Analysis Of Using L2 Students: Learning Styles Inventories To Promote Vocabulary Learning

Using L2 students` learning styles inventories to promote vocabulary learning

Currently, L2 students´ learning styles inventories are not considered to design and develop vocabulary lessons in many public schools. Thus, one single type of class activity and grammar-translation and memoristic approaches are being used to teach the vocabulary. As a result, students are de-motivated to learn new vocabulary in a L2 classroom. Concerning this problem, a few researchers have been conducted some research studies. For example, Allah, Tayebi and Shakarami (2015) carried out an investigation in which they found that “there is a strong relationship between learning styles and vocabulary learning.”(p.249) this previous study is important because it allows
To begin with, students can learn the vocabulary at long term through their predominant perceptual channel. However, Desai (1996) asserts that “learning styles had no significant effect on subjects' learning.” (p.27). Being in disagreement with the previous author`s view point, it is worth to mentioning that students` learning preferences do play an important role when they learn the vocabulary because visual, auditory and kinesthetic students differ in the way they build their mental lexicon. For instance, visual learners may represent the vocabulary in the shape of pictures for so long. With regard to auditory students, they record the pronunciation of the words in their minds more easily than though pictures or by doing something practical. In term of kinesthetic learners, they feel more comfortable at learning the vocabulary if they have the chance to touch real objects or if they perform playful and dynamic activities. For that reason, English teachers need to vary the materials, activities; resources and strategies when teaching for visual, auditory and kinesthetic students learn the vocabulary for life. Another important thing is that students can put into practice the vocabulary according to their learning styles in the classroom. For instance, visual learners may write and read some texts which contain the vocabulary that they learn in class. In contrast, auditory learners would prefer listening songs and videos related to the words they were taught in the English lesson. On the other hand, kinesthetic students feel comfortable at using the vocabulary in something practical or an activity that implies movement. That`s the reason why it is required that English teachers apply different strategies which promote students to use the vocabulary according to their learning styles. Definitely, learning styles inventories fosters students`