Full transcript of “2 Describing Learners”. Click a timestamp to open the video at that moment. Need another video? Use the YouTube transcript generator.
0:01 Hi, welcome to the second lecture in TIFl course. This lecture talks about scribing learners. As you know, the teacher has to know a lot about his or her learners in order to uh help them to achieve uh learning. In this lecture, we are going to talk uh about some topics in details related to learners characteristics. We are going to know the differences or the main uh sources for individual differences among learners such as age, aptitude, uh learning styles, multiple intelligence or intelligences, language levels, individual variations. So, uh you as English language teacher uh as a
0:48 teacher for teaching foreign language in Palestinian schools, you have to know more about these differences among your learners. uh to know how to deal with your students, how to help them to achieve a high level of learning and um you have to search more and more to create a more interesting um environment for them uh to achieve learning. Also you have to know more about a good uh learner characteristics or why in order to develop these characteristics among your learners in order to guide them how to develop these these characteristics um in order to help them how to be a good EFL learner. So you have to know
1:34 more about these characteristics uh and you have to search how to develop these characteristics among your learners. Uh also you have to know a teacher's role towards individual differences. Things you have to do in order to help your students to um to learn things you have to uh to to learn more to expand your uh skills teaching skills in teaching in writing lesson plan in presenting lessons in your classes. H in dealing with individual differences among learners to um how to create er how to create amazing atmosphere, how to create a safe environment for learning uh how to positive attitudes
2:23 toward learning English. As you know here in Palestine students hate learning English and they most of students have negative attitude toward learning English. So you as English language teacher you have to develop positive attitudes toward learning English by using interesting way for teaching English language by helping the students to practice English language uh in your class and guide them how to practice English language outside the classroom. As you can see here you have some questions. You are going to answer these questions during listening to this lecture. Do you think all learners have the same characteristics? Explain your answer. Uh I think you are going to say
3:11 no. Not all students have the same characteristics. Yes, you are right. But you have to explain your answer and to say why you say no. Uh what are the main factors affect students different learning? Um, you can answer this question in in points to let me know more about the factors that affect the students def learning in Palestinian schools. Do you think EFL teachers have to know deeply about students characteristics? Why? Yes. try to answer this question during this lecture. A after you learn more about EFL teachers
3:58 characteristics, do you have most of these characteristics? Try to answer this this question objectively. Uh you have to judge yourself, measure your uh characteristics if you are going to be a good
4:44 If your answer is no, so what should you need to do in order to enhance your characteristics to be a good and successful EFL teacher for students in Palestinian schools? Uh what's your role towards individual differences among learners? So please try to listen h concentrate your your listening in order to find answers for these questions. Learner characteristics include personal character uh characteristics about learners uh such as age, gender, academic level, language level, cultural background, skills and
5:30 uh ability. So learner characteristics influences the acquisition of information, attitudes, beliefs, behaviors and achievement uh or failures. Um so EFL teacher has to pay attention to learner characteristics because it may influence how and why they learn. So knowing learner characteristics helps teacher in planning and presenting lesson in more efficient and effective uh way and motivate students to pay attention during the whole time of uh the lesson. Motivate students um toward uh the lesson. Um so personal characteristic uh
6:18 characteristics often uh related to uh personal information such as the age, gender, uh language level, a cultural background, uh their ability and skills, uh attitudes toward language uh etc. But academic level students learning goals, prior knowledge if they have previous ideas, previous words, previous uh previous learning um previous English learning and educational level, social and emotional uh characteristics related to uh the their sociability. If students
7:08 prefer to work individually in a groups or in pairs and self-efficacy uh cognitive such as uh attention span, the memory uh mental procedure uh intellectual skills and so on. Learner differences. In learner differences, we are going to talk about age, aptitude, learner styles, MI and language levels. Why? Because all these things affect uh the uh learning and teaching process. As you see here, there are
7:54 different um characteristics for children, teenagers and adult. Um so uh you can see children like moving a lot uh cons can concentrate but there they have limited attention span. Uh they uh can learn through experience learning by doing they cannot learn uh by um hearing about the language. They uh need uh real examples need to do things in order to learn. uh need to see examples in order to learn. Uh are not very able to control and blend their own behavior because they are still learning. H are not afraid of making mistakes or uh
8:42 taking risks. Yes, because they still learning and build concepts. H are not uh aware of themselves and others actions. Pay attention to meaning in language. So you have to teach them through context not in abstract ways. So you have to give them examples uh include uh the new language for example a new words new structure in order to help them to learn. They want to learn to know the uh general meaning not to know the meaning of each word in the sentence. uh have limited experience of life because they are still children. Uh what about teenagers? Um so different
9:30 activi different characteristics is starting to keep uh still for a longer period but they still need more uh to move uh concentrate uh concentration developing uh also uh beginning to learn in abstract way through thinking as well experiencing uh uh beginning to control and plan their own behavior. more worry about what others think of them. Sometimes uncomfortably aware of themselves and or their action pay attention to meaning and increasingly to form beginning to increase their experience of life. So you can not out of these characteristics they uh be they began to um uh develop
10:19 their skills, social skills, thinking skills, attention span, uh worry about things around them, pay attention to people, uh become more sociable. Uh what about adults? Adults able to keep still uh or for longer periods can concentrate for long period longer period uh learn in more abstract way. So the teacher here can start from uh the grammar rule then after that examples after that practice. But for children uh and sometimes for teenagers uh the teacher should start from examples help students to elect the rule out of examples then
11:06 after that practice uh but for adults students prefer to uh learn through a deductive way not inductive way. Usually able to control and plan their own behavior. uh not so willing to make mistakes or take risks because they pay attention a lot about others people around them. So uh they uh want to know more about uh things they can do allow thing allowing things and things they cannot do in order to get students or h get others respect aware of themselves and others. So they be they become more aware about their uh actions and be
11:53 performance. Pay attention to form and meaning in language. Uh so they want to know the meaning of each word not the general meaning the general idea uh and then practice have experience of life. So because they are adults as you see here we can uh notice that uh each age group is different. A English language teacher must teach each group according to uh the common differences by using a suitable method um that is suit to them. So individual differences here means that each students is different from another. So
12:40 the teacher should uh pay attention to these differences in order to help them to learn by v varying their um teaching aids activities uh methods uh and procedures in order to achieve learning for students. Aptitude uh aptitude as uh you not nowadays teacher uh used to uh to measure students ability by using diagnostic test at the beginning of each year in order to know their aptitude toward learning uh the subject. So uh if you know students level by using
13:26 diagnostic test uh to uh know their um uh attitude towards the uh English language uh as a foreign language not uh as main language. Uh this will help you to um this will help you to uh meet their individual differences. This will help you to help them to achieve learning uh and achieve the objective of different language uh different language lessons. Uh now it's time for talking about learning style vague uh visual uh auditory or kinesthetic uh learners. So, uh, learning styles are ways that a
14:13 student would naturally take in or process or remember information and skills. Uh, or the h the way they like to use in order to learn or interact or think. Um, you may have one or more than one type of these uh learning styles. But let we know first uh the meaning of each one. Visual the learner learns uh p best through seeing how uh for example watch video watch um or reading the material learning material uh drawing uh mind map or to learn concepts. But
15:02 auditory learners the learner learns best through hearing. How? By uh depend in he prefers audio materials in order to learn likes to record their own notes and listen to themselves or to her or himself. So the learner depends only on listening learn through uh hearing or uh listening. But uh for kinesthetic learners the learner learns best through using body. He likes physical experience to learn. He wants to feel the object and prefer to move around while learning something
15:48 uh like to learn by doing by experience to pass experience in order to learn. So you if you think about yourself which type of these types do you prefer and why? For example, for me uh I am visual uh most of the time I'm visual learner. Why? Because I prefer to see and read things in order to learn. What about you? So you have to think in your uh learning style. Um but again you have to think more you as English language teacher uh you have to develop students or learners uh visual auditory ketic uh
16:35 learning styles not depend only on one thing or one learning style. So you need to vary your teaching methods, vary your activities, uh vary uh teaching aids in order to develop different different learning styles uh or learners different different learning styles because students may always change or develop their learning styles or students may have one or more than one learning style. Multiple intelligence am I uh this uh this is a theory presented by gardener and it includes seven types of intelligences as you see here in this
17:20 table. Linguistic, logical, special, musical, bodily, interpersonal or intrapersonal. And here different words the teacher can use to develop these types of intelligences uh among students. for example to develop linguistic uh intelligence uh and it called a word smart intelligence. So the teacher can help students to find the right words to express what he or she mean. So the teacher can ask students to read, write, talk, listen, memorize, focus etc. But uh for the second type type of um intelligence which is logical or mathematical intelligence. In this type
18:07 the learner can find things ask questions explore uh relationships between different items or different words. So uh the teacher can ask students to figure out if things out uh work things out uh work with number ask a questions um and it can categorize things classify things it so all these words can be used to develop logical mathematical intelligence special intelligence the learner can uh draw, build things, design a new thing, watch a movie,
18:53 create a a new thing and the teacher can use these words to develop uh this kind of intelligence. So uh the person who has special intelligence can imagine things sense sensing uh uh things. Uh so uh the one two the fourth one musical intelligence in a musical intelligence the learner can um sing listen to respond to music to music. So in this type of uh in intelligence um the learner
19:40 uh hearing sounds uh rhythms uh or can play with a musical machine. Uh and the teacher can ask uh students to uh sing different songs to listen to music to play a musical machine uh to respond to music etc. Uh bodily orchestic intelligence the students here can in bodily organistic intelligence and it it is called also body smart. So coordinate coordinating his or her mind with his and her body. So uh can mind with body
20:29 coordinate together to achieve learning or to achieve response to different things. So the teacher can ask students to touch to talk uh or to do action verbs for for example. Erh next one interpersonal and uh pay attention to this type of intelligence interpersonal and the next one is intrapersonal. The difference between uh these two types of intelligences the first one interpersonal uh have a lot of friends. The second one intra work alone. So when the teacher ask students to work individually it is uh this type of a question develops
21:17 intrapersonal individually work with your own but interpersonal when the teacher ask students to share a partner to share a group uh to present for example a presentation to talk about so talk about in front of the class it is entire are personal. So uh interpersonal people smart but intrapersonal self smart and uh by the end these seven intelligences we are going to talk about them in details next lecture by giving different activities uh for developing
22:04 each type of these intelligences and we are going to match between multiple intelligences and learning styles and how can you as EFL teachers create uh one activity but you can develop different kinds of in intelligences, different types of intelligences and different learning styles uh within uh within uh one activity. So please try to prepare yourself for next lecture by creating activities or by go back to English for Palestine, the uh English for Palestine and see different exercises, different
22:50 activities in the textbook and try to uh find out which kind of intelligence this activity develops and say why, which kind of learning style this activity develops And why uh uh this is the end language level. Uh there are different levels uh the students have but uh beginner this is for uh students in kindergarten. children in kindergarten for example elementary uh for elementary stage or elementary schools students in grade 1 to four low intermediate pre-intermediate mid intermediate students from uh grades uh
23:37 five to nearly 10 or 12 uh or 11 and they can uh from 12 also advanced students in class or a grade 12 or 11 to 12 or university students. You are going to teach elementary, low intermediate, pre-intermediate, mid intermediate and advanced students uh according to your uh specialization uh and your bachelor degree. Good learners characteristics. Here are a lot of characteristics for good
24:23 learners. Uh but uh you can add more you can change these characteristics. Uh write different things. Uh so uh as you hear see here different characteristics uh tolerance, positive involvement uh uh goal orientation uh also creative use uh contextual clues and different things. So these are characteristics for good learners. Uh you can add more. Uh what do you think the good learner characteristics should be? Especially learners who uh learns English as a foreign language should do
25:11 what and why. So you can add more for these characteristics based on things uh we mentioned during this lecture. you as English language teacher, how can you benefit from these things in teaching English for uh for example elementary stage students or uh intermediate or u advanced students. You can use different things in your teaching. For example, you have to consider variation among students or differences among students uh students background. Uh why to appreciate their
25:59 ability? How can you appreciate students ability? By creating suitable activities, suitable procedure to help them to achieve the objective of the lesson. Uh also uh you have to create different activities to help students to practice different language skills to develop their different learning styles to develop their multiple intelligences to meet the requirements of the uh current area uh to help them to overcome their difficulties during learning English as a foreign language. Uh so you have to plan appropriate
26:44 activities uh to uh overcome and to meet individual differences and variations among your students. Uh also you have to develop your teaching skills and competencies. You have to develop your background about how to teach English as a foreign language. Uh by reading a lot about teaching methods, by reading a lot about recent trends in teaching English as a foreign language. Uh by uh reading a lot and practice how to create activities that help students to uh feel interest during learning English, during practice English. uh also uh how to create activities that uh
27:32 develop more than one multiple intelligence or one multi one one learning style. Uh all these things help teacher to be a creative teacher to be distinguished and unique teacher. Uh thank you for listening for this lecture. Uh next lecture we are going to talk about and discuss more activities uh uh or how can you create activities to develop uh students multiple intelligences and learning styles. So please try to prepare different activities, create different activities to develop a different learning styles or different multiple intelligence before attend the next lecture in order to compare between your activities and
28:18 next lecture activities. Thank you for listening.
