“Variety is the very spice of life.” Learner Differences:

Assets and Challenges

What are individual differences? Overview of major individual

differences What are learner differences?

What are Individual Differences?

Individual Differences are … ????

Human diversity is … ????

Word Cloud

Researchers either ignore or minimize the role that individual differences contribute.

Actually, determining what most people believe represents an “individual difference” variable is NOT an easy task.

Every possible variable cannot be studied in every situation, thus effort should be devoted to the determination of the most relevant variables within a particular context.

An overview of some major

Individual Differences

Human beings are diverse individuals in terms of their:Physical appearance

height, weight, skin tone, eye shape and color, hair color and texture.

Gender a social construct that specifies the socially and culturally prescribed roles that men and women are to follow.

Age infants, children , adolescents or adults

Family background

family resources such as household income, parental education, etc.

Language their mother tongue, in addition to any second or foreign language they may have learned or studied.

Socio-economic status

the classification of people by their wealth and social status in their community

Physical abilities (and disabilities)

the abilities that influence strength, endurance, flexibility, balance and coordination.

Intellectual abilities

the skills that are needed to perform mental activities usually involving thinking & reasoning.

Race the biologically engineered features such as skin color, skin tone, eye and hair color …

Ethnicity the learned cultural behaviors and heritage of a human being.

Religion the level of their religious affiliation & commitment.

Differences can also be of a psychological nature

Personality

the classification of people by their wealth and social status in their community

Valuesand attitudes

Values are the beliefs or ideals shared by the members of a culture about what is good or bad and desirable or undesirable.Attitudes are the established ways of responding to people and situations that we have learned based on the beliefs, values and assumptions that we hold.

Perception:

the process by which people translate sensory impressions into a coherent and unified view of the world around them.

Motivation the driving force that initiates and directs behavior

What are Learner

Differences?

Check: 14, 15, 19, 28Outline

Learners in any classroom are both similar and different. An understanding of such similarities and differences

help teachers determine what to teach and how to teach it.

In a classroom of students in a Moroccan high school, for example, students may share more similarities than

differences: They would roughly be of the same age & socio-

economic background They would usually have the same nationality and

religion. They would often come from the same geographical

region. They would mostly belong to the same race (Amazigh or

Arab) or a combination of the two races.

They could share the same mother tongue:

Darija - with all its regional variations, or

Tamazight, or

Tarifit, or

Tachelhit, or

Elhassania.

Since the classroom is a microcosm of society, within the same classroom students can look and behave differently.

From the first day in class, a teacher can notice the many ways in which their new students seem to be different.

Diversity: “…Those human characteristics that have both

the potential to either enrich or limit a student’s capacity to learn from the school environment.” Henson & Eller (1999, p121)

However, there are many ways in which they can be different:

Some of them may be girls, some boys. Some may like school and some may not; Some may find learning at school an enjoyable

experience; Others will feel it is a hardship. Some may feel happy most of the time, some

unhappy. Some of the students may have special needs, such as

hearing difficulties, poor eyesight, or difficulty sitting still.

Shaping the way we teach English

Students can have different learning styles Some of them may be girls, some boys. Some may like school and some may not;

Shaping the way we teach English

1. Gender2. Personality Traits3. Learning Style4. Cognitive Abilities5. Multiple intelligences6. Degree of Motivation7. Exceptionality (Giftness & Limitations)8. Teachers are also different (Good & Bad)

Students can have different learning styles Some of them may be girls, some boys. Some may like school and some may not;

Shaping the way we teach English

Disability Area of Difficulty  Symptoms include trouble with:  Example 

Learning Disabilities     

DyslexiaProcessing language

Reading, writing, and spellingLetters and words may be written or pronounced backwards 

Dyscalculia Math skills Computation, remembering math facts, concepts of time, and money

Difficulty counting by 2s, 3s, and 4s

Dysgraphia Written expressionHandwriting, spelling, composition

Illegible handwriting, difficulty organizing ideas 

 Dyspraxia  Fine motor skillsCoordination and manual dexterity

Trouble with scissors, buttons, and drawing 

Information Processing Disorders 

     

Auditory Processing Disorder 

Interpreting auditory information

Language development and reading

Difficulty anticipating how a speaker will end a sentence 

Visual Processing Disorder 

Interpreting visual information

 Reading, writing, and mathDifficulty distinguishing letters like "h" and "n" 

http://nymetroparents.com/article/Learning-Disabilities-ChartDiagnoses-and-Symptoms

Prodigies Maths

It follows that if completely individualized instruction is impractical and one-size-fits-all is

ineffective for most students, a more balanced approach that

attempts to accommodate the diverse needs of the students in a class at least some of the time is the best an instructor can do.