Students of all ages need engaging and interactive study materials to keep them interested in their courses. Despite understanding the importance of study and their course material, students can become disengaged and distracted if the study materials are not attentively made engaging for them.

An engaging and interactive worksheet encourages students to practice more and finish their assignments before deadlines. This isn’t helpful only for the completion of assignments on time but also makes the entire learning process more meaningful for the students. The learners effortlessly develop a positive attitude towards their course and education as a whole.

Here we need to understand that a single format of worksheet can’t be engaging for every student. Different people have different learning styles, and each style needs a unique approach to building engaging course content.  

In this write-up, we have discussed the tips and techniques for teaching English and creating engaging ESL worksheets for different learning styles.  

The Four Unique Learning Styles

Before we proceed to talk about creating engaging worksheets, we need to understand the different types of learning styles. Unless we don’t understand the learning style of a student or learner, we can’t keep them engaged and interested in our course.

There are predominantly four learning styles –

•       Visual
•       Auditory
•       Kinesthetic
•       Reading & Writing

Though everybody grasps information in all forms, everybody has a predominant learning style. Some may learn more by seeing, some by reading, and some by hearing a lecture. Before planning your lessons or creating your ESL grammar worksheets, you need to understand the four different learning styles.

Let us try to understand these different learning styles more elaborately.

Visual – A visual learner will learn faster when information is presented to them in visual formats such as photos, graphics, charts, symbols, diagrams, etc.

Auditory – An auditory, aka aural learner, learns faster and retains more information when they hear the information. Group discussions and interactions play a good role in holding the attention of auditory learners and making them learn more.

Kinesthetic – Kinesthetic learners are active learners who need to engage all their senses while learning. They enjoy having hands-on experience.

Reading & Writing – Those learners fall in this category who focus more on written information. They retain information from text-heavy resources that they can read and make notes out of them by writing.

Tips on Creating Engaging ESL Grammar Worksheets for Different Learning Styles

Now that you understand the four major categories of learning styles, we can proceed to create worksheets for each of them. The rule of thumb is to simply remember what makes different learners learn more and use your creativity to incorporate those elements in your worksheet. This will make your students learn fast, retain more information and turn up assignments on time.

Let’s get started.

Creating ESL Worksheet for Visual Learners

You already know that visual learners require visual cues to remember information. You can make their assignments and worksheets more engaging for them by including visual elements like charts, mind maps, flowcharts, photo essays, diagrams, etc. Remember to make all of these visually appealing so that it grabs the attention of the learners.

Creating ESL Worksheet for Auditory Learners

Now for the auditory learners, you will need to tweak your strategy. They need audio inputs, so you can’t expect them to engage with physical books. For auditory learners, you will require audio recordings and songs to make the concept easier for them. 

You can also engage them with dialogues and verbal discussions, and debates in the classroom. By listening to you and fellow learners, an auditory learner will learn faster.

Creating ESL Worksheet for Kinesthetic Learners

Kinesthetic learners are the most active learners who need to employ all their senses to make studying fun for them. Gamification of course material makes it more appealing to this category of learner. 

You can incorporate any mode of learning that requires a little hand or foot movement and lots of participation from the student’s end. Kinesthetic learners can’t learn when they are forced to be a passive audience listening to the instructor. They need to get involved in the process.

Creating ESL Worksheet for Reading & Writing Learners

A learner that learns by reading and writing is perhaps the most easily teachable. You can hand them ESL printable worksheets, and rest assured that they will learn much more than any other category of learners. 

These learners require text-rich resources, so you can also recommend they read additional books and materials. Give them assignments that require them to write definitions and short and long-form answers. They will be good to go.

Do You Need Different Worksheets for Different Individuals?

This is an essential point of discussion. When we talk about different learning styles, we just mean that everybody is inclined towards a certain kind of study material. This means that visual learners will learn more when they get visual cues. An auditory learner will learn more with audio inputs. 

This certainly doesn’t mean that visual learners won’t learn anything if they hear information, or an auditory learner won’t learn with diagrams. Every learner learns in every way, and they just prefer one medium over the other.

In order to create an all-inclusive study material and worksheets, you must consider including all categories of activities, including written, visual, audio, and one requiring hands-on experience. This will allow learners of all styles to learn together in an inclusive manner. When your worksheet caters to the need of multiple learning styles of students, you can expect every student to interact and engage with each other, thus enriching the learning experience of all.