Unit 16 Learner Differences and Learner Training

Teaching objectives By the end of the lesson, students should be able to:  know how learners are different  know what is learner training  know how can we do in leaner training  know how can we help learners to become more autonomous learner

Teaching contents 1.Understanding learner differences 2. Learner training in language teaching

1. understanding learner differences We all know that people learn in different ways. Some people learn better from seeing things and using different diagrams while others enjoy reading and writing more than seeing or watching televisions. This is because different people have different learning styles.

eight different types of learners 1) visual learners 2) auditory learners 3) tactile learners 4) Kinesthetic learners 5) group learners 6) individual learners 7) authority oriented learners 8) reflective learners

conclusion Clearly, lesson which focus solely on the written word with little visual support will disadvantage someone learners and lessons focus solely on individual work will disadvantage those who prefer in groups. We need to give a variety of tasks that help students learn in different ways.

task 2 :group discussion read the different types of learner again on page 263 and to think about their own learning styles as a learner.

task 3 :group discussion  match the activities of different learning styles with different class activities individually.  Share your ideas with your classmates

multiple intelligences Explain to the students the idea of advocated by an American psychologist named Howard Gardener by solving the following two questions: (1) what is multiple intelligence? What kinds of intelligences are included? a. verbal/linguistic intelligence b. musical intelligence c. logical/mathematical intelligence d. spatial/visual intelligence e. bodily/kinesthetic intelligence f. interpersonal intelligence g. intrapersonal intelligence h. naturalist intelligence (2) what is the significance of the discovery of multiple intelligences?

conclusion The theory of multiple intelligences implies that our teaching should be able to develop as much as possible students ’ different potentials in their intelligences, giving everyone the chance to demonstrate and use their potentials to the fullest possible.

task 5, task 7 and task 8  form into groups of four.  discuss the following questions: (1)what kind of classroom activities can be used to develop student ’ s multiple intelligence? (2) what are you strong intelligences and what are you weak intelligences? What about your group members? (3) what implications can you draw from the findings with regard to teaching? back

2. learner training in language teaching In the present age of information explosion and knowledge-based economy, helping students learn how to learn has become increasingly more important than just telling them what to learn.

three areas for preparing learners to become autonomous learners by Dickinson and Carver: 1) psychological preparation 2) methodological preparation 3) practice in self-direction

learner training 1) involve students in an overview of the textbook at the beginning. 2) involve students in finding out about themselves. 3) introduce students to a number of different learning strategies. 4) help learners set up their own learning goals and make their own plans 5) share lesson aims with students in class and review them by the end of the lesson. 6) guide student to make plans for learning 7) use portfolios to promote more autonomous learning 8) help students learn to use resources

3. conclusion In this unit, we have discussed learner differences on the basis of which we introduced ways of learner training. We talked about the theory of multiple intelligence and discussed its implications for language teaching. Learner training is based on the assumptions that different learners learn in different ways and good language learners use a variety of learning strategies and are able to choose the appropriate for different tasks.