UNIT 13

LEARNER CHARACTERISTICS

"Humans have certain properties and characteristics which are intrinsic to them, just as every other organisim does." Noam Chomsky

While the topic was presented I learnt how learner characteristics like motivation, learning style, learning strategies and maturity involves in the language teaching classroom. First of all, each individual learner has her/his own way to study like kinesthetic (physical rewards, handling objects, interacting, etc.), auditory (enjoys talking and listening activities, remember faces, etc.) and visual (memorize by seeing graphics and pictures, a good speller and handwriting, etc.). All these learning styles are set up inside classroom in order to help students to achieve a good learning process. On the other hand, learning strategies are the ways in which learners learn and remember information such as: paraphrasing, analyzing memorizing, discussion and so on.  Consequently, maturity implies becoming grown physically, mentally and emotionally.  It means that children, teenagers and adults are already learnt in different ways. For instance, a child has a short attention span so the class should have a little brake meanwhile teenagers’ concentration is developed and they pay attention to meaning and to form of the target language. In contrast, adults are aware of themselves and their actions, pay attention and conscious motivation. To sum up, a classroom must be adapted according students’ characteristic, learning style and interest.

For these aspects and reasons, teacher must be aware of what kind of activities allow students to work in a classroom. I suggest some of them:

• Present mingle activities (question swap, talk when the music stop, fish and chips, an old friend, find your partner, etc.)
• Provide a positive feedback at the end of the class (the warm seat, find the ball, the flying carpet, square talk and so on)

Here I will share some links:

Click on this video to find extra information. 

Heinle & Heinle, Inc. (1990). Language learning strategies: What every teacher should know. Boston, MA: Oxford, R. 

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwI-mNRW9Mc