UNIT 14: LEARNER NEEDS

Some teachers think the only thing learners need to do is to learn, but they need more than just knowledge.  This unit basically talks about when learning a foreign language; a learner has various kinds of needs (most of the time personal needs, learning needs and future professional needs) that may influence on their learning. It’s the role of the teacher to find out those needs.

One of the personal needs that a learner may have can come from gender, age, cultural background, motivation (a very important factor on the learning process). A learning need can come from the learning styles, past learning experiences, learner autonomy, availability of time, learning goals and expectations for the course.

As a conclusion we can infer from this unit that learners have different needs. It means that they need to be taught in different ways and learn different things as well.

NOTE: You can see again unit 9 for MOTIVATION and unit 13 for THE EFFECTS OF LEARNER CHARACTERISTICS.

One of the ways I will implement this in class is by first taking some of the class hours to talk friendly with learners and talk about their needs. Since learners at primary or secondary school may not yet have professional or academic needs, they will have personal and learning needs in English; I will focus on those needs and give them the necessary resources to help them on their learning process.

I will also try to meet some other necessities through choosing suitable materials, topics, pace, skills, interaction patterns and different types of feedback in the case of personal needs. For learning needs I will choose among learning strategies, activities, approaches to teaching, etc.

Some websites you can check for more details:

• Beetham, H. (2010) Learner needs V1. Retrieved from http://es.slideshare.net/hbeetham/learner-needs-v1

• Minderhout, V. (2005) Identifying Learners needs. Retrieved from: http://www.pcrest3.com/fgb/efgb4/3/3_2_6.htm