Sunday, May 16, 2010

Reflection assignment on your cognitive styles and learning strategies

Which cognitive styles do you think you have? Give some examples to illustrate your points. In what ways do you think possesssing these specific leaning styles has a positive impact on your academic and private life and in what ways do you think it prevents or challenges you in your academic and private life?

2. Using the list of learning startegies (see pages 125-126 in Chapter 5 of Brown (2000) and communicative strategies (see page 128) in Chapter 5 of Brown (2000), describe examples of two or three that you have already used or you are currently using. Pick one or two that you don’t use very much and provide your reasons for not doing so.

32 comments:

  1. 1) I generally use grouping, keywords and repetition among the cognitive styles. For example; if I am expected to learn a long stuff, I try to group them first, then I try to find keywords related to them and lastly I repeat them to be more permanent. I think these kind of strategies make the learning easier. They decrease the working load to at least half. I think we all use these kind of strategies in our even private life because it helps learning and as a means of it: living. We can perceive the meaning of what is to be learned more fast and this will accelerate the active using also. There are also strategies such as note-taking, self-monitoring, deduction etc. We can use some strategies more dominant but I think we use all of them where they are necessary.
    2)Among communicative strategies I use approximation, gestures and mimics mostly. I try to connect my past and new learnings to figure out the stuff by using approximation. It makes the understanding easy. Also using gestures and mimics is a very effective way. I feel myself comfort when I use gestures. It also makes things easier for the person which is concerned with you. Generally we can say that it facilitate the communication. However; I don't really like circumlocution. It seems to me that it slows down the communication and make things hard for the communicators.

    ReplyDelete
  2. 1)I usually use practice by doing, encoding, note taking as a cognitive style and learning strategies. Firstly, encoding is my favorite one because I use it very much if I need to learn something hard. I link my new information to my existing knowledge in order to make my new information more meaningful. For example, if I should memorize something, I assimilate it to my existing knowledge. The other thing I do is practice by doing. I prefer learning by doing as it is very effective for me, and it makes my learning easier. The last strategy is note taking. I think that it enhances my understanding of material. Note taking skills help me to pay better attention to a written document because they keep active during the lecture. Using learning strategies makes students more active, and effective in their lectures.
    2) I use approximation, as I said before, I use my existing knowledge while learning new things, that is, I link new things to the existing knowledge. Also, I use paraphrasing, as it makes learning easier, effective for me. However I do not use gestures and mimics. I think that it is not necessary and effective for learning. Also I do not use translation for learning because translation makes my learning more difficult.

    ReplyDelete
  3. 1.I think I have dominantly visual cognitive style because I always prefer to read while studying instead of listening except the one that I listen from teacher in the class. I also find it easier and more understandable to study charts, drawings and other graphic information. For example; I believe that I learn better when I read the instructions instead of just listening them, especially when somebody ask me something to correct or approve, I ask them to see the information or in logic games and questions, it is crucial for me to see the question and read it myself for better comprehension. Using these strategies is quite time saving and effective on the permanency of the new information because those graphics or charts provide me create a scheme in my mind and facilitate to remember in long term. Organizing information through maps and outlines makes the point clearer and decreases the omission and increases the retention.
    2. I prefer to use repetition, note taking, grouping, contextualization and keyword in my cognitive learning process because they make my comprehension more effortless and simpler also they facilitate the permanence of the new information. For instance; when I need to learn new vocabulary, I use repetition, keyword, grouping and contextualization strategies in different ways. If the new word have some characteristics resemble to my first language like its spelling or sound, or it has a relationship with the word that I have already known, it is possible for me to use keyword strategy. In addition, if there are so many words I need to memorize, it is easier for me to write the words down and repeat them constantly and while doing this I generally group the words and try to learn in a meaningful context. Note taking is another important strategy that I mostly used. For example; before writing an essay, firstly I try to identify my main idea and then decide the important points that I want to mention, that is, I prepare an outline to organize the information and make it clear in my mind. Furthermore, I use note taking strategy in class while the teacher is delivering subject and I use those notes while studying besides the course pack and I believe that my notes make the subject more clear and memorable. as communicative strategies, I use approximation because it is quite easy to use closest alternative term instead of the word or item that we cannot remember and this also prevent disconnection during the communication. I also use non-linguistic signals as mime, gesture, facial expression because they help me to express myself easier and sometimes more understandable, especially when I have difficulty to tell what I mean, these signals function as the life savers. I don’t use word coinage because it might make me remember the existing word in the form that I created in my mind which is nonexistent and this nonexistent word can be even permanent and prevent me to learn the real one.

    ReplyDelete
  4. 1) My cognitive style is predominantly visual. I always prefer reading, using graphic information and drawing charts which substantially facilitate my learning process and retention. Listening is my secondary preference because I can easily be distracted in the course of listening. Sometimes, I am afraid of missing important points while listening and this may make me feel anxious. Nevertheless, while reading and seeing the information concretely, I feel safe and at that time my learning and comprehension becomes more efficient and permanent. I prefer reading the text myself and perceive information. I draw simple maps and outlines in my studies as well so as to organize, summarize information. While studying biology in high school, for example, I would always draw simple graphics and schemas such as a simple cell. Visualization makes my comprehension easier and more effective on specific learning tasks. In addition, it decreases the time which I spend on studying by means of providing me with shortcuts.
    2) Most of the time, I utilize contextualization, repetition, note-taking and deduction according to my cognitive preferences. As an example, while I study a second foreign language, I always use the strategies above and organize my learning route in the light of these principles. I try to learn new vocabulary items in meaningful contexts. I use them in sentences which clarify their meanings and usages as well according to the contextualization strategy. After that, I predominantly make use of the repetition technique. Regular repetition can be an obsolete way but I think, it always works. In grammar, I usually utilize deduction in the course of learning a new grammar rule. I apply these new rules to produce and understand the second language in an effortless way. Moreover, I always take my own notes in lectures because writing reinforces my learning and retention. I write the most important points and brief summaries. When it comes to communication strategies, I think, I make use of approximation, circumlocution and nonlinguistic signals. While communicating with other people, I sometimes describe the target object of action because of the difficulty in my recall. I can exemplify the target word through longer definitions. I also use alternative terms, and synonyms in the course of speaking as approximation. In addition, I generally use nonlinguistic signals, mimics, gestures and facial expressions in order to convey meaning. They help the transmission of the message and provide a more clear and smooth communication process. I don’t use code-switching and foreignizing strategies because I think they make communication unclear and there is no need to make this process more complicated.

    ReplyDelete
  5. 1) I have visual cognitive style as the main cognitive style of mine. I would rather reading while I am studying because I know that the stuff that I am trying to study is written and I can have a look at it any time I want. How ever, it is not possible for listening because as we all know, utterances are gone, but the writings are remained. I can be distracted while I am listening something so I sometimes need to take notes. Therefore, I can say my second cognitive style is note-taking. At lectures, especially for literature lectures, I have to take notes because I have a terrible memory. I believe note-taking cognitive style is suitable for me because when I write down something I make abbreviations, small notes about other notes, small arrow that are showing different notes etc.
    2) I haven’t been aware that I am using communicative strategies until we have seen them in our course. I can say that I don’t have a main communicative strategy. However, I realize that sometimes I use Circumlocution when I can not remember name of a special word. When I want to express the meaning of the target lexical item as closely as possible, I can use approximation because I like using different words, not cliches. I don’t like using direct translations because I know that both it makes speaking difficult and it sometimes is not possible to translate everything to L2.

    ReplyDelete
  6. 1) I have auditory style as the main cognitive style. I have also visual style like learning some visual elements such as powerpoint presentations. However, I can also learn effectively by reading but I cannot learn by note taking. ıt may be because of my laziness to write down what I have learned or something else. maybe therefore, I have good at learning by listening. I remember the things I listened and learned during the lesson. I have also repeat the things in my mind sometimes and this also helps me to understand the topic.
    2)As communicative strategy, I generally mix my older knowledge with new ones and I have a mixture of both of my knowledge all the time. This helps me to keep the knowledge in mind. I don't use circumlocation because when I use it, I get stuck in the knowledge. I also use gestures and mimics however sometimes I'm not aware of using them. I only remember if I use them. They are also provide effective learning for me.

    ReplyDelete
  7. (1)I think the cognitive styles that I have can be listed as: making mind maps, visualisation, association, scanning and self-testing and monitoring. I know that one of my most profitable features is the visualisation. I can even say that my visual intelligence is the dominan one. I think the way a associate things I learned with visuals help me a lot when recalling them or making mind maps is also an example to this. Also when I read o text I usuallt don't read the whole but just scan it. This helps me both gain some time and understand the general idea of the text. Additionaly, I shouls say that self-testing are monitoring that I use are really useful for someone to see his/her weak and strong points and develop him/herself.
    (2)As I mentiones above I have used and currentle been using visualisation, scanning and self-testing and monitoring making mind maps and I explained the reasons. I can say that I don't use direct translation because I think it is quite out of my way. I may may be focusing on meaning rather than the form.

    ReplyDelete
  8. 1)I think I have visual cognitive styles because I usually prefer reading, drawing charts, encoding and note taking; I am in the opinion of that I can understand and learn easier in that way. For instance, while I am preparing to an exam or presentation, I always read and write what I should study, I underline the important points, take small notes near them and sometimes, I draw their pictures and graphics; this way of learning is better for me. Moreover, I cannot definitely understand what I listen everytime. For instance, when someone asks me something orally, I have difficulty in understanding him/her, but if I read what s/he will ask me myself, I can catch it easily. I think it is because of that my teachers in primary and high school did not make us listening activities, we usually read and solved tests and learnt grammar inductively; I don’t have enough listening experience to understand. And this also affects me in the class because I am easily distracted while listening to my instructor and her/his instructions and I don’t understand what I hear time to time. Namely, I think listening wastes my time as I have to listen something again and again, but while reading and writing I save my time; charts, graphics, codes and notes taken facilitate my learning.
    2)Although there are a lot of communicative strategies in learning, we don’t use or prefer every one of them, we see some of them effective while we don’t find some of them proper for our learning process. I generally use approximation, note taking, grouping and keyword; I think they make my learning easier. For instance, when I learn something new, I build a bridge between my existing knowledge and the new one; this provides a connection between my knowledge and facilitates my learning. Furthermore, I usually take notes while I’m reading or listening to something. For example, I first take notes before I write an essay or any other assignment which should be written, I organize my notes and then I write it or I do that when I read something, I take notes about some significant points to remember them better. And also, I use this strategy in the class while the instructor tells something. Another strategy that I use is grouping; I form groups between what I should study and learn; this prevents me from mixing them and being confused. Finally, I use keywords, in particular, if I study education and linguistics as there are lots of things to keep in mind. I detect some key words to make me remember them easily and I think it works. As I said at the beginning, there also some strategies which we do not prefer and one of what I don’t prefer is direct translations because I believe that grasp the spirit of the language is the first step to learn a language and soul of one language do not totally run in with the soul of other language and direct translation spoils these souls.

    ReplyDelete
  9. 1.) I learn easily when I match the things I have just learned with something stable in my life. It makes the information more permanent for me to recall. For example, while learning some new words such as, I match them with an object in my private life. Whenever I see the object, the words come to my mind and in that way I am making reputation process. Visualizing is also one of my best learning ways in both my academic and private life. I believe that, studying with concrete things makes learning easier. Attaching a picture to each new learned things and maybe drawing a schema for them has always helped me. I am good at remembering the things, figures or words that I saw. I can give cars' plate number as an example. Why should not I use my skill in learning? Self talking and self testing help me while I ‘am learning.
    2.) As I said above I use matching, visualizing, monitoring and self-testing as the learning styles I am using. As communicative styles, I can say grouping, keywords and gestures/mimics may favorite ones. Learning things in groups is easier for human brain than learning them all together. It can help us remembering the objects in groups. Matching new things with a gesture or mimic is also a very nice way because whenever you do a mimic you can recall what you have learnt and it makes learning more permanent. I do not like mixing the ex-information with the new ones because whenever I tried it, it confused the all stuff in my brain. Instead, if I can connect the ex and new information, it should be wonderful. It should give me a chance to test me the things I learned before and reinforce the things I have just learned at the same time.

    ReplyDelete
  10. 1) I think my cognitive style is visual because I am distracted when listening to something. I usually prefer reading, especially I like to take notes. Drawing charts, encoding are the other cognitive styles that I prefer using. But, I think note taking is more important because this way is more permanent. Listening is also important and it is my second preference because it is a bit difficult for me compared to other cognitive styles. As I said above I can easily distracted while listening. But listening is necessary and we have to improve ourselves in this area. I think all the strategies are important and we should use all them.
    2) Actually, there are many communicative strategies in learning but I don’t thing all them are used. For me approximation, note taking, grouping and keyword are more important. I usually use these strategies. Because, I think these strategies makes learning more easier. When you learn something you can easily provides a connection between your existing knowledge and the new one. Note taking is another important strategy that we can see its importance especially in essays. For examples before writing an essay first we take a note, prepare general point and make an outline what we would write. When I make it clear in my mind, I fill myself ready for it and start to write. Although, mostly I don’t aware of it I also use gestures and mimics. They are also important and provide effective learning for me.

    ReplyDelete
  11. 1- Among the cognitive styles, I think I have repetition, grouping, note taking and imagery. The other styles are important in my learning a second language however, I use these four styles a lot. Repetition is a significant element in language learning especially for vocabulary learning. I use repetition method in vocabulary a lot to learn them rather than memorization. With repetition, language becomes a part of our lives. We imitate the language whenever we want through our own production, thus we can learn using the language effectively in our lives. The second style grouping is the other important point in language, we use this method not only for language classes but also for other courses to make the subject easier and clear for the student. With grouping the students classify similar features of one subject and make their learning much easier. Among these four strategies I think imaginary is the most important one. Because visual things are easy to remember for the students. With visual objects I can make the subject concrete in my mind thus, the retrieval of the information can be realized easily. And the last one is note taking. It is an also important technique in the lessons. Main idea, important points, summary of the subject can be done from the student’s aspect with note taking. So note taking is up to student. S/he can take notes important points in the way how s/he understands. With all these styles learning becomes much easier and in an organized way for the students.
    2- From learning and communicative strategies I use mostly the ones that I have mentioned above. I use repetition for the learning of the new vocabulary and grammar rules. The aim of my note taking is to understand whether I grasp the subject or not as a control of my subject knowledge. With imaginary the information stays much longer in my mind. Apart from them for the communication strategies I generally use approximation, my existing knowledge helps with me to acquire the new ones. Mimics and gestures are also necessary in the language learning for me. I also find circumlocution useful, because it is based on defining something with action so the learning is more durable. However, code switching and foreignizing strategies does not appeal to me very much. Because all the activities that are done in class should be in the target language.

    ReplyDelete
  12. 1)Words fly away; writing remains. I saw this expression in an advertisement company and I liked it very much. Because it gives a clue about which cognitive style I have. As you understand, I have a visual cognitive style. I always prefer seeing something instead of hearing or feeling it. Because I feel more concentrated when I reading it. But I do not have the same feeling while I was listening to something. I can easily be distracted. Also, when I listen to something, all the things get complicated and I do not understand the utterances clearly. In the written language,however, everything is explicit and I do not have difficulty in uderstanding. Also, I hardly forget something I saw at once. I think I have a strong visual intelligence. And this is a very big advantage for me.
    2) I always remember something with the help of something related to it. I mean I use approximation most. Of course, I had not realised it until we discussed the communicative strategies in our lesson. I think approximation makes remembering easy for everbody. And it makes better understanding. Also, it may be very enjoyable in a course. When I was in high school, I learn almost all the unknown words by approximation. And I will use approximation on my students too when I become a teacher.

    ReplyDelete
  13. 1. There are many cognitive styles that make learning easier for learners. I primarily use visual cognitive style. Visualization is indispensable learning style for me, as I have visual intelligence. When I see things, I can clearly understand them. Therefore, I prefer reading and studying charts, drawing things and other graphic information. For example, in lectures, listening to the instructor isn’t enough for me to learn because I probably forget some of them or I cannot understand some parts or miss them. However, when I see charts, pictures, or graphics, it is easy for me to grasp things. As for reading which is also a part of visual cognitive style, I use it, too. Reading helps me learn more easily. I also use note-taking which is my favorite one. I like writing everything down, even though I have the book in front of me, I take notes with my own words. During lectures, I write down what I hear from the instructors; it is easy for me to learn and analyze things better, as I said just listening to the instructor isn’t an effective way for my learning. Also when I study for an exam, although I have the book which contains everything about the subject, I take notes again and revise them before the exam in addition to studying the book. These styles are useful for me, since they make my learning easier.
    2. There are many learning strategies and communicative strategies. So, it is impossible to use all of them. I generally use note taking, grouping, keyword and repetition for my cognitive learning strategies, and approximation and circumlocution for the communicative strategies. As I said above, taking notes makes learning easy for me. I should see things written down on papers. Then, when I learn something new, I use repetition. For example, to learn new vocabulary items in a foreign language, I use this strategy. As for the grouping, grouping the similar things helps me keep things in my mind more effectively and this doesn’t lead a complexity. Then, identifying some keywords when there are so many things to remember facilitates to remember these things making learning easier. I said I use circumlocution because I can describe things with explanatory phrases or sentences. Approximation is also helpful for me, since using similar words is helpful in my speaking process. There are some strategies which I don’t prefer using. One of them is translation. It isn’t necessary so much to understand everything word by word. Instead of it, we should use contextualization where we can get the overall meaning from a given context, which is more appropriate for understanding the language.

    ReplyDelete
  14. 1) My dominant cognitive style is visual and right- brain dominant because I prefer visual things and my imagination generally while I am studying my lessons or just reading some piece of paper. I cannot study without drawing some charts, lists or tables. For example, while I am listening the lessons, I feel to take notes down in order to remember for the next time much easier and if I just code what I think about the topic and the teacher says, I can copy the images and the sentences in my mind and it makes it easy for me to memorize things. With the help of listing and drawing some charts in my studies, I can manage to remember list of words, principles and clauses in the exams and so, I can just write down the answers very quickly. Moreover, it is obvious that the knowledge or the input becomes stable in my long term memory through the schemas that are drawn in my mind and by using visual cognitive skills.
    2) When I try to learn new knowledge and some new vocabulary items, I usually prefer using the techniques such as repetition, chunking, grouping, mapping, note taking, listing and keyword in order to reinforce my learning and internalize new knowledge with the previous ones. For example, if I should learn some words form a text that contains different kinds of words such as adverbs, adjectives, verbs, prepositions and nouns, I firstly use grouping to identify the kinds of the words and secondly list them in the same category, and then repeat them so many times until I satisfy myself and I try to find out if I manage to learn the words or not, if I couldn’t I try to find some relevant keywords about the words and memorize them through my long term memory. I generally use mapping while I am about to write an essay about any topic. Firstly, I think the keywords about the topic and write them down randomly and then I try to select some of them suitable for taking part in the essay outline. Therefore, I set up the map of ideas as a core of the essay. I always use note taking in the lessons because I cannot understand the topic otherwise. With the help of notes I can easily remember the class environment and the teacher’s mimes and body language used while s/he is teaching the topic. I do not use the strategy of foreignizing because it can be very hard to remember or learn by making the things more complicated and foreign in terms of coding. Moreover, I do not also use generally direct translation because it make me a bit lazy and uncomforted because I just think the relevance of the words in my own language, but there can be some differences between the translation and the main meaning, so we can only understand these differences by not direct translation, but just explanation of the target language.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Scientific researches show that most linguists use right hemisphere of their brain. Visual intelligence is more developed in the right hemisphere of the brain. This generalization is true for me, too. I always prefer visual ways while I am studying. For instance; I try to turn the long paragraphs into small tables to create visual convenience for reading or memorizing. Another style which I prefer is writing. I really think that it is very useful to write the subject you study. Provided that I give all my attention to the subject, I learn better and write it to my mind at the same time. Writing technique makes all the subjects more clear, easy to understand and hard to forget for me. Most people may not prefer writing all the stuf since it could be very tiring but I guess this is the best way for me to understand...

    ReplyDelete
  16. 2. As I mentioned above, I use visualizing and writing thechniques most of the time. But I can not say that I like reading technique so much. Because it requires continious attention and it is really hard to keep my attention on the book for a long time. Sooner or later I start to think about something else, I mean lose my attention. That causes me to miss a lot of points in the text. But I do not want to read again the whole text so reading can be useless sometimes.

    ReplyDelete
  17. 1- I use many different cognitive styles and choose the most effective one according to the subject. My favorite cognitive styles are association, using visual aids such as drawing charts, note taking, repetition, grouping and keywords. I generally use association. I link the new information to my old knowledge or important things in my real life. It is very easy and effective to learn new things with the help of old ones. For example, I do not memorize new words. I link them with the objects or conceptions in my life. I see a new word then according to its meaning or spelling ı match it with the word that I already know. I make up a story or a short sentence that reminds me the new word until ı permanently learn its meaning. One of the other important cognitive styles that I usually use is visual aids. Visual intelligence is one of the most important learning ways. When you see the new information in an effective way you can learn it more easily and permanently. For example when I have to learn new definitions or conceptions, I write them capitals in the blanks on my book. I see them whenever I open the book or page. When I write the words in capitals I read the definition many times and I use repetition. When I see the words I remember the definition and I do not need to work hard later before the exam. Keywords is also an important cognitive style. Words are easy to remember and when you match the words with definitions, subjects and conceptions. You can easily call the necessary information when you only remember a word. These cognitive styles make me comfortable before the exams and lessons.
    2- Association and approximation is the most effective ways of learning and remembering new information. I have used these cognitive styles since my psychology teacher explained them to me. They are the most effective cognitive styles for me to learn. When one match the new information to the old one it is very easy to remember and learn new information. I match new words with my friends according to the meaning of the words and characteristics of my friend. It is funny and effective way of learning vocabulary. I seldom use note taking because it is very boring and time consuming. I write the keywords many times but it is useless to write all the information again and again.

    ReplyDelete
  18. 1)As my friend Şerafettin Ayançang said "Words fly away; writing remains..." Also my predominant cognitive stlye is Visual. Reading always help for memorizing. Besides the words, pictures and real objects have a big importance in learning. As a student, I like listening a lesson while there is visual objects to catch my interest and make me follow the topic. Visual objects also help guessing the meaning of a foreign word and recalling it. Besides the academic life, I sometimes use visual objects in my life to recall some important things.


    2)Most of the time I use my previous knowledge to understand the new ones. I try to make new ones clear by using the old ones.
    I don't use direct translation because it can be meaningless(even funny) to translate some sentences to another language directly

    ReplyDelete
  19. 1) This question was a bit challenging for me cause I had never thought about which skills I had. I still don’t know which styles I use but I know which one I don’t have. I don’t use grouping or encoding cause they are not for me. I cant apply them. I think I have visual style. I have to see so that reading is effective for me and then note taking. While studying I prefer to write down it, by this ways I can learn more effective. I usually study by writing. Repetition is not effective for me. Instead of repeating it ten times, to write the same text once is more effective for me. Drawing charts, making grouping, the thing related to Maths are not for me. I'm a global learner, I guess, so pictures illustrating the subject is a good way to use and learn for me. I usually write the things I have to memorise in a paper then stick it my desk or the wall in front of my desk so that I can see it every time I look. However the most important point I guess to be interested in the things you learn. Even if you use your most effective ways to learn it you cant. It sometimes or honestly usually happens to me. While studying a subject which are not interested in and eager to learn, even if I write the whole text two time or read it ten times I cant learn it still. So that, people usually get learn and memorize all of the things about their favorite, actor, football club or else only with one times reading but not the thing related to their major. So the guys easily memorize all the results of football match date by date but not the dates in history. So I guess the most effective way to learn to make yourself interested in the subject you study.
    2)I have said before I am a visual person so that I use cognitive strategies more but these days I have been into meta-cognitive strategies because of the reason I have explained in the end of the first question. We have just finished final exams, while studying I had forced myself to ''really'' interested to learn the subject. I tried to give my attention to my work and just to think and focus on it. The strategies and their effectiveness depend on our personality. For example socio-affective/communication strategies are not effective for me because I learn best when I make self-study , I mean when I study on my own. However some people learn more when they study with others or when their friends explain it to them. I also do not use compensatory strategies because of the same reason. I have read the comments of my friends and most of them said that they use approximation, I tried to use it but it was really not effective in me. So,the most important thing is to find the most effective strategy working best on you.

    ReplyDelete
  20. 1) I think I have a visual learning style. Because I usually make use of visuals while studying or doing something else. For example, I like reading pictures, graphics and charts, and I think they facilitate my learning and understanding. I prefer reading rather than listening because I am easily distracted while listening to a person. Also most of the time you do not have chance to listen again for sth you missed but if you are reading something, you have the chance to turn back and read it again. I think something else that is dominant in my cognitive learning style is that I like outlining, organizing, planning and summarizing. I make some outlines and a kind of table of contents and make summaries while studying. These are helpful in my learning but lacking in other cognitive styles is not good. For example I am not good at listening and this makes me lose lots of things.
    2) Among the communicative strategies of learning I seem to be using mostly are approximation, note taking, grouping and keyword. These strategies are the most effective ones for me because they make learning easier by making a connection between the input and your previous knowledge. If you have lots of things to deal with, grouping will be suitable. You can group the things and work with them separately. If you have a problem like forgetting the long things or confusing with other things using keywords will be suitable. I think there is something more which makes learning easier and it is contextualization. I believe that contextualizing the knowledge makes it easier to remember.

    ReplyDelete
  21. 1) I use many of the cognitive strategies differing from time to time. For example, note-taking is one of the strategies I use frequently, especially while listening to a lecture. For learning new vocabulary and remebering the vocabulary I learned before, I usually use auditory representaion and inferencing. I also find transfer and keyword useful for learning a new subject or any aspect of a language. Finally I use translation at the first paces of learning a new language. All the strategies I use help me much but among them, translation sometimes prevent my speaking from being fluent since an item learned by translation is not so easy to think in the target language first.
    2) Among the communicative strategies suggested I generally use circumlocution, approximation and code-switching, which all helps when I am not able to remember a word or do not know it at all. I also use nonlinguistic signals and stalling/time-gaining strategies both in my daily conversations and while talking in a second language. These two help me gain some time to think before speaking and with nonlinguistic signals I sometimes even do not have to force myself to tell something I have difficulty in expressing.

    ReplyDelete
  22. 1-I think my cognitive style is visual. I easily distracted when I am listening because of my teachers in high school. They did not make listening activities to us. Therefore sometimes I cannot understand what I listened. I always take notes while I am studying. If I don’t do this, I feel as if I did not learn anything. Sometimes writing can be time consuming and if I have not enough time for studying, I only read. But it is not as effective as writing. And so I should start to study earlier. While I am learning vocabulary, I use encoding. I always try to find related figures or Turkish words and I think it is very effective for memorize them. I also write the new words on small papers and stick them on my cupboard etc. The more I read them, the easier I learn. I can also use drawings, maps, graphics and charts. In brief, except listening all visuals are suitable for me.
    2-I prefer to use note taking, repetition, contextualization and approximation in my cognitive learning process. As I said above, if I take notes, I can easily learn and it is permanent. And approximation makes remembering easier especially while learning new words. After all, repetition helps reinforce what I learned. However, I don’t prefer to use direct translation. When we use this strategy, we always try to find exact opposition of our L1 words and so we cannot speak fluently.

    ReplyDelete
  23. 1. I think I have verbal/linguistic cognitive style because I like reading and explaining something. I usually acquire and process my knowledge by listening, reading and writing. When I explain a subject to someone while I am studying for an exam, I understand the subject better. I can learn better when I hear my voice. So, after studying, I always tell the lesson to someone. I usually write the important information on a paper, so I can remember easily. I read the same subject at least three times. The more I have interaction with words the better I understand. Also I can express myself verbally when I feel relax. Those people who have verbal/linguistic cognitive style are usually teachers, journalists, writers, lawyers, translators and I want to be a teacher. I think it is the best job for me.
    2. I usually use note-taking, grouping, keyword, approximation and mime as learning strategies and communicative strategies. For example; while studying for an exam, I usually group things and note down some keywords. It is useful for me to write some important things. When I write things, they are permanent. I can remember them easily when I need them. In communication I generally use mime and gestures. I try to convey the meaning of my speech by approximation and mime. When I can’t remember the exact word that I want to use, I use another word similar to it. Also I use my hands very much during the communication. They help me to communicate better. The two strategies that I don’t use are circumlocution and foreignizing. I don’t prefer them because they make the communication unclear and difficult to understand.

    ReplyDelete
  24. I have absolutely visual cognitive style. I couldn't understand anything by listening and I always hate listening activities.When sometimes my sister ask me questions in english, she reads but I couldn't understand what she says. I prefer to see the questions all the time otherwise I am afraid of answering.
    I don't trust myself.When I read, I feel more relax and I can easily understand and answer.While studying I mostly use repetition and writing. I like writing
    all my notes again an again. I know this is time consuming but the more I write the better I understand. If I haven't got enough time, I underline while reading or I just take some small notes.Furthermore, I like seeing pictures while learning a new vacobulary.I can keep my mind this word easily when I see its picture.
    Also I always look sample sentences of it.Pictures help me so much for my vocabularies and I believe it will contunie to help because there are still a lot of unknown words for me.However, my lacking of listening ability prevents my understanding the subject. Sometimes during the lecture I get easily bored and I couldn't listen my teacher anymore and sometimes while our teacher are giving instruction, I don't understand and ask my friends what s/he says.
    2. I mostly use gestures, mimics and approximation. I notice that I overuse gestures and mimics in my public speaking course. While doing job interview as an activity during the lectures, at the end my teacher says you use a lot of gestures and mimics and these can be disturbing. Then I see that I really overuse them in my daily life.However, I feel myself relax and they help me most of the time especialy I forget the meaning of a word. Also I like approximation because it helps me keep the things in my mind easily.When I learn new things I associate it with my prior knowledge and whenever I want to recall it, it comes to my mind easily.However, I hate direct translation
    I don't believe that everything can be translated another language word by word and also it is diffucult.

    ReplyDelete
  25. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  26. 1) Generally I use encoding, note taking, numbering the list in cognitive styles. I always associate the new information with the old one. It is more meaningfull for me to make a connection between my previous knowledge and new knowledge. Also to practice it is my main job in studying. If I do not practice the things I have learned, I easily forget them.
    If it comes to memorize sth like words I usually group the words that I have to learn. They should be semantically grouped. Otherwise, I can not make my mind and get the job. These kind of strategies help me to learn better and in a speedy way.
    While studying , I do not want to look at charts or graphics. It distracts my mind. If I do look at them, I can not study effectively. From all kind of things, I understand that I do not have visual cognitive.
    2) I prefer to use repetition, note taking, grouping the words. In that way I can do my work more easily. It does not occupy my time. The keyword strategy is much more important for me because I associate the new lexical item with the old one as I sad before.
    And also note taking is another strategy I use in my school life. When I listen to a lecture, it is very important for me to take notes not the exact words but only my own words.

    ReplyDelete
  27. 1- One of the most specific features of me is that I have a right-brain dominance. It is almost 90% which shapes my way of learning. I am a visual person and I hardly forget what I see, I even remember things from when I was 2. While studying, I use this for better learning, for example I use charts, shapes and pictures which I will remember later on. Apart from them, I prefer reading to listening because I have a problem of long-term concentration. While listening, I lose the track of where we were and feel compulsory to start it from the beginning. Another dominant feature of me is that I make associations between objects and issues which help me learn the topic as a whole. I also use organization outlines and keywords for better retention of information. These strategies are very effective in me and I dont spend much time studying actually. I have clarified the ways with which I can learn best and now I can study with so little time to waste =))
    2- I generally prefer to use keywords, grouping, visualization, scanning and making mind maps. As I mentioned above, I have a right-brain dominance and I am a visual person which are the reasons for utilizing these strategies. For example, when I am to write an essay, first of all I write down the keywords which are essential for me to convey the meaning and then I create a mind map to think about my essay beforehand. During classes, I prefer to visualize what teacher says because while studying it later on, I find it very easy to remember and I simply add some further information to my already-established information world. Apart from them, as communicative strategies, I frequently use facial expressions, mimics, gestures while expressing myself (sometimes even while trying not to express myself lol :D) because they are additional to linguistic input and they make the understanding more efficient. With these strategies, my learning process is less time-taking and so much effective that as I mentioned above, I don't spend much time studying.
    I don't use complicated strategies like code-switching foreignizing strategies simply because I don't need them and there no need to make things complicated. In addition, I don't use direct translations and I don't also approve their use by students or learners because in my opinion, it can pose a treat to improve their language skills to a great extent. 'Dreaming in the target language' is the best =))

    ReplyDelete
  28. a)I think I have encoding style as cognitive strategy. because when I encounter with new information I immediately try to connect it with existing one.Especially in high school while memorizing words I have done it a lot. Actually it helps me very much.

    b)I think use repetition and approximation most. because the more you practice something the more permenant it becomes.I also use encoding very frequently, it helps me a lot in remembering some information. I connect my existing lexicon with new ones generally at least this is what I have done so far. for repetition, especially İF you exposed something many times you learn it without realizing that you are learning something.However I do not like translation very much it is boring and takes too much time.

    ReplyDelete
  29. a)I think I have an overriding visual cognitive style, since I prefer it to read instead of only listen to an instruction.I can recognize things better when I study from visual materials like charts, drawings and other graphic information.
    Sometimes I have difficulties to concentrate in class(i.e. it is to l class).In such case I prefer to have a written instruction because I can read it several times.However, I can not ask the teacher to repeat the instruction more than once.Working this way I feel more succesful and can remember learned information easier.Things I can scan with my eyes are deep implanted in my mind.This is the way I feel more comfortable to make retention.

    ReplyDelete
  30. I generally use repetition, note taking, grouping, contextualization and keyword in my cognitive learning process because they make my comprehension simplier.
    I mostly use gestures,mimics and approximation while I make public speaking.This is one of my strenghts while communicating.I get only positive feedback in this context, since it makes me clearly understandable and helps the audience to get the context of my speech easier.
    I like to associate new learned things with prior learned ones.I can remeber things more easily this way.
    However, direct translation is sometimes very confusing.It is not simple to translate thigs word by word since there is sometimes no word that refers to it in the second language.

    ReplyDelete
  31. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  32. 1) My main cognitive style is the auditory. I learn best when i listen to someone. Secondly, i learn by visual styles like reading, looking at pictures, etc. but it is not as effective as listening. I may even say that listening to once is more effective than reading five times for me. I sometimes use encoding, too.

    2)Approximation, note taking, encoding and sometimes keyword are the strategies i mostly use. I always connect my new knowledge with the existing ones. Whenever i come accross a new type of a rule i always try to associate it with the ones i already know. I learn by taking notes effectively. I listen to the teacher and after that i write down what i understood. This note taking process makes my knowledge strengthened and long-lasting. I sometimes use keywords to encode my knowledge into my memory and it really works.

    ReplyDelete