APPLIED LINGUISTICS for BA Students in English
PARTICIPANTS OF LEARNING PROCESS
Learner types
Learner differences
Neuro-linguistic programming – Revell and Norman (1997)
Some people are better at some things than others – better at analyzing or at remembering faces than others. This fact would indicate that there are differences in the ways individual brains work. It also suggests that people respond differently to the same stimuli. There are two well-known theories which teachers have attempted to use for the benefit of their learners. One of them is Neuro-linguistic programming. According to this we use a number of “primary representational systems” to experience the world. These systems are described in the acronym “VAKOG” which stands for:
- Visual (we look and see) – visual learners tend to prefer reading and studying charts, drawings and graphic information;
- Auditory (we hear and listen) – these learners are characterized by a preference for listening to lectures and audiotapes;
- Kinaesthetic (we feel externally, internally or through movement) – these learners are right-brain dominant, they use both hemispheres of their brains simultaneously that is why they are acquiring the structures through actions;
- Olfactory (we smell things),
- Gustatory (we taste things) – in case of the latter two nose and mouth are involved in the presentation of certain topics, it must be added that they have not been explored in language teaching so far. (Harmer 2003: 41)
