A Study On The Correlation Between Language Learning Style And Academic Discipline Difference Of College Non-English Majors

More and more attention has been paid to the research of learning styles. The foreign researchers have been studying learning styles of learners at different stages and different ages. Many empirical studies have provided evidence that students whose learning styles are matched with learning resources and learning environments achieve statistically higher academically; those whose learning styles mismatch with their environments do less well. In China, however, not many related studies on this topic have been conducted. At first articles of learning styles in language learning journals mostly concerned with summaries of the research development of learning styles in western. Only a few quantitative studies were conducted with a focus on the relationship between learning styles and language achievement of Chinese English majors. The learning styles of non-English major students from different disciplines are so far much less researched.The purpose of the present research is to find the relations among non- English major students' learning styles, language achievement and academic disciplines. The participants in this study are 288 students from Quanzhou Normal University. Of them 136 are from liberal arts discipline and 152 from science and technology discipline. The instruments include an English proficiency test of CET-4 and a learning style research questionnaire. The data is analyzed statistically with a software-SPSS 13.0. All students' language learning proficiency in this study has positive correlation with auditory style and sensing style. However, for liberal arts students' learning styles, the positive correlation is also found between the language achievement and mixed brain, while language achievement has negative correlation between right brain and left brain. On the contrary, science majors ' language achievement has positive correlation with right brain style and negative correlation with mixed brain style.The practical significance of this study is that the results can be used to help students increase their ESL language learning proficiency through their particular strength with learning styles so as to enhance their active roles in learning. Theoretically, this study can enrich people's understanding of the learning styles and the existing learning style theory, in particular, those related to Chinese college students as ESL learners.