Education for All

Understanding ESL learning styles helps a teacher bring more variety into the classroom, as well as reaching students more effectively. It is always a challenge to make the ESL classroom more interesting. Vocabulary lessons, conversation practice, worksheets; they don’t always hold everyone’s attention. A teacher may agonize over what they are doing wrong, but the reality is that there is simply more than one right way to teach. Often adding a few simple twists to an already cohesive lesson plan can round up those stragglers by reaching out to their own unique ESL learning style.

For years it has been proposed that that the differences among people extend to the way they learn. Models vary, but there is a general agreement that there are four distinct learning styles that can be applied to ESL and EFL; Auditory, Visual, Tactile and Kinesthetic. There will always be overlap, of course, and most of the games suggested here will lend themselves to adaptation to appeal to two or more styles.

AUDITORY ESL LEARNING STYLE are the type who receive and retain information from listening. They will respond well to games that involve repetition, dictation, and music. Simple poems with a strong swing such as limericks are a good way to start, and you may even introduce some Jazz Chants for more conservative adults. Younger students may prefer Karaoke and often become quite enamored of it, so be prepared for a lot of laughs as students loosen up and get comfortable! (more…)

Whether you need (e.g., you are a student or otherwise have deadlines on reading) or simply want to have the ability to read and understand more quickly, learning speed reading is the way to go. Not everyone thinks that reading is a skill that can be improved in this way, but like any other skill, practice is the key. Almost anyone can learn to speed read, it is merely a matter of finding a technique which is effective for them.

Think back to the last book you read. Odds are that some parts were important enough to hold your interest, and others that you felt could have been passed over. Once you learn to identify these parts, you will find yourself skipping past these and absorbing only the relevant material. This means you can gain speed without sacrificing understanding (and doing without the filler).

Second, start skipping small words or phrases. This seems difficult to do at first, but if you’ve been reading for any length of time at all, you already know that words and phrases will follow patterns. For instance, if you read a line that begins ‘She would cut off her nose…’ you know that there is a good chance that it will end with ‘to spite her face.’ This skill is called inference, and you’ll find that it is far easier than you think it is; once you start practicing it, you will start to improve dramatically. (more…)

Have you ever wished you could finish a book quickly and start another one? Would you like to read more but are you frustrated with how long it takes you to get through one? You’ll find that this sort of complaint is common, but very few people do anything about it. This is unfortunate, because these wishes are easily granted once you are start speed reading. Speed reading is a series of techniques that allow you read faster will still keeping your level of comprehension high. You’ll find that simply by keeping a few things in mind, you’ll soon be easily zipping through pages.When you start out learning to speed read, make sure that you have a quiet place to work. You’ll find that with a little bit of practice, it won’t matter how much noise there is. Interestingly enough, you also might find that your reading speed goes up quite steadily when you realize that there are no distractions to come between you and the words. Turn off the TV or the iPod and see if your reading goes a great deal faster.

When you get ready to speed read a text, think about what the text itself is. Is it an instructional manual of some sort, or is it a play or a work of speculative fiction? What is it trying to convey to you? How necessary is it that you read every word? Some texts, like technical manuals, simply need to be read more slowly so you can be sure that everything sinks in, but when it comes to works of fiction, understand that there will be slow points and filler. Essentially, there will be parts that you can skim with a great deal of ease without losing the context of the work. (more…)