learning styles

Changing spots on a leopard | Jake Kimball | August 21st, 2002

I was just reading my new TESOL Journal. There's an article on teaching to Ss learning style preferences. It is written with Asians as a specific student body reference and it described Asian Ss' characteristics. The main point seems to be that the teacher should inventory learner styles so that the teacher can work with, not against them to avoid a sort of culture clash.

However, I'm curious if anyone has had the chance to change anyone's learning style or read up on any studies about whether or not styles are malleable.   Strategies are one thing, what about styles? Should we be adapting our methodology/techniques to their styles or should we be manhandling their styles to better suit our ideals?

I think most people develop habits that are hard to break- much like the proverbial leopards' spots. If we do try to alter style preferences, isn't that a bit of cultural imperialism?

So far I've found teaching young learners in a CLT methodology (using pairs and groups) easier than adults because kids haven't yet been anchored to a particular style.

Jake

Re: changing spots on a leopard | Jerry Talandis Jr. | August 21st, 2002

Hi Jake,

It's Jerry. Interesting question you pose. I would definitely not want to mess with someone's way of doing things. I always try to make an effort to be flexible and adapt to what my students want and need. I try to adopt a policy of "give them what they want." This sounds simple, but it can be a radical idea especially regarding young Japanese college students. Most of the ones I teach have little clarity surrounding their motivation to learn English, but all of them, if asked, would say they want to improve their speaking ability. They also don't like textbooks, and want to have some say in choosing topics to talk about. When I give my students time for free-talking, allow them to choose their topics, and go light on textbook work, they seem to do better. I think if I adopted a "my way or the highway" approach, things would be a lot more difficult.

Next question: how the heck do you get kids to work in pairs or groups? Every time I've tried it has been a disaster. They just yap in L1 and nothing gets done.

Jerry

 

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