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There are three main types of English learner - the visual learner, the auditory learner and the tactile (or kinaesthetic) learner. There are four key skills to learning the language - listening to it, speaking it, reading and writing it.

Listening to English

Listening is the first skill to which English learners are usually exposed. They will hear the language even if it has no intelligible meaning. For an auditory learner it will also be the key method of learning the language. The auditory learner will hear a word, repeat it in their head, and perhaps break it down to phonemes. More than any other learning the auditory learner loves hearing words and is often impatient waiting to speak.

The polar opposite of an auditory learner is the visual learner. He likes conversations to be short and to the point and can get impatient when there is too much dialogue being used. He likes to see words more than read them and is less likely to volunteer to speak.

The third group is the tactile learner. He likes to use a lot of expressions when learning a language. Look out for a few extra hand gestures or facial movements when talking. Also he's more likely to talk during an activity than other learners. Sometimes when he hears a new word he needs to write it down to understand to get a better feeling of the word.

Speaking English

After listening there's speaking. In most Western cultures speaking English comes before reading and writing although in parts of Asia speaking is considered much less important although this is mostly due to the lack of competent English speakers in some areas.

Again this is the forte for the auditory learner. He can cope well with telephone conversations and will often ask a peer for help before asking the teacher. While the visual learner will again be thrift with words, you should take care to be aware that visual learners could understand and be able to use English just as well as auditory learners - they just learn in different ways.

Tactile learners can be hard to differentiate from other learners just by listening to them although they can seem more fidgety. It can seem that if they're not using their hands when speaking then they can be confused what they should do with them. Generally they are more expressive as a whole but not quite as open with words.

Reading English

Auditory learners don't take to reading tasks quite as efficiently as they do to speaking and listening. When reading they tend to focus on the dialogue and use this

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