Филологические науки/1. Методика преподавания языка и литературы

Olha Ivanova

NTUU “KPI”

Multisensory Approach to Vocabulary Instruction

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 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 knowledge consists of expressive and receptive vocabularies. The first type refers to lexical units people use to express themselves and is used in speaking and writing activities. People perceive receptive vocabulary when they listen to speech or when they read. Cognitive processes such as thinking, perception, imagination and memory help to identify a new lexical unit, learn and use it in speaking activities. 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.

One of the ways how to improve vocabulary instruction is taking into account visual, auditory, read/write, and kinesthetic (VARK) learning styles. Learning style is the way in which different people learn. To choose the right learning style a teacher has to pay attention to a student’s preferred channel of perception. Teachers play a critical role in the teaching/learning process. The term “teaching style” refers to a teacher’s personal behavior and media used to transmit data to or receive it from the learner [3, p. 29]. Mismatch between learning and teaching styles often occurs and it could result in bad effect on the attitude that students have to learning a foreign language.

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. It is impossible to use only those teaching methods, tasks and materials that correspond to the preferred channel of perception that a student has. Students inevitably have to deal with problems and challenges that require the use of their least preferred perception channels. Moreover, they should practice the use of these channels on a regular basis. However, students might get frustrated if a teacher uses teaching styles inconsistent with their learning preferences over long periods of time. The mismatch between teaching and learning styles can be avoided if teachers are aware of learning style preferences that their students have. Multisensory approach can be used to help students learn through more than one of their senses. Multisensory instruction refers to any learning activity that includes the use of two or more sensory modalities simultaneously to take in or express information [1, p. 1]. Multi-sensory lessons are simultaneously visual, auditory, and kinesthetic-tactile to boost memory and learning. They allow teachers to engage students on multiple levels. Students can use their personal areas of strength to help them learn. Multisensory techniques that stimulate visual reasoning are called visual techniques. If techniques are focused on sound and stimulate verbal reasoning, they are called auditory techniques. If they involve body movement, they refer to kinesthetic techniques. R.M. Felder claims that the amount of information retained by students differs depending on the channel of perception and learning activities. Students retain 10 percent of what they read, 26 percent of what they hear, 30 percent of what they see, 50 percent of what they see and hear, 70 percent of what they say, and 90 percent of what they say as they do something [2, p. 28]. Thus, efficient foreign language learning must be based on balancing instructional methods to engage students with different learning styles.

It might be difficult to design a unit within English for specific purposes syllabus that takes into account each student’s learning style and enables efficient vocabulary instruction. However, multisensory lessons make it possible to give each student at least some tasks that match his or her learning style preference and stimulate the learning process. If a student has to learn a particular vocabulary set based on the text within a given topic, it might be useful to work with the text in different ways. Students whose preferred channel of perception is vision will definitely enjoy reading it as they tend to think in pictures. Pictures, diagrams, charts might also help them to visualize and remember the vocabulary from the text. Although most of students are visual learners, it is necessary to pay attention to the needs of auditory and kinesthetic learners too. For instance, a teacher can offer auditory learners to listen to the same text or both groups of learners first listen to the information from the text and then read it. Also students can do exercises in which they have to listen to an excerpt from a text and fill the gaps with missing words, or listen to words from a text and underline stressed syllables. Another type of exercises is to listen to a set of words and divide them into groups of verbs and nouns or define synonyms or antonyms and make a list of them. Such exercises are useful for both auditory and visual learners and students have to use their weak and strong perception channels. It might be a good idea to prepare pre-reading and after-reading activities that correspond to the needs of kinesthetic learners. For kinesthetic learners role-play games can be helpful in vocabulary acquisition. Students can listen and read new information and then discuss it in pairs or with a teacher, do additional research on a studied topic.

References:

1. Birsh J.R. Multisensory Teaching of Basic Language Skills / J.R. Birsh. – Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Company, 2011. – 786 p.

2. Felder R.M. Learning and Teaching Styles in Foreign and Second Language Education / R.M. Felder, E.R. Henriques // Application of the F-S learning style model to language education. Foreign Language Annals. – American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, 1995. – 28 (1). – P. 21-31.

3. Kaplan E.J. Teaching and learning styles: Which came first? / E. J. Kaplan, D. A. Kies // Journal of Instructional Psychology. – V.U. Publishing Co., 1995. – 22(1). – P. 28-34.