Learning Styles vs Learning Strategies

[Heath]

Hi Betty,

Learning styles are about the learners themselves and what types of things they benefit from in contrast with what other learners benefit from.
A couple of examples:

• * Auditory vs kinaesthetic vs visual
  (Some people learn better by doing things, some learn better by seeing things, etc)
  * Outgoing vs reserved
  (Some people learn best through interaction and social activities, others learn best through introspect and reflection)
  * Field dependent vs field independent
  (Some people see things as a whole and find it difficult to break things up into smaller parts, others find it easy to do)

Learning strategies are about techniques that people can use in order to help themselves to learn better, and/or to: memorise things, develop skills and sub-skills, cope in interaction despite limits in lexis or grammar, monitor their own development etc.
A couple of examples:

• * To make regular use of review using a spiralling review system (ie. review 3 hours later first, then again 1 day later, then again 1 week later)
  * To use different methods for organising and recording lexis in a notebook (eg. sorting by part of speech sometimes, sorting by topic other times; using a mind-map sometimes, writing words in short made up stories other times, etc)
  * To use a technique like 'The Keyword Technique' to help memorise vocabulary
  * To make a point of looking at pictures, headlines, subtitles, and the introductory paragraph of a text to help in understanding the details when reading
  * To 'make up' new words or to use circumlocution (eg. saying 'foot finger' when the word 'toe' is unknown)

Hope that helps.

[Heath]

Oops, I hit 'New Topic' instead of 'Reply'.

Should be here: http://forums.eslcafe.com/teacher/viewt ... 5&start=15