Describing Learners

Outline of discussion

A Age
• Young children B Learner differences
• Adolescents • Aptitude
• Good learner
• Adult
characteristics
• Learner styles
• Language levels
C Motivation • Individual variations
• Defining motivation • What to do about
• Sources of motivation individual differences
• Initiating and sustaining
motivation
And Moreeeee...!!
Age

• Young children
• Adolescents
• Adult
Young children
Young children (up to 9-10 y.o), learn in the following
ways:
They respond to meaning even if they do not understand
individual words.
They often learn indirectly rather than directly - that is they
take in information from all sides, learning from everything
around them rather than only focusing on the precise topic
they are being taught.
Their understanding comes not just from explanation, but
also from what they see and hear and, crucially, have a
chance to touch and interact with.
 Young children (cont.)
displaying an enthusiasm for learning and a curiosity about
the world around them.
a need for individual attention and approval from the
teacher.
keen to talk about themselves, and respond well to learning
that uses themselves and their own lives as main topics in the
classroom.
a limited attention span; unless activities are extremely
engaging they can easily get bored, losing interest after ten
minutes or so.
adolescence
the search for individual identity, and that this search
provides the key challenge for this age group.
Identity has to be forged among classmates and friends;
peer approval is considerably more important for the
student than the attention of the teacher which, for
younger children, is so crucial.
disruptive in class
Adult learners
can engage with abstract thought.
have a whole range of life experiences to
draw on.
have expectations about the learning
process, and may already have their own
set patterns of learning.
Adult (cont.)
tend, on the whole, to be more disciplined
than some teenagers, and crucially, they are
often prepared to struggle on despite
boredom.
come into classrooms with a rich range of
experiences which allow teachers to use a
wide range of activities with them.
often have a clear understanding of why they
are learning and what they want to get out of
it.
Learner differences
Aptitude
Attitude
Motivation
Good learner characteristics
positive task orientation
being prepared to approach tasks in a positive fashion
ego involvement
 where success is important for a student's self-image
high aspirations,
goal orientation, and
perseverance (ketekunan)
Learner styles
Convergers
Solitary by nature
prefer to avoid groups,
independent and confident in their own abilities.
analytic
can impose their own structures on learning.
tend to be cool and pragmatic.
Learning style (cont)
Conformists
emphasize learning 'about language' over learning to use
it.
dependent on those in authority
perfectly happy to work in non-communicative
classrooms,
doing what they are told
prefers to see well-organised teachers.
Learner styles (cont.)
Concrete learners:
Are like conformists,
enjoy the social aspects of learning and
Like to learn from direct experience.
interested in language use and Language as
communication rather than language as a system.
enjoy games and groupwork in class.
Lerner style (cont.)
Communicative learners:
language use orientated.
comfortable out of class
show a degree of confidence and
Show willingness to take risks which their colleagues
may lack.
much more interested in social interaction with other
speakers of the language than they are with analysis of
how the language works.
perfectly happy to operate without the guidance of a
teacher.
Language levels
advanced
upper intermediate
mid-intermediate
lower intermediate/pre-intermediate
Elementary (real beginner / false
beginner)
 Implications of lang levels

The plateau effect

Methodology
Language
Topics Language
Levels
Individual variations
Neuro-linguistic programming
'VAKOG' which stands for
 Visual (look and see),
 Auditory (hear and listen),
 Kinaesthetic (feel externally, internally, or through movement),
 Olfactory (smell things),
 Gustatory (taste things).

MI theory
Motivation
Extrinsic motivation
is caused by any number of outside factors, for
example:

the need to pass an exam,
 the hope of financial reward,
 or the possibility of future travel
Motivation (cont.)
Intrinsic motivation,
comes from within the individual. Thus a person might
be motivated by the enjoyment of the learning process
itself or by a desire to make themselves feel better.
Sources of motivation
The society we live in
Significant others
The teacher
The method
Initiating and sustaining motivation
Goals and goal setting
motivation is closely bound up with a person's desire to achieve a goal. A
distinction needs to be made here between long- and short-term goals.

Learning environment
When students walk into an attractive classroom at the beginning of a
course, it may help to get their motivation for the process going. When
they come to an unattractive place motivation may not be initiated in this
way.
We can decorate even the most unattractive classrooms with all kinds of
visual material to make them more agreeable as learning environments.

Interesting classes
Goals and goal setting
motivation is closely bound up with a person's desire to
achieve a goal: long- and short-term goals.
Long-term goals may include the mastery of English, the
passing of an exam (at the end of the year), the
possibility of a better job in the future, etc.
Short-term goals, on the other hand, might be the
learning of a small amount of new language, the
successful writing of an essay, the ability to partake in a
discussion or the passing of the progress test at the end of
the week.
Learning environment
When students walk into an attractive classroom at the
beginning of a course, it may help to get their
motivation for the process going.
When they come to an unattractive place motivation
may not be initiated in this way.
We can decorate even the most unattractive classrooms
with all kinds of visual material to make them more
agreeable as learning environments.
Interesting classes
clearly need to be interested both in the subject they
are studying and in the activities and topics they are
presented with.
provide them with a variety of subjects and exercises
to keep them engaged
The choice of material to take into class will be crucial
too, but even more important than this will be the ways
in which it is used in the lesson.