Chapter 2: Discovering and using your learning styles

1. How do you understand “learning styles” and “learning strategies”?

* Learning styles: are the general approaches – for example auditory or visual-
that students use in acquiring a new language or in learning any other subject.
* Learning strategies: are defined as specific actions, behaviors, steps, or
techniques used by students to enhance their own learning
2. What are three kinds of learners? Give an example for each kind.

• Visual learners: reading a textbook

• Auditory learners: podcasts music
• Kinesthetic learners: role-play in class

Chapter 3: Dealing with stress

1. What are the three types of reactions people might have to stress? Give an
example for each type.

• Emotional reactions to stress: Tom has gotten short-tempered recently.

• Behavioral reactions to stress: Her daughter confessed that she usually
thought of the death and constantly felt hopeless.
• Physical reactions to stress: Lan feeling of tiredness constantly.

2. How to cope with stress?

• Eliminate stressors
• Manage your time
• Seek help from others
• Exercise
• Eat a nutritious diet
• Sleep sufficiently
• Value your ability
• Don’t insit on perfection
• Turn theats into challenges
• Change your goals
• Use relaxation techniques
 Chapter 4: Setting and reaching goals

1. Primary, intermediate and current goals

• Current Goals
Start smoking later in the day.
Smoke only ten cigarettes daily.
Smoke only half of each cigarette.
Drink water rather than smoke.
Chew gum rather than smoke.
• Intermediate Goal
Become a nonsmoker
• Primary Goal
Live a healthy lifestyle.
2. What are the steps for achieving goals?

• Write primary goals.

• Make an effective plan for achieving primary goals that is expressed in
intermediate and current goals.
• Use suggestions in Chapter 5 to schedule the exact times you will
accomplish your current goals.
• Do your best to achieve goals. Do not be discouraged by obstacles.
• Monitor and assess your progress in achieving your goals.
• Revise your intermediate and current goals when necessary.
3. Positive (vs. negative) and measurable (vs. too general) goals:
definition/characteristics, examples?

• Positive
- Definition: Positive goals state a behavior you want
- Characteristics:
+ Focus on what you want to achieve
+ Frame your goals interms of gaining something
+ Promote action and progress towards a desired out come
- Example: improve sleep quality, learn a new skill

4. What are the criteria for realistic goals? Example?

 • You have the abilities that are needed to achieve the goal
• You have enough time to achieve the goal
• You are willing to pay the price necessary to achieve the goal.
• You are in control of the circumstances necessary to achieve the goal.

Chapter 5: Managing your time

1. What are some ways to manage time effectively? List at least 3.

• Setting priorities what to study

• Deciding when to study
• Making better use of time

Chapter 8: Listening in class and taking good class notes

1. How do you understand “an active listener”?

Active listeners are students who, when necessary, verify their understanding
by asking appropriate questions and who demonstrate their understanding of
what teachers say by making accurate notes of lecture content.
2. How to improve classroom listening? List at least 5.

• Prepare to listen
• Ask questions
• Watch the chalkboard
• Eliminate physical distractions
• Eliminate mental distractions

3. What are good listening strategies?

• Listen for opening statements that provide an overview of a lecture.

• Listen for major thoughts and use them as the basic structure for your
notes.
• Listen for details and list them under major thoughts.
• Listen for examples and include them in your notes
• Listen for study hints and record them in your notes.

4. How to ask questions in class? List at least 5.

 • Be patient
• Be polite
• Be specific in wording questions
• If you still don’t understand, ask for an example
• Ask only questions that may also benefit other students

5. What are the note-taking formats shared in the textbook?

• Major thoughts stand out clearly

• Details are listed under major thoughts in an orderly

6. What is the type of learning information which might be appropriate for

each format? [possibly overlapping with Chapter 11]

Chapter 9: Previewing textbooks and chapters

1. How to preview a textbook? What information of a textbook do we need to

preview, and why?

1. Preview the front of the book

Read the title page to learn the title, author (or authors), and publisher of the
book
• Read the copyright page to find out the year the book was published.
• Read the table of contents to get an overview of the organization of the book
and the major topics discussed in it.
2. Preview the back of the book.

• Determine whether the last chapter is followed by an appendix; if it is, find out
what is in the appendix.
• Check to see if there is a glossaries in each chapter.
• Determine whether references are listed at the end of the book or at the end of
each chapter.
• Determine whether there is an index at the end of the book or if the book has a
subject index and a name index.

2. How to preview a chapter? You might also encounter questions that

ask you for the purpose of previewing each section of a chapter.
 • Survey the beginning of chapter
• Survey the body of chapter
• Survey the end of chapter
Chapter 10: Marking your books

1. How to mark books?

• Read a section before you mark

• Do not mark too much
• Mark information that will help you make notes
• Make major details stand out
• Mark definitions of terminology
• Mark examples

2. Some ways to mark books:

Numbers (numbering the key information)

Vertical lines, esp. for marking definitions and examples.

Underlining key words

3. How to look for details?

• Subheadings
• Words Printed in Italics or Boldface
• Numbers
• Bullets
• Introductory Statements

Chapter 11: Making notes for books

Some common formats of making notes for books or of information:

[possibly overlapping with Chapter 8]

• Index card / flashcardz

• Major and minor details (~ traditional format)

• Paragraph summary

• Definition of terminology

• Graphic organizers:

✓
Classification chart / table ; T-chart
✓ Time line
✓ Flowchart (“map” in the textbook)
✓ Mind map

Chapter 12: Language learning strategies

1. Definition of a good language learner.

A good language learner is an independent learner who plans activities

outside regular language classes to get a chance to use the language and
learns to laugh at her/ his own mistakes.

Chapter 14: Remembering and recalling information – Doing well on tests

1. How to remember and recall information

• Use descriptive titles in your notes as retrieval cues for recalling the
information in them.
• Use good organization of details in your notes to help you store and
recall the information in them.
• Recite the information in your notes.
• Rehearse the information in your notes
• Review the information frequently to ensure that you can retrieve it
quickly when you need it.
• Use one or more of the following aids to facilitate recitation and
rehearsal.

2. Recitation and rehearsal

• Analyzing
• Relating
3. How to do well on tests

• Reducing your test anxiety

• Previewing test
• Listening to everything teachers say
• Planing test-taking time
• Answering the easiest question first
• Writing clearly
• Answering all questions
• Checking your answers
• Ignoring other test takers
• Learning from incorrect responses