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About an experiment with learning styles | ||
Tags: Learner type | School Education | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6702 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes  Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 9 of 17 04 March 2009 at 4:06pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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The word 'holistic' has been used in two different ways. In the Myers-Briggs universe it signifies the opposite of 'sequential', - i.e. a holistic learner in this sense wants to get an overview of a new target language at an early stage, and after that he will spend his time 'filling out the holes' until the language has become fluent enough to be used for something practical. The sequential learner starts at page 1 in the text book and proceeds through the features of the language, essentially trusting the wisdom of his teacher and the author of his text book.
In this sense I'm personally a holistic learner, because I normally first read a grammar, then proceed to the study of bilingual texts coupled with wordlists, which in principle are based on all the words in the language and not any specific subset. However I look with dread and disgust at the picture of a very different holistic teaching method which Cainntear paints in this thread: a class room that stinks of peeled oranges, a teacher that waddles around in squishy orange pulp while he babbles about juice and pith and and throws oranges at you ... arrgh! If I ever needed a reason to flee the holistic pedagogical camp I got it here. Please reserve one of the quiet cubicles for me and let me learn about oranges (and the colour orange) in my own way: primarily from books, secondarily from audio and only then maybe I would let the teacher in, on condition that he lets his smelly orange mush stay outside my cubicle. Okay, we are speaking in extremes here. But the point is that an integrated sensory experience as described above is NOT something that suits all, and while it is important that the teacher shows the pupils a lot of different learning techniques and 'tricks of the trade' it is quite unlikely that all the pupils can benefit uniformly from the same mix of techniques. Cainntear has lined up a scenario where I certainly wouldn't fit in (certainly not now, and not during my school years either). "Holistic" is such a plausible and fashionable buzz word that few people dare speak out against it, but seen from my perspective the important thing right now is to diversify the teaching methods, and not to give teachers an excuse more to organize everything within sight. And that's why it is important to tell them about the vast differences in styles - including the fact that not all pupils are extreme on any particular scale. Edited by Iversen on 04 March 2009 at 4:20pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6702 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 10 of 17 04 March 2009 at 4:26pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Objection to the post below (by Icing-death): the holistic approach doesn't cover all the learning styles. It doesn't cover the possibility that a specialized method can be better than a confused batch of techniques, not that it can be better to exclude certain activities.
A holistic approach is like a Swiss army knife, - it is good for many things, but if you have got a brain tumor then pray that the surgeon uses a scalpel. Edited by Iversen on 04 March 2009 at 4:38pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| icing_death Senior Member United States Joined 5860 days ago 296 posts - 302 votes Speaks: English* | Message 11 of 17 04 March 2009 at 4:29pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
You might have to change your name to Cainntread.
Dang it - I forgot to prohibit semantics. Regarding your holistic approach - how can anyone who professes to support said approach preach MT to every living sole the way you do? Also, I thought you didn't believe in different learning styles. If so, what would be the point in using the holistic approach, which is supposed to cover everything? Edited by icing_death on 04 March 2009 at 4:31pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| icing_death Senior Member United States Joined 5860 days ago 296 posts - 302 votes Speaks: English* | Message 12 of 17 04 March 2009 at 4:34pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Point taken. I should do some research before posting. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6010 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 13 of 17 04 March 2009 at 4:53pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
I don't support learning styles, or multiple intelligences. My point is that learning styles is in the same sphere as multiple intelligence theory and that even among adherents of either or both related discipline, there is a massive amount of disagreement and interpretation going on. (And there are many different models of what constitutes a style.) But while I don't personally agree with it, I'm willing to engage the debate in its own terms, although I have to admit I've got a bad habit of thinking purely in terms of MI and VARK/VAK, rather than any of the other LS frameworks. Edited by Cainntear on 04 March 2009 at 4:56pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| icing_death Senior Member United States Joined 5860 days ago 296 posts - 302 votes Speaks: English* | Message 14 of 17 04 March 2009 at 5:21pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Fair enough. I re-read your earlier post and see where you could be just explaining different existing opinions. My apologies. I came across this though
Do you think that justifies not doing the research? Just to be perfectly clear, I did say "you". 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6010 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 15 of 17 04 March 2009 at 6:49pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
While the subject header calls it an "experiment", Iversen´s description doesn't really support that...
Education worldwide has followed fads, training teachers on the latest "big idea" (which is usually 10-20 years out of date). I'm not against experiments, I'm not against research, but you have to be very careful when there isn't an opt-out. I mean, those kids can't just move to another town if they don't want to be involved. And is it really research? He describes it as a "project" -- the recent history of UK education is peppered with "consultants" and trainers teaching on the "latest" big thing (which is usually 10 or more years behind leading academic thought) at a high cost to the taxpayer and superceded by the next "big thing" in three or four years. And it has often meant a decrease in the quality of education and worse exam results -- without any explicit consent from parents. And why Arhus anyway -- wasn't that where they piloted the "Digital Lighthouse"? Are they turning the town into one great big sociological experiment?!? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| TheBiscuit Tetraglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 5922 days ago 532 posts - 619 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Italian Studies: German, Croatian | Message 16 of 17 04 March 2009 at 6:53pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Calling them 'learning' styles makes me cringe. After a fair few years of observing and implementing these practices in the classroom I would say the terminology is a little misleading. I've no doubt they exist but my gripe is whether actual learning takes place within a 'learningl style. I can and do present information in a variety of ways, and yes, I know which students will be more receptive to it but whether this helps them to actually learn the material is highly debateable. Yes, it rouses more interest than normal if you deliberately use 'learning' styles and multiple intelligences but whether learning and indeed, retention of information takes place because of this, is another matter.
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