Personal Learning Style

I answered a couple of questionnaires recently that revealed much about me and my learning style.  Oxford’s Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) revealed the kinds of strategies I typically use for language study http://richarddpetty.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/sill-english.pdf .  I answered the questions based on my typical language-learning strategies and experiences over the years.  From a scale of low (1.0-2.4), medium (2.5-3.4), and high (3.5-5.0), my scores ranged from a medium 2.8 in “remembering more effectively” to a high of 4.0 in “compensating for missing knowledge.”  Frankly though, I think that the section on “remembering more effectively” provided a limited selection of strategies that did not necessarily match mine.  In general, this survey is an imperfect assessment of one’s strengths and weaknesses in learning strategies, but it did make me ask myself some good questions.  Most importantly, there were statements that I felt would make me a better language learner if I could answer at least “usually true of me.”  For instance, “I start conversations in (target language),” “I try to find as many ways as I can to use my (target language),” and “I look for people I can talk to in (target language).”  These are language-learning strategies that I have not done enough of.  Having to rate myself on these strategies, force me to look at myself more honestly.  I take pride in my language-learning skills and strategies that come easily to me, but I do have an aversion to the aforementioned areas that would most likely improve my fluency.  This also has made me think about whether I am a member of a community of practice of “good language learners” or a member of an “imagined community” as compared in Kanno and Norton’s (2003) article “Imagined Communities and Educational Possibilities: Introduction” http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1207/S15327701JLIE0204_1.  Either way, I aim to practice “good language learner” habits. 

Language-learning motivation:  Perhaps, I am motivated by the idea of being a good language learner.  Since taking the SILL survey and gaining a conscious awareness of my weaknesses, I have stepped out of my comfort zone this week and instigated a conversation in Spanish with a native speaker.  In imperfect Spanish, I told the speaker who had observed my Zapotec materials that I was studying Isthmus Zapotec.  I asked this person in Spanish if she knew of anyone who spoke this language.  She told me "no," but she knew people from Guatemala who spoke another indigenous language.  The brief conversation came to a natural close, but I pushed myself further to explain that I had to use Spanish to study Isthmus Zapotec because my resources were not in English.  This was my excuse for my motivation to practice speaking Spanish with this person, but, more importantly, was something more I could say in Spanish.

Reid’s Perceptual Learning-Style Preference Questionnaire http://lookingahead.heinle.com/filing/l-styles.htm unsurprisingly told me that I was a visual learner.  Learning styles identify the “individual differences in information processing” (Nel, 2008, p. 49).  These learning styles or preferences are habitual and natural to every learner, aiding in the absorption, processing, and retaining of new information.  This questionnaire looks at four different learning style preferences, visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile.  I am very visual in the regard that I remember what I have read or seen written on any surface.  According to Leaver et al (2005), this makes me a visual verbalist.  In recalling information, I see words in my mind; but when this fails me, I use pictorial images to remember things.  I am also a good auditory learner; however, I feel that I have more control over remembering things through reading.  I may only be able to hear something once, but I can read information usually as often as needed.  Know matter our personal learning preferences, to be a good language learner, it is important to be flexible with our learning style “to adapt to the needs of a given situation or task” (Nel, 2008, p. 53). 

This questionnaire also made clear that I prefer to work alone, and feel that I learn better through independent study.  This does not mean, however, that I do not find value in working with a group.  There are different kinds of things to be learned in group study or group research that cannot be learned alone.  When I work with a group, I adjust my priorities and goals to meet the needs of the whole unit and individuals involved.