Learning styles and language learning: One of the issues Spence points out with regard to theories about learning styles is the sheer volume of literature on this topic.[1] In this post however, I aim only to discuss my response to the aspects of learning style theories which are relevant to my experience of teaching Latin to complete beginners.
The majority of scholarship in this area focuses on the importance of teachers being aware of the individual learning styles of each student. Although Coffield et al. make this comment with regard to post 16 Further Education and Higher Education,[2] it seems to me to be far more relevant to school level education. The independent nature of university level study means that it is vital for the students to be aware of their own learning style, as Coffield et al. also point out.[3] The role of the teacher in this educational setting is to help the student identify the best method for them in a given case. I say in a given case because, as my experience this year has shown, students who may be comfortable in certain subjects with one particular learning style are likely to need to get used to a completely different approach for learning a new language. Coffield et al. point out the different factors which may lead a student to adopt a particular learning style,[4] all of which are valid. However, I would also add to the list the particular subject which the student is undertaking. If the student’s familiar learning style is an ill fit for the intensive study of a new language from scratch, this can be disheartening; students must be made aware that a learning style must suit the given topic as much as it must suit themselves. Students who consider themselves to fall under only one particular learning style, which turns out not work for them with this new subject, can be made to feel that they are not cut out for it or not capable of doing it. The sooner the flexibility of learning styles is pointed out to them the better.
Even within Latin language learning itself, a variety of different learning styles is required to cope with the variety of different types of information. In my class, some students preferred to recite verb tables aloud whereas some preferred to repeatedly write them down, some students appreciated having a mnemonic acronym to help them remember how to approach a sentence for translation while others took a behaviourist approach and benefitted more from practising this task over and over, and the majority students found the best way to get to grips with the sequence of tenses was with a visual aid in the form of a timeline. Each task required a different method. The quick paced and varied nature of language learning from scratch at university makes Mosston’s athletic analogy particularly relevant: ‘Elite players learn to adjust their performance to ongoing conditions. Athletes must become self-coaching to make quality decisions in the rapid changes of games.’[5]
I do not wish to entirely discount the possibility of innate learning styles. In terms of the VARK model,[6] for example, one’s particular preferred learning style could be responsible for the course choices they make; visual or kinaesthetic learners being likely to opt for art or archaeology courses, aural learners seeking out courses with a large focus on lectures, while read/write learners being particularly keen to undertake literature based courses or a dissertation.
It is easy to get bogged down in the many different terminologies of different theories but this should not discourage us from taking them into account. In conclusion, I agree with Spence that, ‘we don’t know {exactly} what learning styles are,’[7] but perhaps this is because of the extent of their variation and flexibility; they not only vary from person to person but are also required to vary from subject to subject and from activity to activity.
Bibliography
Coffield, F., Moseley, D., Hall, E., Eccelstone, K., (2005) Should we be using learning styles? What research has to say to practice. London: Learning Skills Research Centre. Spence, L. D., (2011) Getting Over Learning Styles, //The Teaching Professor//, 25.6: 4,5.
[1] Spence (2012). See also Appendix 1 in Coffield et al. (2005), which lists 49 different theorists each with their own associated terminologies.
[3] ‘If students become more independent in their learning as a result of knowing their strengths and weaknesses, then negative effects from lower levels of contact between lecturers and students will be counterbalanced if students develop more effective learning strategies which they can use outside formal contact time.’ (2005: 10). [4]For post-16 students, previous experience, current reasons for being in post-16 education and other pressures such as employment, social and personal/family life are all important factors that contribute to how they respond to the concept of learning styles, and whether a particular instrument labels them, leaves them with the comfort of their preferred learning style, or offers them more open-ended ideas about learning. (op. cit.:22) [5] Cited in Spence (op. cit. n.1 above).
One of the issues Spence points out with regard to theories about learning styles is the sheer volume of literature on this topic.[1] In this post however, I aim only to discuss my response to the aspects of learning style theories which are relevant to my experience of teaching Latin to complete beginners.
The majority of scholarship in this area focuses on the importance of teachers being aware of the individual learning styles of each student. Although Coffield et al. make this comment with regard to post 16 Further Education and Higher Education,[2] it seems to me to be far more relevant to school level education. The independent nature of university level study means that it is vital for the students to be aware of their own learning style, as Coffield et al. also point out.[3] The role of the teacher in this educational setting is to help the student identify the best method for them in a given case. I say in a given case because, as my experience this year has shown, students who may be comfortable in certain subjects with one particular learning style are likely to need to get used to a completely different approach for learning a new language. Coffield et al. point out the different factors which may lead a student to adopt a particular learning style,[4] all of which are valid. However, I would also add to the list the particular subject which the student is undertaking. If the student’s familiar learning style is an ill fit for the intensive study of a new language from scratch, this can be disheartening; students must be made aware that a learning style must suit the given topic as much as it must suit themselves. Students who consider themselves to fall under only one particular learning style, which turns out not work for them with this new subject, can be made to feel that they are not cut out for it or not capable of doing it. The sooner the flexibility of learning styles is pointed out to them the better.
Even within Latin language learning itself, a variety of different learning styles is required to cope with the variety of different types of information. In my class, some students preferred to recite verb tables aloud whereas some preferred to repeatedly write them down, some students appreciated having a mnemonic acronym to help them remember how to approach a sentence for translation while others took a behaviourist approach and benefitted more from practising this task over and over, and the majority students found the best way to get to grips with the sequence of tenses was with a visual aid in the form of a timeline. Each task required a different method. The quick paced and varied nature of language learning from scratch at university makes Mosston’s athletic analogy particularly relevant: ‘Elite players learn to adjust their performance to ongoing conditions. Athletes must become self-coaching to make quality decisions in the rapid changes of games.’[5]
I do not wish to entirely discount the possibility of innate learning styles. In terms of the VARK model,[6] for example, one’s particular preferred learning style could be responsible for the course choices they make; visual or kinaesthetic learners being likely to opt for art or archaeology courses, aural learners seeking out courses with a large focus on lectures, while read/write learners being particularly keen to undertake literature based courses or a dissertation.
It is easy to get bogged down in the many different terminologies of different theories but this should not discourage us from taking them into account. In conclusion, I agree with Spence that, ‘we don’t know {exactly} what learning styles are,’[7] but perhaps this is because of the extent of their variation and flexibility; they not only vary from person to person but are also required to vary from subject to subject and from activity to activity.
Bibliography
Coffield, F., Moseley, D., Hall, E., Eccelstone, K., (2005) Should we be using learning styles? What research has to say to practice. London: Learning Skills Research Centre.
Spence, L. D., (2011) Getting Over Learning Styles, //The Teaching Professor//, 25.6: 4,5.
[1] Spence (2012). See also Appendix 1 in Coffield et al. (2005), which lists 49 different theorists each with their own associated terminologies.
[2] E.g. Coffield et al. (2005:10).
[3] ‘If students become more independent in their learning as a result of knowing their strengths and weaknesses, then negative effects from lower levels of contact between lecturers and students will be counterbalanced if students develop more effective learning strategies which they can use outside formal contact time.’ (2005: 10).
[4]For post-16 students, previous experience, current reasons for being in post-16 education and other pressures such as employment, social and personal/family life are all important factors that contribute to how they respond to the concept of learning styles, and whether a particular instrument labels them, leaves them with the comfort of their preferred learning style, or offers them more open-ended ideas about learning. (op. cit.:22)
[5] Cited in Spence (op. cit. n.1 above).
[6] http://www.vark-learn.com
[7] loc cit. n.1 above.