How Playing Football Can Teach English

Learning styles are different for individual people and one style does not fit everybody. Remember those days at school, when you were sitting at a desk, listening to the teacher at the front of the room. Remember those kids who fidgeted? They may have bounced or swung their legs. Or threw bits of paper, generally caused a bit of trouble? Swung on their chairs - was it you? Just couldn't sit still and wait for instruction? Notice in meetings those people who do the same thing? Swing in their chairs, click their pens or squash bits of paper, maybe tap the table, as they think, take in information and then contribute their own.

So who said that sitting at a desk is the only way to learn? This photo shows how my daughter preferred to study for her exams. She would do anything but sit on a chair. Her toe would be tapping, and because music would be on as well, she would be humming (Eminem was her 'maths' music) - and the study would be done.

I managed to be one of those kids who sat at a desk while listening and learning so I was surprised one day while I was remembering a particular dance sequence for a show I was in. I was running through the sequence in my head, but pacing it out in tiny little steps on the floor. A friend commented how I was a kinaesthetic learner. I realised that I had always moved, even while sitting at the desk learning. I was able to use my visual and auditory skills but had managed to associate a movement in my head, with the information coming in to me from my eyes and ears, without causing a problem to the class!

The kinaesthetic learner uses their body to move, touch and learn. These people are actively involved in their own learning. In a classroom, they apply their imagination to imagine what it might feel like as they are taking in the new concept. Consequently this tactile learner needs touch to learn. Their attention follows their hands and they can be easily distracted as they start to focus on how things feel not only to their sense of touch but how their body feels about the movement they are associating with that particular learning. If they can associate that sense of touch with what they are discovering they are able to learn.

Imagine if the people who need to move while they were learning, were allowed to. Take away their chair and let them stand at their desks - because that is how they feel most comfortable and that is how they learn. Or lie in a bean bag. Let them learn in a way that works for them. Walking learning, wriggle learning, sports learning, fidget spinner learning! These people are actively involved in their own learning, and in a classroom, using their imagination to imagine what it might feel like as they are taking in the new concept. This is a challenge to the regular type of classroom learning we are used to, however understanding that these kids are not being naughty, they are actually being focused and are just as interested (and intelligent) as the ones who sit neatly at a desk.

In County Roscommon, Ireland, on a Tuesday afternoon, refugees meet to play football. They speak a variety of languages between them, but when they play football, they speak only in English and then they all go to the classroom to discuss the finer points of the game, learning the new English language at the same time. My hat is off to these tutors! To teach a complex subject while engaging them in a fun activity - great. Wonderful production of endorphins and 'feel goods' to people who may feel displaced and afraid. To teach a complex subject while moving around - fantastic. So many people are kinaesthetic learners - they need to wriggle and move as they think and assimilate ideas. And then they are able to combine the regular visual/auditory way to teach. Full marks Ballaghaderreen - nice initiative. (Couldn't spell it without checking though!)

https://www.rte.ie/special-reports/common-goal/