December, 2006 Vol.55 No.11
Activities usually require the students to know the language used to play; however, they are also a perfect way to create learning situations such as when the students have not fully learned the language and need to know it in order to continue the game or when the teacher throws in language which the students have not yet learned and they now have a need to know in order to continue.
When thinking about games several things should be considered. One of the things is each individual student’s learning style. Broadly the learning styles are broken down into three: kinesthetic, aural, and visual. Everyone has all the learning styles, but depending on what you are doing, you tend to become dominant on one. Learning styles have an effect not only on how we learn, but also on the environment that we naturally create for ourselves in order to study or work.
R: What project are you working on now? Your desk looks like a mountain range of papers.
M: Don’t touch my mountains. This mountain is a workshop that I am going to give, this one is my preparation for my pronunciation seminars, this one is my research for the magazine articles, and this one is papers and announcements from the kids’ schools.
R: With that mess, I doubt if you can tell where anything is.
M: I know where everything is. Conversely, if I clean everything up and put it away I won’t know where to find it. I need to have my work around me and see things as I am visual sense heavy.
R: I am a visual person, but if I have this mess around me, I can’t concentrate because of the distraction that it will cause.
M: In that way, I am more auditory. I can’t concentrate if there is noise happening around me. You like to listen to music when you are working but I can’t concentrate in that environment.
R: When I am concentrating and doing something visual, dumping music into my auditory channel helps me to relax and focus.
M: Yeah, that is interesting.
R: You have times when you are very kinesthetic. For example, when I get you a new computer program, you never read the manual. You just start pushing buttons to see what it will do.
M: Yeah, if I don’t play with it I don’t understand it. I am not always saying that I understand it even after playing with it. But for sure, if I just read the manual first, I can’t get an image of what it can do.
R: In that instance you are definitely kinesthetic. When I read the manual, I get an image of what should happen and remember some of the steps that I should do. With computers, I am definitely visually oriented in my learning style.
M: So what you are saying is that each person is not limited to one learning style, right?
R: Right. Depending on the content and the situation, people naturally choose the learning style that is most effective for them as an individual. By choosing the most effective learning style, their learning speed is maximized.
M: But what about the classes with 20 or 30 students? Since there will be a mix of learning styles the teacher can’t just throw out activities without thinking about which learning style or styles are being channeled to.
R: Exactly, teachers have to consider their activities and look at the whole lesson and the balance of the learning styles that the activities tap in to.
M: Ok, I got it. So the main thing is getting a balance for the class during the lesson. I can do that.
R: Well, having watched you, I think you do it without thinking.
M: What do you mean? For example…
R: Well, for example in your kindergarten and elementary school classes you play card games, right? When you ask your students, “Who wants to play cards?” on the whole they all do, right? Those games have all three of the learning styles incorporated in them. When you read the card the students have to listen, next they have to search for the matching picture, and lastly they have to move their bodies and get the card. That is why most children like card games.
M: Yeah that’s right but for the children who don’t try or are slow pretty soon they say that they don’t want to play.
R: Yes, but that is why you do the “no lose” game first.
M: The one where the students all touch the card but no one takes it?
R: Right, everyone has time to touch it to confirm what the card is and no one takes it away.
M: Well, that is a good activity but I think with large classes it is difficult to do and seems limited to younger students. As students progress into the higher grades of elementary school and on to junior and senior high school they become more amenable to competitive activities in the class and really get into them.
R: Yeah, you are right. They will still participate but they are not as active as the younger students. There is a “be cool” factor coming in to play at that age. They need higher level activities in a game like format in order to get into it with gusto.
M: Mmm … I don’t think you have to think that deeply. Just looking at something that they are doing in school such as reading out loud in class and adding an interesting twist can be enough to make a good activity.
R: Like what?
M: This is an activity I got from a high school teacher. When students read the textbook in class, have them stand. When they come to a period at the end of a sentence they have to turn their body 90 degrees. By doing that, when they have read four sentences they are back facing the front of the classroom. That is the only thing different about that class and what other classes around Japan are doing but it has added a kinesthetic element to the visual and auditory activity of reading out loud. Pretty good activity, huh?
R: Yeah. Ok, I got it. We don’t have to always be trying to create some special activity. We just need to look at what is usually taking place in the class and add the missing pieces to connect to the learning styles of the students.
M: Yup, you got it. By adding the needed ingredients to tap into all of the students’ learning styles, the students as a whole will enjoy the class more and our teaching becomes more effective.
Learning stylesのそれぞれについて補足説明いたします。
Visual learners： 見ることで学ぶタイプですから、先生の言葉よりもボディランゲージや表情に注意が向いています。と同時に、視界に余分なものが入ると注意が散漫になるので、授業中、教室の後ろに座っていると集中できにくいかもしれません。
このタイプには、視覚教材が威力を発揮するのはもちろんのこと、学んだ内容を紙に書かせることによって視覚情報に変換することも有効です。
Auditory learners： 聞くことで学ぶタイプは、レクチャーを聴くことから学びます。また、お互いにディスカッションさせることも有効です。そこで話されている言葉の理解だけではなく、音程や話す速度などから細かいニュアンスなど深い意味をくみ取ることができます。
読む教材を使うときには、黙読だけだと理解しにくいこともあるので、音読をさせるほうが有効です。これは、音読している自分の声という音声情報から学ぶことができるからです。
Kinesthetic learners： 手で触ったり、体を動かしたりすることで学ぶわけですから、じっと座っているというだけで、授業が苦痛になるタイプです。時々、適度に体を動かせば集中力が戻ってきます。歩き回ることが難しければ、たとえばガムをかむなどの体の動きが役に立つこともあります。（これは教室の中ではお勧めできませんが。）本文中でご紹介したように、体の向きを変えたり立ったり座ったりすることをアクティビティのルールとして盛り込むとよいでしょう。
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