The Three Learning Styles and Role Play

Every student has his own way in learning something. In formal school, each student has a different style in understanding the material which is delivered by the teacher. This difference is called learning styles. There are three styles of learning that are the most popular, such as Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic. In language teaching, teacher should know the types of the learners’ interests of which they hold. He can not generalize all students that the ways they learn are same. Therefore, the way the teacher delivers the materials is not enough only by speech, it will be less fair for the learners who are not interested in it and the effect is that they can not learn in a maximum effort. Thus, The teacher should know how to combine the three learning styles to be one method in teaching language. Role play is one of many approaches that is useful for them. This way is very simple to enroll the students that have different learning styles in class and these are how to combine the three learning styles in a one way.

First, visual learners are for those who learn by seeing the graphics, watching a demontration such as a teacher who is explaining the material, and then visual formats such as textbook, movie, powerpoint, images and so on. Visual learners  sometimes tend to sit in the front and take a note of the delivered material. Often they close their eyes to undertand, visualize or remeber something. They are interested in imagination which is full of colors. However, they will get difficulty when they have to listen to the sound that has no objects. Thus, the existence of role play can take benefits for the visual learners. In language teaching, when the teacher wants to tell about the story about something like narrative text, it is not enough if the teacher only using a speech. Therefore he can ask the students to perform the topic. Mostly in a developed shool, every class has LCD that makes easier for the learners to learn. For example, the topic is about the story of Snow White. The students can use images that are displayed through LCD, such as when the setting is in a castle, they can show the castle on the screen. It is much more useful that visual learners can take a note by watching the actors combined by  the pictures in order that they can understand easily what the story tells about. Thus, this way is more beneficial that the visual learners can get the given material by a fun way.

Second, auditory learners are those who learn through dicussions, lectures, oral readings, and so on. It is best that auditory learners do not need any visualization. Usually, they sit wherever they want in class, they do not care about what is going on in front of the class as they can listen the material. For auditory learners, they do not need much practise or may they get difficult when they have to understand or look at a diagram. Based on the way they learn, role play can get their attention. Besides using image, the students are also able to use sound. For example, when snow white is walking in a forest, the sound of the wind, birds, insects and so on can be applied through the sound speakers. The actors speak aloud combined by the sound needed so that the visual learners can elicit the story is about. This way, for auditory learners, they can get the material easier.

The last one is kinesthetic or tactile learners. For kinestetic, they need to be active in class. They often use gestures and need to touch or move. They often communicate through action and expressing their bodies. However, they will get difficuty when they have to understand the material by speech, reading or looking at the pictures, because they can not recall well what was said and seen. Thus, the action of role play can handle the kinestetic learners. In applying role play, it has no doubt that it is full of actions. It is very useful for the kinestethic learners to act by playing and moving, because they can get the material directly through practising. By doing so, the kinestetic learners can gain the material through their actions.

By applying role play, it can handle the differences of leraners’ learning styles. By combining some pictures and sound in role play, the students will get the materials easier and the learning process will be more attractive.