Unit 13

Learner characteristics

To effectively choose teaching methods and help students learn, teachers must first know learner characteristics since they could come from very different backgrounds and have various learning needs. In fact, those characteristics involve learning styles, learning strategies and maturity.

Let’s tackle learning styles they describe the way people process new incoming information . On the other hand, they relate to the physical sense we use to learn, our way of interacting with other people and our style of thinking. There are three types of learning styles. Learners receive process and retain information by using visual, auditory or kinesthetic learning styles.

Regarding to visual learners learn best through watching and looking,  body language, gestures and facial expression of their teachers to. Meanwhile, auditory learners learn best by listening and hearing as well as they prefer to thoroughly discuss materials and often pay close attention to the pitch, tone, words and speed of which teachers deliver their messages. Finally, kinesthetic learning involves the need for a student to touch and feel elements of their surroundings in order to retain information. 

Referring to learning strategies are the ways that learners choose and use to learn language by taking into account that the right strategy at the right time can help us learn the language better.  Let’s cite the most useful learning strategies; asking the teacher or others to give you feedback on your language use and thinking about how to memorise all the new words you meet in each lesson.

Let’s talk about maturity involves becoming grown up physically, mentally and emotionally. Children, teenagers and adults have different levels of maturity which means they learn in different ways.

In conclusion, teachers must know all of those characteristics to help and guide their students successfully however it is not possible for the teachers to match the learner characteristics of each learner all the time. Across a number of lessons teachers can try to vary how they teach so that they can match learner characteristics of a range of learners.

Here you have some links which contain useful information:

http://coerll.utexas.edu/methods/modules/learners/01/characteristics.php

http://es.slideshare.net/clarindabrown/skill-acquisition-characteristics-of-the-learning