Hemispheric Preference And The Choice Of Language Learning Strategy In View Of Language Learning Style

Brain hemispheric preference--left-brained or right-brained, as a stable styleconstruct-- is assumed to be related to strategy choice. But there is no empiricalevidence to prove it. This study, based on neuropsychological findings, aims atprobing into three main issues, namely: (1) describing the profile of hemisphericpreference of Chinese college learners when they are learning English as a secondlanguage, (2) describing the profile of learning strategies by different hemispherepreferred learners, (3) determining the relationship between hemispheric preferenceand strategy use. The study was carried out in a population of 300 ESL students inthree Chinese colleges. The data of the 224 valid questionnaire- respondence iscoded for statistical analysis. The study has produced three major findings. First,Chinese ESL college students have a slight right brain preference. Second,left-brained students use significantly more strategies than the right-brained. In termsof category, the left-brained EFL learners prefer to use significantly more memorystrategies and metacognitive strategies than the right-brained. Third, brain preferenceis closely correlated to strategy usage. The more one prefers the left brain, the morehe/she uses metacognitive, cognitive and memory strategies. The thesis also putsforward some suggestions for further study. Suggestions chiefly include calling for adeeper understanding of the importance of the brain preferences in foreign languageproficiency, the necessity of studying specific areas such as listening, speaking,reading and writing, the necessity of comparing strategies used byleft-brained/right-brained learners in one skill area and those in other skills.