A Correlation Study Of Learning Styles, Learning Strategies And Spoken English Proficiency Of College Non-English Majors

With the deepening of China's reform and opening-up policy, especially in recent decades the entry into WTO, Beijing's successful bidding for hosting the 2008 Olympic Games and Shanghai's triumphant bid for holding World Expo 2010, international communication has increased on a large scale. Under such circumstances, the Chinese society has an ever-growing demand for proficient English speakers from all walks of life. And as a component of Chinese College English Education Syllabus, speaking proficiency has been attached more and more importance to by educational authority as well as scholars in recent years.In the field of foreign language education in China, with the gradual shift of the research focus from the exploration of the optimal teaching method and the appropriate teaching materials to the individuality of each learner, the study of learning style and learning strategy draws increasing attention. However, comparatively rare researches have been launched to investigate the correlation among learning style, learning strategy and foreign language achievement, in particular, spoken-English proficiency, of non-English majors in reality.As a result, this thesis is going to be undertaken with a view to proffer some insights in this domain. Sixty-five second-year students from Nanjing University of Science and Technology were involved in this study. Two questionnaires were carefully designed to collect students' data and the data were processed with statistical techniques. The results indicate that learning style and learning strategy both have significant correlations with speaking outcomes.It is proposed that more joint efforts from both the teachers and the students should be put into the creation and reinforcement of harmony between teachers' teaching styles and students' learning styles. Students should be guided on how to use learning strategies effectively so as to improve their oral English achievement.In brief, the current study will help to arouse the awareness and deepen the understanding of the learning style and learning strategy, which will make a small contribution to the field of ESL/EFL research and ID research. It is hoped that it may shed some light on the current spoken English teaching and learning.