Week 9

What's your learning style?

This week, we have been assigned to read articles about multiple intelligences, learning styles and strategies. We as usual have shared and exchanged many useful and helpful ideas on Nicenet to see how a technology can be combined in a language classroom to address students multiple intelligence and learning styles.

Reading the article "Learning styles and strategies" by Richard M. Felder and Barbara A. Soloman, it emphasizes importance of learner differences and allows us to know how to design classroom activities and offer learning opportunities that would facilitate each individual student in effective learning. It is a teacher who has to understand their students and provide a range of activities and experiences that serve the students' needs and the students themselves need to make aware of their strengths and weaknesses. A link to an online quiz http://www.edutopia.org/multiple-intelligences-assessment may be tried out by both the teacher and students.

Moreover, from a text document, Learning Strategies by Shaping the Way We Teach English, I have realized that it would be very beneficial for my students to be provided a learning strategy training course. In my actual language classroom, I have included an explicit strategy instruction for the students to learn some strategies that are required and relevant to the course content and activities. But I realize that is not enough. As I have observed most of Thai EFL students for many years, I have made a conclusion they are not well-equipped with good learning strategies and that they will not be able to become strategic learners who can take charge of their owning and develop to lifelong learners. I,thus, have asked myself if it is time to propose the idea of foreign language strategy training to be implemented in a curriculum. I think it is necessarily important to offer students a course which provides foreign language strategy training. From the reading. seven instructional models are suggested and in the first place, I have found "Strategies in Language Textbooks" the most possible. The model of Strategy Workshops sounds great, too. SBI or Strategic-Based Instruction is new for me and it may require more time and more studying to learn how to conduct it.

At last, the project report was done! I have to thank Lina for her valuable feedback and comments.
It's been a productive and happy week for me:)

Ta, Thailand