prepared to struggle on despite
 They generally display an boredom.
enthusiasm for learning and a  They come into classrooms with a
curiosity about the world around rich range of experiences which
them. allow teachers to use a wide range
 They have a need for individual of activities with them.
attention and approval from the  Unlike young children and
teacher. teenagers, they often have a clear
 They are keen to talk about understanding of why they are
themselves and respond well to learning and what they want to get
learning that uses themselves and out of it.
their own lives as main topics in the  They can be critical of teaching
classroom. methods.
 They have a limited attention span;  They may have experienced failure
unless actives are extremely or criticism at school which makes
engaging, they can get easily bored, them anxious and under-confidents
losing interest after then minutes or about learning a language.
so.  Many older adults worry that their
intellectual powers may be
diminishing with age. They are
concerned to keep their creative
powers alive, to maintain a “sense
of generativity”

3. Learner differences

Individual variations

If some people are better at some things than others, this would indicate that there are differences in the
ways individuals brains work.

 Neuro-Linguistic Programming: these systems are described in the acronym “VAKOG” which stands
for Visual (we look and see), Auditory (we hear and listen), Kinaesthetic (we feel externally, internally
or through movement), Olfactory (we smell things) and Gustatory (we taste things).

Most people, while using all these systems to experience the world, nevertheless have one “preferred
primary system”. Some people are particularly stimulated by music when their preferred primary
system is auditory, whereas others, whose primary preferred system is visual, respond most
powerfully to images. An extension of this is when a visual person “sees” music, or has a strong sense
of different colours for different sounds. The VAKOG formulation, while somewhat problematic in the
distinctions it attempts to make, offers a framework to analyze different student responses to stimuli
and environments.

 MI theory: MI stands for Multiple Intelligences. It listed seven of these: Musical/rhythmical,


Verbal/linguistic, Visual/spatial, Bodily/kinesthetic, Logical/mathematical, Intrapersonal and
Interpersonal.

All people have all of these intelligences, but in each person one (or more) of them is more
pronounced. If we accept that different intelligences predominate in different people, it suggests that
the same learning task may not be appropriate for all of our students. While people with
strong/logical/mathematical intelligence might respond well to a complex grammar explanation, a
different student might need the comfort of diagrams and physical demonstration because their
strength is in the visual/spatial area. Other students who have a strong interpersonal intelligence may
require a more interactive climate if their learning is to be effective.

Learner styles and strategies


A preoccupation with learner personalities and styles has been a major factor in psycholinguistic research.
Keith Willing, working with adults students in Australia, suggested four learner categories:

 Converges: these are students who are by nature solitary, prefer to avoid groups, and who are
independent and confident in their wen abilities. Most importantly they are analytic and can impose
their own structures on learning. They tend to be cool and pragmatic.
 Conformists: these are students who prefer to emphasize learning “about language” over learning to
use it. They tend to be dependent on those in authority and are perfectly happy to work in non-
communicative classrooms, doing what they are told. A classroom of conformists is one which prefers
to see well-organized teachers.
 Communicative learners: these are language use oriented. They are comfortable out of class and
show degree of confidence and a willingness to take risks which their colleagues may lack. They are
much more interested in social interaction with other speakers of the language than they are with
analysis of how the language works. They are perfectly happy to operate without the guidance of a
teacher.

4.

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