My Learning Styles

[Kristen Harrison]

I've studied a few different languages over the years, and I've learned in time what works best for me in order for words' meanings and sentence constructions to stick. I started french in eighth grade and continued with it until the end of high school, and I studied german for three years in college and then arabic for a semester. The two online questionnaires told me that I was Music Learner, on the one hand, and a Physical and Visual learner by the other. And I would agree with these results. I listen to music constantly and I seek out music from other languages, especially the ones I study. I believe it helps my pronunciation, as well as repeats common phrases and word usages, which pop into my mind later when I'm trying to think of the correct way to express something.
I've also known for a very long time that I'm a visual learner when it comes to learning words. If I see something written out once, I will always remember how to spell it, and I need to see foreign words written out in order to remember them. That's because I recall words by seeing them in my mind, and if I only hear a word and am not familiar with how a word would be spelled, my brain invents its own way to write it, which creates problems later when I try to write.
Alternately, studying grammar first in a textbook is helpful to me to learn how sentences should be constructed, but grammar becomes second nature to me only when I've heard it spoken a lot. Once I know how the language would look written out, listening to it spoken or in music helps me put words in context and learn how they should be used.
The first things I need to understand are the alphabet and the pronunciation of words. I generally learn vocabulary best in lists. I don't necessarily need or want pictures with them since I make my own pictures in my head. Also I've learned it's helpful to learn vocabulary as words that all relate to each other, like foods or household objects. Once I have the basics, I could research the basic grammatical constructions of sentences, since I remember that Turkish placement of words in sentences is very different from English. Then I could understand simple texts, write basic sentences, and learn context by watching tv and kids' cartoons, or by listening to podcasts or music while I run.

[Nuray Grove]

Merhaba Kristen,
It's very interesting that you can create your own mental images of new words. and you are right about grouping words. So, what category will you begin with? food? Hmmm, I think we should all go to "Anadolu" to have some kebaps.