Auditory Learning Style: Characteristics, Benefits & Strategies

Auditory learning is a learning style that relies on hearing to understand and remember information. People with this learning style benefit from listening to spoken words, music, and other sounds.

Auditory learning differs from other styles, and some learners may face challenges requiring special strategies to help them do their best.

In this guide, we will examine auditory learning, its benefits, and possible challenges. We will also share practical tips and strategies that teachers and students can use to improve auditory learning both in and outside the classroom.

If you're an auditory learner or a teacher looking to support auditory learners, this is the ultimate guide to helpful strategies for making learning easier and more effective.

What Is Auditory Learning?

Auditory learning style refers to the preference for hearing and listening to absorb and process new information. People with this learning style tend to remember information better when it is presented through sound or speech rather than through written text.

Auditory learners learn best through lectures, discussions, and other forms of oral communication, where they can hear and process the information directly.

The auditory learning style is one of the four learning styles in the Fleming VARK model, including visual learners, reading/writing learners, and kinesthetic learners.

The table below highlights the differences between auditory learning and the other three learning styles:

Learning Style	Learns Best Through	Strength	Weakness
Auditory	Hearing and listening	Good memory for spoken information	Get easily distracted by any background noise or sound
Visual	Seeing and observing	Strong visual memory	Difficulty with verbal instruction
Reading/writing	Reading text and writing notes	Strong literacy skills	Difficulty with visual and auditory instruction, as well as lack of interest in hands-on activities
Kinesthetic	Physical and hands-on activities	Excel at building, experimenting, and exploring	Have a hard time sitting still for long periods

 

Individuals with an auditory style of learning benefit from using techniques such as repetition, summarizing information aloud, and participating in group discussions to help reinforce their understanding of new topics.

Auditory learners benefit from strengths such as:

• Good at listening and understanding spoken information
• Able to express their thoughts and ideas clearly
• Good at analyzing spoken information 

Characteristics of Auditory Learners

Auditory learners excel in environments where listening is key. Understanding their characteristics can help you, as an educator, create strategies to enhance their learning experience.

Some of the common characteristics of auditory learners include:

• Strong listening skills: They enjoy listening to lectures, speeches, music, and other auditory materials.
• Increased recollection of spoken information: Auditory learners have a strong memory for sounds.
• Increased oral exam scores: They learn best through verbal communication and perform well in oral exams
• Improved storytelling skills: They’re good storytellers with a good memory for stories they have heard.
• Talented at explaining ideas verbally: Auditory learners are good storytellers and can convey verbal information.
• Improved speaking skills: They can easily express their ideas.
• Good at remembering names: Auditory learners tend to remember names more easily because they associate them with sounds and verbal repetition.
• Enjoy conversations: Auditory learners thrive in conversations as they engage with verbal exchanges, actively listening and responding.
• Distracted by silence: Auditory learners may find it difficult to concentrate in silent environments because they rely on sound for focus and stimulation.

Benefits of Auditory Learning Style

The auditory learning style offers unique advantages, making it easier for learners to absorb and retain information through sound and speech. 

Auditory learners benefit from their strong listening and storytelling skills. The following are the benefits of being an auditory learner.

• Reduced need for seeing or reading information to learn or remember it: Auditory learners can better remember things they hear than things they see.
• Limited situations in which there's no auditory stimulus to use for learning: Even when there are no resources, an auditory learner can understand a concept as long as the teacher explains it well. For instance, they don’t have to be taken on a trip to the museum to understand a historical topic.
• Improved retention: Improved likelihood of remembering information compared to other learning styles when presented with auditory information
• Increased ability to multitask: Auditory learning is a convenient way to learn on the go. Learners can listen to lectures or podcasts while driving, exercising, or doing other activities.
• Improved communication skills: Because of the preference to discuss topics and issues verbally, auditory learners improve their language and pronunciation, helping them better express themselves.

Auditory Learning Tips for Teachers

Auditory learners need to listen, speak, and interact with others verbally in order to learn.

As a teacher, you can employ some auditory learning strategies to help your auditory learners excel.

1. Call on auditory learners to answer questions

Calling on auditory learners to answer questions in class can boost their learning and confidence. It supports their preferred learning method and motivates them to participate.

Hearing the information again as they think and respond helps them remember it better. For example, if you're teaching about the causes of World War II, you can ask the class to name one cause and explain its role.

When you call on an auditory learner, they can summarize and explain what they heard in their own words, strengthening their understanding of the topic.

2. Encourage class discussions and reward students who participate in class

Leading class discussions and rewarding participation is a great way to support auditory learners. When students know they’ll be part of the discussion, they listen more carefully, which helps auditory learners remember and understand the material better.

Class discussions also help auditory learners practice expressing their ideas and responding to others, improving their communication skills. Rewarding participation shows students their contributions matter, boosting their confidence to share more.

For example, during a discussion on climate change, you might ask how rising temperatures could affect a specific bird species. 

An auditory learner might share how it could impact the bird's breeding habits. By encouraging their idea and inviting others to build on it, you help the student grow more confident and engaged, which can lead to better performance in class.

3. Encourage auditory learners to explain ideas in their own words

As mentioned, repetition helps auditory learners reinforce their understanding of the topic. Therefore, asking them to repeat ideas in their own words can help improve their performance. 

Repeating ideas in their own words means they’re processing and expressing the information in their own way, which makes them more likely to remember it in the future.

If they are struggling to explain a concept, it’s an indication that they need to review the material further.

For example, let’s say Miss Ashley is an English teacher discussing a novel's plot with the class. After explaining a key event in the story, the teacher asks Austin, an auditory learner, to repeat the information in his own words. 

Austin summarizes the event and adds his own interpretation of what it means for the characters in the story. Miss Ashley then asks the rest of the class to add to Austin’s summary, encouraging further discussion. 

Austin’s repetition of the idea in his own words helps them reinforce their understanding and engage more actively in the class discussion.

4. Record your lectures so that auditory learners can listen later 

Recording your lectures so that auditory learners can listen later can help improve their performance in various ways.

By providing recordings of lectures, you can support the preferred learning style of auditory learners. These students can listen to the material multiple times, helping them solidify their understanding of the topic.

It also encourages self-paced learning, which helps auditory learners who may need more time to process information or prefer to learn slower.

For example, imagine you’re teaching a complex concept to the class, and an auditory learner is having difficulty keeping up with the pace of the lesson. 

You record the lecture and make it available to the student to listen to outside of class. The student listens to the recording multiple times, pausing and rewinding as needed to fully understand.

As a result, the student can complete homework assignments related to the concept. The lecture recording has allowed the auditory learner to better process and retain the information, leading to improved performance in the class.

5. Incorporate social elements in your lesson plans

Creating lessons with a social element can help improve auditory learners' performance by promoting classroom engagement.

Auditory learners tend to thrive in group settings and enjoy participating in class discussions and activities.

By creating lessons with a social element, you can encourage students to collaborate. Hearing different perspectives and engaging in discussion can help auditory learners understand better.

For example, if you’re a history teacher teaching a unit on the American Revolution, you can create a lesson in which students are divided into groups to research and present on different aspects of the revolution. 

Through this, the auditory learners in the class engage in discussion with their peers, hearing different perspectives and interpretations of the unit. 

The students develop a sense of community in the classroom by working together. The auditory learners in the class are more engaged and perform better on related assignments and assessments.

6.  Use technology

Technology helps auditory learners connect with sound, music, and speech. Tools like computers, CDs, videos, and musical instruments can make learning more engaging by providing different types of auditory experiences.

For example, educational software can offer lessons with spoken instructions, audiobooks make stories easier to follow, and online videos help explain complex ideas more simply. 

Adding music, sound effects, or podcasts to lessons can also make learning more enjoyable and easier for auditory learners to remember.

Technology can help auditory learners in:

• Language learning: Language apps or audio recordings help practice speaking and listening.
• Literature and storytelling: Audiobooks, apps, or podcasts allow auditory learners to explore stories.
• Science or history lessons: Videos or podcasts with discussions or interviews help students understand difficult concepts.

Technology gives teachers many ways to present lessons, making them more engaging and easier for all students to understand. It also allows teachers to adjust lessons to meet the needs of different learners. 

Students benefit from a more interactive and personal learning experience, especially auditory learners who learn best with sound.

7. Provide individual attention and instruction

Individual attention is very important for auditory learners because it helps them get spoken instructions and feedback that suit their learning style. 

Unlike visual learners, who may understand better with written instructions or pictures, auditory learners need clear spoken explanations and discussions to fully understand and remember information. 

Giving them one-on-one instruction helps make sure they don’t fall behind in a class with many different learning styles.

Here are some ways teachers can give individual attention:

• One-on-one discussions: Teachers can give personalized explanations and answer questions to help students understand better.
• Verbal feedback: Instead of writing notes, teachers can give feedback by speaking with the student.
• Mentorship or tutoring: Teachers can create a quiet space where auditory learners can ask questions and talk through their ideas without distractions.

In a classroom where individual attention is lacking, auditory learners may have trouble understanding information that isn’t spoken out loud. They might miss important details or not fully grasp what’s being taught in written form. 

But, when teachers provide one-on-one instruction, auditory learners can focus on the material in a way that fits their style, helping them understand better, remember more, and feel more confident in their learning.

Auditory Learning Tips for Students

Each of the four learning styles has its own characteristics. Knowing you’re an auditory learner can make the learning process easier for you.

Auditory learners can simplify how they learn inside and outside the classroom in the ways we’ll discuss next.

1. Study with a friend

Studying with a friend provides opportunities for discussion. You can quiz each other and practice verbalizing the material.

By engaging in conversation and practicing verbally, you can improve your retention and application of knowledge.

For instance, if you’re studying literature, you will benefit from working with a study partner to read aloud and discuss important passages or themes. 

This way, you’ll better understand and internalize key information.

2. Record class lectures

Recording class lectures is a good way to improve your performance because it allows you to listen to the material multiple times and at your own pace. 

As an auditory learner, hearing information multiple times enables you to grasp the key concepts fully. It may also help if you struggle to take notes while listening to class lectures.

For example, if you’re studying history, you can record history class lectures and listen to them again while commuting to and from class, exercising, or doing chores around the house.

This repeated exposure to the spoken directions will simplify learning and help you remember important details.

3. Listen to classical music

Listening to classical music can help you focus and reduce distractions. This is because classical music is often instrumental, meaning there are no lyrics to distract you. The tempo and melody of the music are also soothing.

Classical music has been shown to positively affect brain function and cognitive performance. Studies suggest that listening to classical music stimulates the brain's alpha waves which improves memory, learning, and information processing.

For example, if you’re studying for an exam, you can listen to classical music to help you focus and reduce distractions. 

The music creates a calming atmosphere that promotes concentration and focus, which helps you better absorb and retain what you study.

4. Repeat facts with your eyes closed

Repeating facts with your eyes closed allows you to focus solely on the sound of your own voice, which can help improve your retention.

By closing your eyes and repeating facts aloud, you’re engaging your sense of hearing and blocking out visual distractions, which promotes focus.

For example, if you’re studying for a history exam, you can close your eyes and repeat important dates, events, and names aloud to better remember and recall the information.

5. Participate in group discussions.

Participating in group discussions can help improve your performance because it provides an opportunity to engage through conversation and active listening. 

Participating in group discussions allows you to ask questions, share your own perspectives, and listen to the perspectives of others. 

This will help you gain new insights and ideas. It also helps practice verbalization, reinforces memory, and improves information retention for auditory learners.

For example, participating in a group discussion with classmates about a specific topic, such as a historical event, can deepen your understanding and help you gain new insights that may not have been apparent to you through individual study.

6. Use word association and mnemonics.

Word associations and mnemonics help auditory learners to remember new concepts.

Word associations involve linking new information to familiar words or sounds, making it easier to recall. 

For example, word associations in a science lesson can be: “Solid” sounds like “stiff,” “liquid” sounds like “flowing,” and “gas” sounds like “gassy” or “expanding.” These associations make it easier for auditory learners to remember the differences between the states.

Mnemonics are memory aids, like rhymes or phrases, that help connect complex ideas with simple, easy-to-remember patterns. For example,  “My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos. (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune)

These techniques allow auditory learners to create strong mental connections between new material and familiar sounds or words, making retrieving the information easier when needed. 

To use word associations and mnemonics effectively, create simple, catchy phrases or rhymes that connect new material to something familiar, then repeat the associations aloud to reinforce the memory.

7. Watch videos

Watching videos is a great way for auditory learners to grasp new concepts because videos combine both sound and visual elements, which cater to multiple senses and help reinforce learning. 

Videos often include spoken explanations, interviews, and real-life examples that make learning more engaging and memorable. 

Compared to reading paragraphs from a book, videos provide a more interactive way to process information, which can be more effective for auditory learners.

When reading, auditory learners may struggle to process and retain information without the spoken element. Videos, however, present information in a way that keeps auditory learners engaged through dialogue, narration, or commentary.

Videos can be distracting if they include too many visuals or extra features unrelated to the material. It’s easy to wander off-topic, so it's important to stay focused on the material being presented.

To make the most out of videos, set specific learning goals before watching and limit distractions by choosing concise videos related to the concepts you’re studying.

Disadvantages of Auditory Learning Style

While many benefits come with an auditory learning style, there are also a few disadvantages.

Awareness of these potential downfalls of the auditory learning style can help you prevent them from affecting your productivity and success in your classroom.

1. Susceptibility to distractions

Auditory learners are easily distracted by sounds in their environment. Since they rely on hearing to process information, background noise or disruptions can make it hard for them to focus and retain what they’re learning.

For example, when listening to lectures or podcasts in a noisy environment, they might miss key details. 

To avoid this, auditory learners can create a quiet study space, use noise-canceling headphones, or play soft classical music to block out distractions and stay focused.

2. Lower attention span

Another disadvantage of the auditory learning style is a lower attention span. Auditory learners rely heavily on their sense of hearing and may find it more challenging to maintain focus for extended periods. 

This can result in a shorter attention span and may make it difficult for them to fully engage in the learning process.

For example, an auditory learner listening to a long lecture or audiobook may struggle to maintain their attention and focus throughout the recording. This can lead to missed information and incomplete understanding.

To overcome this, break up auditory learners’ study sessions into shorter, more manageable chunks. You can also encourage them to take breaks to rest their ears and recharge their attention span.

3. Causing disruptions 

Auditory learners learn through spoken directions and discussion, making them more likely to speak aloud or ask questions during class or group study sessions. 

This can be disruptive to others with a different learning style or trying to focus on their work.

For example, an auditory learner participating in a group study session may ask many questions or make frequent comments, which can interrupt the flow of the lesson and disrupt the learning environment for others.

Auditory learners must be mindful of others' learning preferences when participating in group discussions to limit the disruption of lessons.

4. Lack of retaining information 

Auditory learners excel at understanding information through listening. However, they may struggle to retain information not delivered in auditory form.

In a classroom setting, teachers must incorporate other learning styles into their teaching strategies, and auditory learners may struggle in such instances.

Students with auditory learning skills may need to find ways to reinforce their learning through other sensory experiences or study techniques, such as taking notes or creating visual aids.

5. Difficulty working alone

Auditory learners often thrive in environments where they can engage in discussions, share ideas, and receive verbal feedback. They are naturally inclined to absorb information through listening, making studying in groups or with a partner more effective. 

Working alone can be challenging for auditory learners because they miss out on the verbal interactions that help reinforce their understanding.

If you have to study alone, set aside specific times during the day to focus on studying, and make sure it's a time when you can speak or listen aloud. Find a quiet environment where you can focus. Turn off background noise unrelated to studying (like TV or music), and remove distractions such as phone notifications.

Listen to podcasts, audiobooks, or recorded lectures related to the subject you’re studying. You can also try recording your own notes or concepts and playing them while studying.

Even if you’re alone, try explaining concepts or reading aloud. This verbal processing can help reinforce what you’ve learned.

Start Implementing Auditory Learning Style In Your Classroom 

Auditory learners excel at processing information they hear, such as lectures, discussions, and podcasts. 

Their strong listening skills make verbal communication a highly effective way for them to learn and retain information.

Teachers can support auditory learners by incorporating tools like audio recordings, music, or multimedia presentations into their lessons. 

Embracing different learning styles as part of professional development helps create a more inclusive classroom that meets the needs of every student.