This document discusses different types of learners and factors that influence learning. It describes young children and challenges teachers may face in relating lessons to their experiences. Adults are mentioned as sometimes being critical of teaching methods due to past school failures causing anxiety. The document also discusses learner aptitude, characteristics like tolerance and goal orientation, and learning styles such as communicative and concrete styles. It covers multiple intelligences theory and sources/initiation of motivation. Overall, the document provides an overview of considering individual differences and building motivation when teaching various types of learners.

1. Describing learners
Prepared by: Abdelmjid
SEGHIR

2. Age

3. Young Children:

5. Implications for teachers

6. Why problems happen?
• Teachers fail to build bridges between what they
want and have to teach and their Ss’ worlds of
thought and experience.

8. Adult learners

9. Problems with adults
• They can be critical of teaching methods.
• They may have experienced failure at school
(anxiety and low self confidence).

10. Implications for teachers

11. LEARNER DIFFERENCES
• Aptitude:
 Linguistic aptitude tests.
 Ts and Ss should be optimistic about all
people in the classroom

12. • Good learner characterestics:
Neil Naimen:
 tolerance of ambiguity, positive task
orientation, ego involvement(success=
improving self image), goal orientation and
perseverence.
Joan Rubin and Irene Thompson
 Creativity, make intelligent guesses, make
their own opportunities for practice, make errors
work for them than against them, use contextual
clues.

13. • Learner styles:
Tony Wright:
 Enthusiast: T is a point of reference and is concerned with the
goals of the learning group.
 Oracular: lies a focus on the T but they are more oriented
towards the satisfaction of personal goals.
 Participator: concentrates on group goals and group
solidarity.
 Rebel: mainly concerned with the satisfaction of his/ her own
goals.

14. Keith Willing:
 Convergers: Soltitary/ avoid groups/ independent and
confident in their abilities/ analytic/ they impose their own structures
on learning/ cool and pragmatic
Conformists: learn about language rather than learn how
to use it/ dependent/love to work in non-communicative classrooms.
 Concrete learners: similar to conformists BUT they
enjoy social aspects of learning and like to learn from direct experience.
They enjoy group work and games.
 Communicative learners: Language use
oriented/ risk takers/ interested in social interactions/ love to work
with the teacher’s guidance.

15. Language Levels

16. MI Vs NLP
• Multiple intelligences:
Howard Gardner (Frames of
Mind: Theory of Multiple
Intelligences) suggested that
intelligence has no unitary
character and is manifested in
different ways in different
children.
• Neurolinguistic
intelligences
VAKOG
Visual
Auditory
Kinaesthesic
Olfactory
Gustatory

18. • Everyone has all the intelligences!
• You can strengthen each intelligence!
• MI is meant to empower, not label learners!

19. Motivation

20. Sources of Motivation
• The society we live in
• Significant others
• The teacher
• The method

21. Initiating and Sustaining Motivation
• Goals and goal setting
• Learning environment
• Interesting classes

22. Conclusion