A Study On Learning Styles Of High Vocational College Students In Learning English

Following the development of applied linguistics and cognitive psychology, the study of learning styles went through three periods: during the 1950s-60s, the concept of learning style was proposed but it emphasized on conceiving and explaining the concept; during the 1970s-80s, the theories of learning styles were formed and all kinds of theories emerged; after the 1990s, the findings and results of the researches are applied to teaching, especial second language teaching and adult education. Scholars in China gained some achievements in this aspect. However, there are few researches on learning styles of Chinese high vocational college students.There are three aims in this study. The first one is to research the features of Chinese high vocational college students'leaning styles. Many investigations are concerned with English majors or non-English undergraduates, but high vocational students are neglected. The subjects of this study are high vocational, non-English major students. We investigated their characteristics in learning styles with the aim to improve their second language learning and help teachers adopt the teaching methods which are suitable for their students. The second aim is to help Chinese high vocational college students to realize the importance of their learning styles preferences in order to improve their second language acquisition and to minimize the disadvantages of individual learning styles.This study used questionnaire, interview, and standard test as the research method. SPSS was used for quantitative analysis. The frequency of the six learning styles, the correlation between learning styles and English achievements, and the differences of learning styles in gender were analyzed.The results show that (1) the majority of the high vocational college students'use learning styles unconsciously; even they do not know what the learning styles are. (2) There is no significant correlation between students'learning styles and examination scores. (3) From the statistic, male and female students did not show significant in their preferences for visual learning styles, tactile learning style, group learning style and individual learning style. (4) The statistics showed that visual and kinesthetic styles are Chinese high vocational college students'most preferred learning styles and individual learning style is the least one. However, there are significant differences in their preferences for auditory learning style, and kinesthetic learning style for Chinese high vocational college students.This study has some implications for teachers in high vocational college. They may match their teaching styles with their students'learning styles in order to enhance the efficiency of teaching. On the other hand teachers in high vocational college should adopt various teaching methods to adapt to the learning styles of high vocational college students.