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DESCRIBING LEARNERS by Jeremy Harmer. - Coggle Diagram
DESCRIBING LEARNERS
by Jeremy Harmer.
As refletive teachers we have to consider some points and one of these points is:
ages
. We must bear in mind that each age group has its particular needs, competences, cognitive skills and so on.
According to Harmer (2001) there are some beliefs about the age group. Based on his explanations:
Adolescents:
are less motivated, are disruptive in class. The teacher must find a way out and engage them in learning process by "provoking them", as Harmer says. (The teacher is a guider).
Adults:
they have a vast background and a critical view. (Sometimes when they do not feel engaged in the process, they criticize the teacher's methodology or give a feedback to express what they arent' enjoying). They have clear purposes and it makes them motivated to keep going. (They have a style of learning new things).
Young children:
respond everything, learning everything, need to touch and interact. The teacher must find a way out and promote to them ways to discover new things by their own.
LEARNER DIFFERENCES:
Some students learn better than others.
The concept of
aptitude tests
: to measure students future progress in the language learning. Analytic-type learners were favored than other learners. And it concluded who was intelligent and who was not.
Good learners:
we don't have good or bad students, the only reason that make them different is taht they have different styles to learn. For example, some students are creative, some are intelligent guesses, some likes to create their own opportunities and etc. Every student have specific likes.
As teachers we must take into account students culture, their backgroung, their opinions, their goals.
LEARNER STYLES:
(Personalities). According to Tony Wright, we have 4 different learner styles and they are:
1- ENTHUSIAST:
looks at the teacher as a point of reference and is concerned with the goals of the learning group.
2- ORACULAR:
focuses on the teacher but is more oriented towards the satisfaction of personal goals.
3- PARTICIPATOR:
tends to concentrate on group goals and group solidarity.
4- REBEL:
concerns about his/hers own goals.
KEITH WILLING (descriptions):
as Harmer says it is important to promote different kinds of activities to our students in order to benefit all students.
1- CONVERGERS:
avoid groups, independent, confident and analytic.
2- CONFORMISTS:
are dependent, prefer to learn in non.communicative classrooms, they prefer to receive "orders".
3- CONCRETE LEARNERS:
likes direct experience, focuses on communicative skills.
4- COMMUNICATIVE LEARNERS:
are confident in and out of the classroom by taking risks and they are interested in social interaction. (They don't like the teacher's guidance).
INDIVIDUAL VARIATIONS:
people have some aptitudes to learn some things.
Neuro-Linguistic Programing - NLP:
the use of primary representational system. VAKOG (visual, auditory, kinaesthetic, olfactory and gustatory). This acronym tries to analyse students' response to stimuli and environment of the classroom.
Multiple Intelligences - MI:
developed by Howard Gardner and based on his studies we do not possess a single intelligence, but a range of it. (He calls naturalistic intelligence).
ACCORDING TO GARDNER LEARNERS CAN BE DEFINED AS BEING:
Linguistic, logical, spatial, musical, kinaesthetic, interpersonal and intrapersonal. (Each one have its own specifities).
We are a mixture of each one. (There are some we identify ourselves mostly).
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES:
as teachers we must know our students likes, learning styles as well as their expectations, their goals. So, we need to apply with them some sort of questionnaire (for example: the VAK test) and based on the results we must prepare/offer classes with those characteristics. In other words, we need to produce classes considering students differences.
LANGUAGE LEVELS:
from begginer to advanced all of them need particular materials. As teachers, we must consider each especifity, such as: the commom problems in each level (the plateau effect), adequated methodology (suitable exercises for each level), language (adjust the level to the classroom's level) and topics (autentic material with no reduced themes, but respecting its level).
MOTIVATION:
as Harmer (2001) says "motivation is essential to success".
Motivation is soe kind of
INTERNAL
drive which pushes someone to
DO
thingd in order to
ACHIEVE
something.
It provokes a DECISION to ACT.
According to Harmer (2001) we have two types of motivation. They are:
1- EXTRINSIC MOTIVATION:
driven by outside factors.
2- INTRINSIC MOTIVATION:
come from the individual.
SOURCES OF MOTIVATION:
students are infleunced by some asspects. The common ones are:
1- Social aspects:
its importance/relevance of learning English in the world.
2- Influence of others:
specially from parents, relatives and friends.
3- Teacher:
s/he must promote a good/positive environment
4- Method:
both (teacher/student) must feel confident and comfortable with the method used.
INITIATING and SUSTAINING MOTIVATION:
in the beginning of the course the teacher faces a range of motivation. Some students have specifics goals, others don't have it, others just need to learn the basic and so on. So, as Harmer (2001) points out the teacher has the RESPONSABILITY to keep his/her students motivated. For that, s/he must:
1- Goals and setting goals:
the teacher must know the students objectives. If they are long-term or short-term goals.
2- Learning environment:
we can do a lot about our classrooms physical appearance and the
emotional
atmosphere of our lessons. According to HARMER when a student feel comfortable at a attractive classroom the keep motivated.
3- Interesting classes:
the topics that students will study must be interesting and similar to their goals and realities.