A Study On Learning Style Preferrences Of Secondary School Students

For the past several decades, the development of science and technology and international exchange make foreign language/second language teaching and learning play a more and more important role in our life. In the late 1980s, great changes took place in the field of language learning and teaching. Emphasis of research shifted from teaching methods, which used to be dominant in that field, to individual differences of language learners. Teachers and researchers become more interested in "how to learn" than in "how to teach", beginning to realize the importance of individual differences, among which the learning style has become one of the most active areas of exploration.Learning style refers to and individual's natural, habitual, and preferred way(s) of absorbing, processing, and retaining new information and skills. Though learning style catches many scholars attention nowadays, it is still neglected by many English teachers and learners, particularly in China where the subjects of studies on learning style mostly are college students and adults, leaving the domain of middle school students' learning style largely unexplored.To fill up such research gaps, the present study is aimed at finding out the learning style preferences of middle school students. Using questionnaires, interviews and classroom observations, this study intends to investigate (1) the learning style profile and the general tendencies of middle school students, (2) the relationship between age and learning style, (3) the relationship between gender and learning style, and learning style and academic achievements, and (4) the relationship between school location and learning style. It is hoped that this study can gain some enlightenment for English learning and teaching.The results of this study indicated that, in general, the middle school students shared a variety of learning styles and they were more oriented to serial, independent, reflective, visual and haptic learning style preferences. It was found that age played certain role in learning style preferences. Of all the stylecategories involved, junior secondary school students were inclined to haptic,visual, group, global learning styles, while senior secondary school studentsrelied more on auditory stimulation. Male learners and female learnersdemonstrated a bit different in learning style preferences, with female learnersbeing more reflective. There were not distinctive differences between higherachievers and lower achievers except that lower achievers used group learningmore often. In addition, learners from countryside preferred group learning style.Based on the findings and discussion, this thesis put forward somesuggestions for students and teachers. Students were advised to improve theawareness of learning style and to diversify one's learning style. For teachers,they are suggested to strengthen the awareness of students' learning style andtheir own teaching style, and pay more attention to the differences of students'learning style. Finally, the limitations of this study research are described andsuggestions for future studies are provided.