Tips for tactile or action learners

While language skills are largely visual and auditory, tactile or action learners can use their preference for hands-on learning as a bridge to language skills.

There are activities and techniques especially appropriate for tactile or action learners that involve action and involvement. In the early stages of language learning they might choose one of the following:

• The Total Physical Response (TPR) techniques
• The Series technique (using actions)

Here are some language learning tips for tactile or action learners:

• When you learn vocabulary, try doing an action or touching something while you listen to the word.
• Study vocabulary by typing words on your computer or writing them by hand.
• If available, use interactive, computer-assisted language learning.

• As you begin to develop language skills, look for activities where you will hear and use the language. You could

  • join a sports team or learn a new sport
  • help community members with their work, especially if you have a specific skill you can contribute
  • find a club or association of people organized around a hobby or activity and join in, or
  • get somebody to show you how to do a cultural skill or craft from the culture.

  See also:

  Activities for self-directed language learners

• Principle module: Tips for tactile or action learners
• In overview module: Your sensory preference and language learning
• In overview module: Implications of your learning style for language l...
• In modular book: Your Learning Style and Language Learning, by Clay Johnston and Carol J. Orwig
• In document collection: Other Resources
• In bookshelf: Language Learning

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 3.5, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 5 August 1998

© 1999 SIL International