Starting your seminar
1. Look at the advice in the Study skills sheet. Then listen to Greg start his talk in a seminar. How well does he cover the points (1-4)? ________
Study skills – Advice for students
Starting your seminar
1) Say what the topic is.
2) Say why you have chosen that topic.
3) Outline the structure of the talk.
4) Give a summary of the theory.
Show answers
He cover points 1,2 and 4, but not point 3 fully.
2. What is the topic of Greg’s talk? ________
Show answers
The topic is Learning styles.
3. Listen again and complete the form.
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Learning style |
Advice for studying |
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V________. |
________ |
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A________. |
________ |
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R________. |
________ |
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K________. |
________ |
Show answers
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Learning style |
Advice for studying |
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Visual |
use charts and pictures, colour highlighting |
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Auditory |
read aloud, liste |
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Reading |
read |
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Kinaesthetic |
revise standing up, move around |
| Yes | No | |
| a Are the aims clear? | ||
| b Has the talk been well prepared? | ||
| c Is it well organized? | ||
| d Is there any waste, i.e. repetition? | ||
| e Is the argument easy to follow? | ||
| f Does the speaker sound confident? |
Show answers
a No (Not really stated.)
b No (No handouts, can’t remember key name, can’t pronounce key word.)
c Yes (At least, the beginning is clear.)
d No
e Yes (Fairly easy to follow.)
f No (He sounds nervous.)
5. What is your general impression of this part of Greg’s talk?very good good OK poor
Answer & Transcript
The talk is OK so far. It seems clearly organized, although it has some flaws.
Transcript
Right, well, er ___ talk today is on learning styles. I chose this because there is a lot of research into it and it seems as if nobody really agrees on how to assess learning styles. I’ll start by outlining some competing theories about how people learn ___ There aren’t any handouts, I’m afraid, but anyway ___ One theory is the VARK system. That was a theory by ___ I can’t remember now, but V-A-R-K means V for visual, A for auditory, like hearing, R for reading and K for, I don’t know how to pronounce this ___ kinaesthetic? K-I-N-A-E-S-T-H-E-T-I-C. Yes, that’s it. Kinaesthetic. That means things like touch, movement and stuff. Anyway, according to the VARK system, depending on your learning style, you learn in different ways. If you’re a visual learner, then you need to use charts and pictures, use colour highlighting in your notes, and stuff. If you’re an auditory learner, then reading aloud and listening will help you learn. Reading is just reading, of course. You learn by reading. Kinaesthetic learners need to move around while they learn. You’re a kind of hands-on person if you’re that kind of learner, according to the VARK system, so you should revise while standing up and walking around the room, for example. Anyway, that’s just one theory. There are lots of others too, for example ___
Presenting an argument
1. Read the statements below. Then listen to the last part of Greg’s talk and tick your answers.
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Greg thinks: |
Yes |
No |
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a most people have the same learning style. |
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b one learning style is better than the rest. |
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c people learn in similar ways. |
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d it’s not possible to categorize everyone. |
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e the human brain is predictable. |
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Show answers
a No b No c No d Yes e No
2. Tick which statement most closely matches Greg’s personal opinion.
a We all have more than one learning style, but we usually rely on one or two most of the time.
b By categorizing learning styles, we can help people to learn very effectively.
c It is not possible to analyze learning styles because we learn in too many different ways.
d More research into how people learn is necessary.
Answer & Transcript
c
Transcript
So, to conclude then, personally I think that we all have our own learning style and we are not just one type or another. In other words, we are probably a blend of lots of styles. I don’t think any of the learning styles I’ve told you about is better than any other. I think the problem is that we all learn in different ways, and trying to find a system to fit in all the different ways we learn, it just doesn’t work. We are too creative to be boxed in like that. Not everything about the human brain can be mapped and predicted. How we learn is different for each person, so the point I’m making is I don’t know how useful it is to try to categorize everyone into types.
Debating issues
1. Look at the chart below. Then listen once more and note Greg’s answers to each question.
| Questions | Answers |
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Advantages of being multimodal? Is VARK a learning style? Are learning styles fixed? Men-women differences?
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