Филологические науки/1. Методика преподавания языка и литературы

Olha Ivanova

NTUU “KPI”

VARK Learning Styles in Vocabulary Teaching

Nowadays multilingualism has become more than just “important”. Knowledge of a foreign language other than your native one has evolved to be extremely beneficial. Languages should be learned not only to impress people around but also to develop one’s own confidence, improve decision making skills, become more open-minded and even increase brain power. Apart from the above-mentioned gains learning a foreign language can improve one’s employability. We live in an increasingly globalized world and companies are expanding overseas and dealing with people from all over the world. So employers are much more likely to choose a person who knows a foreign language between two candidates with the same skills and experience.

English is the most commonly used language among foreign language speakers. When people, who speak different languages, come together they commonly use English for communication. Knowledge of English can open better job prospects and increase the standard of living. Thus, it is very important today to be able to use professional vocabulary when you use foreign languages in communication with colleagues or partners from abroad. It is also the language of science so a person needs to know English to excel in science which is of great importance for university graduates today.

The main goal of a foreign language acquisition in non-linguistic educational institutions is communicative competence: the ability to use the language correctly and appropriately to accomplish communication goals in everyday life and professional environment. Learning a foreign language demands a proper and well-organized work of a foreign language teacher. It does not concern only providing necessary material but also an appropriate psychological and pedagogical approach to learners. Teaching English for specific purposes is becoming topical these days. According to this approach students must be able to use a foreign language in professional, business and scientific fields.

Vocabulary teaching is one of the most important issues of learning a language because without sufficient vocabulary students can’t understand other people or express their own ideas. It is a set of words one knows in any language. Knowing a word implies the ability to understand it in reading or writing or to use it in expressing one`s ideas in speaking or writing which is possible provided a learner has a corresponding level of knowledge. But actually vocabulary is not just about words. It can be defined as the words of a language, including single units and phrases or chunks of several words which convey a particular meaning. Vocabulary instruction is an essential element in teaching reading and writing. It is like the “glue” that holds our ideas together and allows us to express our thoughts and communicate effectively. There is an increasingly high relationship among all four aspects of vocabulary – listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Therefore, encouraging improvement in one aspect leads to improvement in another. The main task of a teacher is to help students to transfer vocabulary skills from one of its forms into another because the lack of vocabulary instruction in one of the activities will have a bad effect on mastering a language in general [2, p. 3].

One of the ways how to improve vocabulary teaching within SCL approach is taking into account visual, auditory, read/write, and kinesthetic (VARK) learning styles. The VARK model was proposed by N.D. Fleming. The author defines a learning style as “an individual’s characteristics and preferred ways of gathering, organizing, and thinking about information. VARK is in the category of instructional preference because it deals with perceptual modes” [1, p. 1]. Learning style is the way in which different people learn. This way allows a person to concentrate, process and retain new information. People perceive information in different ways. Although it is difficult to select one channel because students use different ones depending on the type of the task they need to perform it is possible to put them in one of the groups based on their generally preferred channel of perception.

New vocabulary can be presented to visual learners by writing key words, using mind maps and flashcards, making word lists, using highlighters and underlining. Listening to audio materials and watching videos is suitable for auditory learners. They can also take part in group discussions or any other speaking activities as they are talkative and enjoy debates. The worst idea that a teacher can come up with when dealing with students whose preferred channel of perception is auditory one, is to give them reading comprehension tasks as these students don’t pay much attention to information until it has been heard. Read/write learning style involves a variety of ways to present new vocabulary to students. It can be anything from typical reading tasks to writing essays, reports and making different presentations. Kinesthetic learners enjoy discovery and action. Different role-playing activities and simulations will be the perfect way of teaching them. Multiple choice tasks, short definitions, fill in the blank exercises might be also useful for this type of learners.

It should be noted that the simultaneous use of more than one channel of perception is likely to have a positive influence on the learning process. Students will definitely benefit from the mixture of learning techniques. But since there are many students in the classroom at the same time, it is necessary for a teacher to use a variety of instructional approaches to involve all of them paying attention to their learning preferences, strengths and weaknesses.

References:

1. Fleming N.D. Teaching and learning styles: VARK strategies / N.D. Fleming. – Christchurch, 2011. – 128 p.

2. Pikulski, J.J. (2004). Teaching and Developing Vocabulary: Key to Long-Term Reading Success. Current Research in Reading / Language Arts, 1-12. Retrieved March 9, 2016 from https://www.eduplace.com/marketing/nc/pdf/author_pages.pdf