The Study Of Learning Styles And Implications For Classroom FLI In College

This thesis emphasizes the need to carry out learning style research in Chinese colleges for the sake of foreign language instruction (FLI). In this thesis, the mainstream learning style theories and some methods to integrate learning styles with FLI are introduced. Learning styles is easily confused with other terms such as cognitive styles and learning strategies. With the development of learning styles as an independent branch in SLA field, the demarcation line between learning styles and other terms are becoming more and more clear. Theories of learning styles vary from one another greatly, since different advocators of learning style theories focus on different elements in individual differences (ID). However different the theories of learning styles might be, to cultivate the awareness of differences in learning styles is of great importance in the present FLI in Chinese colleges. The empirical study tentatively explores the learning styles of college students. The author believes that the results from the empirical study will give an insight into the college FLI both on the part of the teachers and on the part of the students. The informative results from the author's survey may not be applied to each of the students, yet its practical value for FLI cannot be ignored. This thesis also provides some suggestions for FLI, based on the theory of learning styles. There are quite a lot of differences in each individual, and it is necessary to show the learning styles differences to teachers and students, for the knowledge of learning style differences can help learners to be aware of their "weak"points and the "strong"points, which is a pre-requisite of adjusting one's learning. This awareness will also bear a good chance of making a difference in classroom FLI, for language teachers will be more likely to organize diverse activities appealing to various kinds of styles as much as possible.