Each of us are auditory, visual and kinesthetic learners simultaneously. When learning hiragana / katakana (or anything else) we must use all these types of learning.

In his 1987 article, Learning and Teaching Styles in Engineering Education, Richard M. Felder, and Dr. Linda Silver spoke about different types of students requiring different teaching styles, particularly in the challenging field of engineering. To meet the challenges of a class full of diverse students, they mention the importance of “teaching to address all learning styles.”

The same goes for learning Japanese kana (hiragana and katakana). What Dr. Silver and Richard Felder said is true. Different types of learners must use different learning methods.

Taken one more step each from us we learn with all learning styles, but at different levels of information retention for each of those styles. For example, maybe 10% kinesthetic, but 40% auditory and 50% visual. So not only are you an auditory learner absorbing information in audiobooks, or just a visual learner gaining information with pictures or just a kinesthetic learner in need of an activity … all of these are at different levels with each new set of information. and / or skill set to be learned. This means that you must use all methods to learn new information. Use all your senses to collect new data.

Visual learning techniques

あ is a letter hiragana (also known as kana) that makes the sound “AH”. With visualization, the use of shocking images such as violence or sex helps. For example, to memorize あ, imagine the letter “e” struck so hard that if you turn back and then stab it with a sharp cruciform sword that looks like t. The e, stabbed back and forth, makes a pitiful, dying sound of “Ahh” as it passes into the afterlife. Merge t and e isn’t exactly what it looks like but, but it’s close enough to help with memorization. The more impactful the visual, the less likely you are to forget it.

Auditory learning techniques

We use a bit of aural with the visual learning technique of our death あ making the sound “Ahh” and you can use that with all the letters of hiragana and katakana. Auditory works even better with words. Because you can use a Japanese sound that sounds like something you recognize. For example, the Japanese word for “you’re welcome” is “dou itashimashite.” It sounds like “Don’t touch my mustache” in English. Sound association is a good way to remember hiragana, words, and even complete Japanese phrases.

Kinesthetic learning techniques

Kinesthetic includes some type of movement or activity. Therefore, including flash cards or writing or speaking the words are examples of kinesthetic (also known as tactile) learning. You can also merge it with our first あ display. We imagine the shock of being stabbed, but if we included kinesthetic, we could imagine what it would feel like to stab “e” ourselves. Kinesthetic is best for learning to write hiragana and katakana.

The above are just a few examples of using visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning to memorize and retain hiragana and katakana. Don’t limit yourself to any one style of memorization because we are all visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners. Combine them all together using all your senses to capture the language. Don’t be fooled by mastering one of your learning styles and don’t minimize the effectiveness of the weaker one.

We have developed a Hiragana practice game called Moji Master http://mojimaster.com for iPhone that incorporates the combination of these learning hiragana and katakana with visual, auditory and kinesthetic.

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