Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. What I'm talking about today is the best way to teach yourself English,
and that's the way that fits you, your personality, and the way your mind ticks; the way your
mind works. I think that, in general, it's the best time ever to be learning English
because you have so much access to English materials. So I'm not talking just about traditional
ways, like books, and going to classes because now with the internet, there are just so many
ways that you can learn, also with new devices. So, right now, you're learning English for
free on the internet. Right? But you can also be learning English for free on Facebook or
by using an app. So more than ever, there are just so many opportunities to learn, but
also to connect with other people who speak English or who want to speak English. So it's
great. Yeah?
Well, what would help, though, is knowing the best way to maximize what's already out
there, so how you can use it more effectively. So to get there, what I want to do first is
a little quiz, a quiz to find out your learning style. So let's go through the quiz and you
have to decide which answer fits you best. Okay?
So when using new equipment, equipment... This could be like... could be a new computer
or a new remote control for your television, something like that. Do you..? Or something
a little bit more difficult than that. Do you read the instructions first, do you ask
somebody who already knows how to use it for an explanation, or do you work it out by trial
and error? That means you just start using it and learn... Learn yourself. Which one
fits you? So, for me, I am... I am a trial and error person. This is me, so I'm going
to put a star there. Another good example of that is: have you ever bought any flat
pack furniture that you need to put together for yourself? Well, you know, do you read
the instructions first, do you ask somebody, or do you just start? I'm this kind of person
and I can tell you that it often goes wrong because I just think: "Oh, it will be fine."
Next of all, when you're travelling and you need to find somewhere, do you use a map?
"Aha, we go this way." Do you ask for directions or try to memorize them before you go? "Oh,
I go there, and then I turn right, and then I go left. Aha, I see." Do you do that? Or
do you get a sense of where to go by landmarks? I've lived in a couple of different cities,
and this is what I always do. I live in Dubai at the moment, so kind of have a... Just a
feeling of where the sea is all the time. I'm like: "The sea's over there, I'll go there."
Doesn't always work, but that's how I make sense of where I am, so I'm here.
When you're cooking, what do you like to do? Are you someone who follows a recipe? "I do
that, I do that, I do that." Often, people who follow a recipe do exactly the thing it
says. Is that you? When you're cooking, do you ask a friend to give you their tips for
cooking? "Oh, I really loved what you made there. Can you tell me how you did it?" And
then you try it yourself? Or do you just make it up as you go along? "I'll put a bit of
that in. I'll make it a bit spicier. Who needs a recipe?" Which one are you? I'm... It's
getting a little bit repetitive here. Isn't it?
How about this one: I learn best when I'm shown what to do? So you show me what to do
with your hands, I see it, and I go: "Right, I can do that now." I learn best when somebody
tells me what to do, so they give you instructions, you hear it. You're like: "Aha, I know what
to do now." Or do you learn best when you just have a go? You don't... You know, you
can listen to them, you can see what you're supposed to do, but you really learn when
you can be practical and get your hands involved. Which one are you? It's me.
And, I don't know about this one so much because I think there's an answer that people are
just not going to admit... Admit to. When you're with friends or when choosing a partner,
it's most important how a person looks-this is the one that I'm saying I don't think people
will admit to-or is it important what people say? You like to hear them saying all the
right things, and then you know you trust them. Or is it important how that person makes
you feel? It's not so much in language, it's not how they look. So you decide. For me...
For me it's this one again, all this side.
So I'm going to tell you what that means now. These are different learning styles. This
one is visual learning style, with your eye, visual. This one is auditory learning style,
learning by hearing. And this one is kinesthetic learning style, learning by doing. Okay? So
it's said that we each have a learning preference. So if you found you did this quiz and maybe
you got four out of five in visual, that means you're a visual learner, and I'll tell you
more about that in a minute. If you did the quiz and you had two in the auditory section,
that means that maybe sometimes you have a preference for learning this way, but if the
rest of them were in the kinesthetic part, your strongest learning style is kinesthetic,
and that's to do with feeling.
So what we're going to learn next or what I'm going to tell you next is how these different
learning styles relate to you learning English more effectively. So we'll look at the different
learning styles, and I'll tell you what you need to do to learn English more effectively.
Let's have a look at the different learning styles in more detail, and then after that,
I'm going to tell you what learning methods are good for you to try if you're a particular
learning style. So 30% of people have a visual learning style. So one way to recognize these
people is they speak really quickly. The people who speak the fastest have a visual learning
style. And it sounds pretty good to be this kind of person because they learn quickly.
When they... When they learn, however, they do need to see something; they need to see
an image, a text, or a diagram and that helps the information go into their brain. This
is the kind of person who remembers faces. You're like: "Hmm, have we met before?" But
you probably don't remember the name of that person. When you learn, taking notes is useful
for you. But on the downside, not really able to listen for a long time because you lose
your concentration. So they're the visual people.
What about the auditory people, people who learn by hearing? They learn by hearing and
by participating in speech. Sometimes auditory learning style people don't actually like
reading. Okay? They say they don't like reading. But then the issue there is that they don't
hear a voice in their head when they read. If they tried to hear a voice in their head
when they read, reading becomes a lot more attractive to them. So as long as there's
some kind of voice happening with the reading, it's okay. Or for auditory people, you could
listen to talking books, for example, that would be more enjoyable for you. An auditory
person learns through repetition. So imagine when you're a child and you learn a language,
you say something, maybe you say it wrong, then your parent corrects you, then you try
it again, maybe get it wrong, and your parent corrects you. Well, eventually, you get it
right. But for auditory people, when they're learning, they just like to repeat things
a lot, so they might be quite vocal when they're learning and that's good for them. And this
kind of person loves to talk and listen in general.
What about the kinesthetic people? These are the people who learn by being practical and
hands-on, and through feeling, you could say, in the senses. They like hands-on learning.
You need to be involved in what you're doing. When you're learning, you move, maybe you
fidget. "Fidget" means you move around, you can't sit still, you play with a pen, you
doodle, you draw things. And another way to recognize a kinesthetic person is, in general,
they're the slowest speaking people.
So what does this mean for you learning English? Well, I said before the... What's really interesting
about learning English now is there's just like so many cool ways that you can do it
using the internet. So you don't even really need to have access to English teachers where
you live, or you don't really need to attend classes, and still so much you can do. So
what's good for you? engVid video lessons, well, of course, it's great for all of you.
But let's break it down a bit. The thing about engVid lessons is there's a visual aspect
and there's also an auditory aspect, so that means that you get three stars... Three stars
for those learning styles. But what about the kinesthetic people? Well, maybe not so
good for them, unless you do the quiz. If you do the quiz, it's good for you, but you
need to be involved. Okay? If you just listen to the lesson but you don't do the quiz, well,
you're not going to get such a good result. For these guys, they're okay, they don't need
to do the quiz so much. But kinesthetic people really need to do the quiz to get the maximum
benefit.
What about podcasts? Well, depends how far you take it with the podcast because, often,
with the learning English resources out there, you can listen to the podcast for free, but
if you want the extra materials, you need to pay for them. So the extra materials are
usually like quizzes or PDFs that you can read. So if you're a visual person, you probably
need to invest in those materials for it to be worthwhile for you. So I'm just going to
put two stars for visual people, unless you have something you can read at the same time.
But it's of course great for the auditory people. And the same issue with the kinesthetic
people, you do need to make it practical. So when you're listening to the podcast, you
need to do the exercises, or the quiz, or whatever they give you as well. So yeah, it
depends really. So it could be two stars. It's not the best way for kinesthetic people.
What about gap fills online? For many people, doing this kind of grammar exercise when you
just find a random English site and do a gap fill, for many English... For many people,
that's quite a boring way to learn. But there are some people out there who just like doing
grammar exercises. This can be good for visual people because they learn when they're seeing
things, but I find this quite a boring way to learn English in general, so I'm just going
to do one star. Not so good for auditory learners because there's nothing to hear, so nothing
there. And for kinesthetic people, you're involved in the learning, so you can have
one star as well.
Role play, this is what you do in your classroom when you imagine yourself in a situation.
Here's something you probably didn't know, visual learning people just can't do it. They
can't improvise unless they're told exactly what to do, so this probably makes them feel
awkward in the classroom. Auditory people, they're pretty good at it because they just
like speaking and listening. And kinesthetic people, they learn by doing, so it's good
for them as well. But they speak slowly, so it might take them time to say something.
Apps, well, it depends what the app is, of course. But it's a little bit visual. Isn't
it? Could potentially have sound in it, so it depends. And for kinesthetic people, it's
okay too. I'd say it depends on the quality of the app, rather than the learning style
here.
For Facebook groups, what I actually quite like about this is if you join lots of those
Facebook pages, people make images with just some vocabulary in them or idioms, and I think
that's really good just to sort of daily see something like that where you can learn an
idiom without really trying, so that's really good if you're a visual learner, because you'll
see it and you'll understand. For the others, nothing special really.
Films, people often say: "When I watch a film, should I watch it with subtitles or without?"
I think generally watching it with subtitles is a bit of distraction. And if you're...
If you're an auditory learning, you're just watching... No, sorry. If you're reading the
subtitles, you're not really paying so much attention to the film itself. So visual people,
probably better to watch without the subtitles just to exercise your listening skills more
because they're a little bit weak in comparison. So for you guys, no subtitles. For you guys,
I think I'm just going to say no subtitles really because I think it's better without.
No subtitles. It's more difficult to understand, of course, and you will miss things, but it's
more of a listening exercising for you if you try without.
Recording yourself, this is quite an interesting way to improve your speaking skills in English
for, especially people who don't have many people to talk to in English. Not so interesting
to visual learners, but very good for kinesthetic people and okay for auditory learners.
Note taking, when you're in class, can this be useful for you? Useful for visual learners
and kinesthetic learners. Not needed for auditory learners.
And what about learning on the street, just from being around people? I really admire
it when people can do this and learn in this way. But these people, they're generally the
hearing orientated learners or a little bit of feeling orientated learners.
So, I hope that's going to help you in your endeavours and your trials of learning English
by yourself. What I'd like you to do now, kinesthetic learners, is go and do the quiz.
But I'm not excluding anyone else from doing the quiz. In fact, I'd really appreciate it
if you went to do the quiz as well. But it's especially important for you guys to do the
quiz. What I'd like you to do before you go there is subscribe to my channel here and
also subscribe to my personal channel. And I am finished now, so I'm going to go.