INTENTIONAL COGNITION, LEARNING STYLES, AND MOTIVATION SUBTOPIC: LEARNING STYLES, MOTIVATION, AND THE CALL CLASSROOM

Introduction Differences in race, clothing, food, languages stems from societies, cultures, and families For language teachers, these differences are important – WHY?  they influence students’ learning

* WHAT ARE LEARNING STYLES, and WHY ARE THEY IMPORTANT TO TEACHERS? Pioneers of learning style concept – Johann Pestalozzi, Maria Montessori Egbert & Hanson Smith (1999) defines learning style as: “an individual’s natural, habitual, and preferred way(s) of absorbing, processing and retaining new information and skills”

4 domains of learning styles: Cognitive Affective Perceptual Physiological

“NO SINGLE STYLE IS BETTER OR WORSE THAN ANY OTHER” “EVERYONE CAN LEARN; WE JUST LEARN DIFFERENTLY”

Language teachers who can match their students’ learning experience to their learning styles or help them understand new ways of learning can ensure that the students have an opportunity to learn optimally even though they may learn differently.

Easier said than done? The reason being… Teachers must ensure that their teaching style enhances rather than interferes with learning, They should be able to teach to the many different learning styles that exist among students Learning style can change with time and context

Practical solution?  Identify student’s primary style and teach to it while also giving students opportunities to experience different ways of learning (Kinsella, 1995).

WHAT TYPES OF LEARNING STYLES ARE THERE? 1. Cultural Learning Styles Many of the differences between people originate in societal institutions. Although culture is not the single determinant, it often plays a significant role in the learning styles unconsciously adopted by many people from different cultures. Learners from one society may have quite different ways of doing things from those from another society

2. Individual Learning Styles Helping students learn is a matter of understanding what learning styles are and taking advantage of them 4 dimensions of learning styles:

A. Cognitive Dimension Learners are classified according to their abilities to pick out significant information

B. Affective Dimension Include aspects of personality (attention, emotion, and valuing) Affective dimension features also includes conceptual level and locus of control

Conceptual level – the degree of structure that a person needs to learn effectively Locus of control – describes whether an individual’s perceptions of causality may be internal or external

Internal or introverted learners feel responsible for their own behavior and prefer to explore on their own

External or extroverted learners feel that responsibility is collective. They base their perceptions on events and on what other people say or do. These learners like interactive activities such as group work or role-play.

C. Perceptual Dimension Refers to one or a combination of up to 3 possible perceptual channels – auditory, visual, and kinesthetic

Dunn and Griggs’ (1995) research – school learning and assessment are heavily biased toward the auditory and visual learning styles. According to them, most adolescent males are not auditory learners...

As a result, lectures, discussions, and listening are the least effective ways of teaching males

D. Physiological Dimension Learning preferences predicated by biological differences, such as gender and reaction to the physical environment.