A Correlation Study of Learning Styles and English Listening Achievement of Non-English Majors
--A Two-dimension Study of Learning Styles
Abstract
According to Joy Reid (2017), learning style refers to an individual’s natural, habitual, and preferred way(s) of absorbing, processing, and retaining new information and skills. Learning style has the characteristics of stability, uniqueness, and expansibility. It can be divided into three major categories: cognitive learning styles, sensory learning styles, and personality learning styles.
Perceptual learning style belongs to the sensory category, which refers to the sensory modes or learning channels through which students obtain information most comfortable. This research employs the VAKTIG model proposed by Reid, which breaks perceptual learning style down into six dimensions: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, tactile, individual, and group learning styles. The perceptual learning style is considered from physical point of view. Personality type belongs to the personality learning style category, which is further divided into four dimensions: extroversion/ introversion, sensing/ intuition, thinking/ feeling, and judging/ perceiving. This category is related to psychological characteristics. Therefore, this is a two-dimension research on learning styles, which takes both physical and psychological aspects into consideration.
The research aims to investigate the subjects’ individual characteristics from the aspects of perceptual and personality learning styles and shed light on the student-centered teaching model. This model has been advocated for a long time, but how to implement remains a question. If we can proceed from learning styles and match with corresponding teaching styles, both learning and teaching efficiency can be improved effectively.
The paper falls into five chapters. The first chapter introduces the background, purpose and significance of the research. The second chapter is a literature review which explains terms and theories relevant to learning styles and empirical studies home and abroad. The third chapter covers the research questions, subjects, instruments, and procedures of data analysis. The fourth chapter provides descriptive statistics and discussions of the findings. The fifth chapter discusses the implications, limitations, and suggestions of the research.
The research adopts quantitative research methods and takes 200 non-English majors in Shanxi Agricultural University as the subjects. The subjects’ perceptual and personality styles are investigated through two questionnaires respectively: one is the perceptual learning style preference survey designed by Joy Reid; the other is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator by Myers and Katharine Briggs. The statistic analysis is processed with SPSS.
The findings are listed as follows:
1. The subjects prefer visual style most and group style least.
2. Most of the subjects have the preference for inversion, sensing, feeling, and judging types.
3. The visual and auditory style has positive correlations with English listening achievements.
4. There is a negative correlation between extroversion and English listening achievements.
5. A positive correlation can be found between introversion and visual style.
6. A positive correlation can be found between extroversion and group style.
Though the research has its limitations, the results are still instructive in some way. During the teaching and l，英语毕业论文，英语论文 |
