8. Learning styles/Learner preferences

Learning styles refer to the preferred way that learners receive information. This can be through the eyes, ears, skin or muscles. Later in the manual we will discuss learning styles and how these learning styles can influence the way in which you present new concepts and information.

Learner preferences will influence how formal or informal a lesson should be. While you may think that memorization is not useful, the learner may think differently. Sometimes, learners will want to do things that seem contrary to the ways we have been taught to tutor. Rather than discouraging the learner from using methods that you think are not useful, encourage her to use all means available to her as she learns English.

If a learner is concerned about the way in which you deliver a lesson, listen closely to what the learner says. If you still feel that the method of delivery you are using is the preferred way, explain the rationale to your learner. If your learner likes to do traditional grammar worksheets and you feel that the learner needs to apply this knowledge above and beyond what the worksheets allow her, let her know. Explain that research shows that if a learner learns only grammar and written language, she will not develop all the skills she needs.

Strategies for Success: A Practical Guide to Learning English, also covers content related to learning styles. Learners can take "quizzes" which will help them learn more about their learning styles (for example, right brain vs. left brain dominance). While it cannot be considered a definitive test, it enables learners (and tutors) to think about and discuss learner preferences.

"Every person does his or her best under the circumstances, and if it does not appear that way to us, then we are just lacking sufficient information to understand it." ¹¹

9. Behaviour ¹⁰

There will be times when it is difficult to gauge why a learner is doing what she is doing. Just as we cannot make any assumptions about a learner's motivation when she has to leave early to pick up a child, we cannot always make any assumptions about what is causing apathy or indifference during the lesson or the learner's day-to-day life.

¹⁰Virginia Sauvé, Voices and Visions: An Introduction to Teaching ESL (Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford University Press Canada, 2000.) Barbara Law and Mary Eckes, The More-Than-Just-Surviving Handbook: ESL for Every Classroom Teacher. (Winnipeg, Manitoba: Portage & Main Press, 2000.)
¹¹ V. Satir in Virginia Sauvé, Voices and Visions: An Introduction to Teaching ESL (Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford University Press Canada, 2000), p. 28.By permission of Oxford University Press Canada.