Wednesday, July 20, 10:00 am -1:00 pm

1. Wednesday, July 20, 10:00 am -1:00 pm Agenda 1. Thoughts/questions 2. Discussion of reading, “Learning Styles and Strategies: An Overview” 3. Looking at learning styles and strategies 4. Other learner characteristics 5. Language skills

2. Discussion: “Language Learning Styles and Strategies” by Rebecca Oxford

3. Questions: What are learning styles? What are learning strategies? What is your style? What are your strategies?

7. Learning styles are general approaches to learning • global • auditory • visual • analytic • imaginative • common sense • Dynamic • Do any of these words describe your learning style?

8. -- BREAK – 10 minutes

9. Activity: Learning Style Survey • Complete the survey • Find two classmates who have completed the survey, compare your results, discuss these questions: - What, if anything, surprises you? - Are some styles better than others? - How might your learning style affect your teaching?

10. Learning strategies are specific actions, behaviors, techniques that help us • use all mental processes • organize, evaluate learning • remember more effectively • compensate for missing knowledge • manage emotions • work with others

11. Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) Can be useful for: • identifying students’ strategies • choosing activities and materials • planning lessons • helping students learn new strategies

12. Activity: SILL • Complete the inventory • Be sure to draw the graph showing your strategy preferences

13. Lunch

14. Learning strategies, continued Activity: • With three classmates, compare your strategies graphs. • How are they similar and/or different? • Are there aspects of your culture, language, education that might explain the similarities? • Do you have different learning styles, personalities that might explain the differences?

15. Turkish learning strategies – what does the research show? Preferences are for compensating and for organizing and evaluating learning. Other strategies used less often Conclusion: All strategies should be taught Selma Deneme (2008). Language Learning Strategy Preferences of Turkish Students. http://www.jlls.org/Issues/Volume%204/No.2/s

16. Questions for reflection • Why is it important for us to understand something about our own styles and strategies as well as those of our students? • How much control do we have over our students’ learning? • Are we responsible for our students’ learning? • What other factors affect learning?

17. Other learner characteristics • Internal • age/intellectual development • personality • motivation • anxiety • self-esteem • experiences • cognition • native language/culture

18. External • curriculum • instruction • culture and status • motivation • access to native speakers • Adapted from http://esl.fis.edu/teachers/support/factors.htm

19. What do we know about language skills?

20. What do we know about language skills? Activity: Discussion, small groups • Each group discusses questions related to one skill area • Each group reports a summary of its discussion to the class

21. Homework • Respond to at least three of your group members’ reflections.