The Study Of College Non-English Majors' Learning Styles And Learning Strategies

AS an important element in teaching and learning activities,learning style has been probed into by many researchers.The focus of this thesis is to study the learning styles of the college non-English majors in the teaching mode of "Instructed by teachers and centered on students" and to study the related learning strategies and teaching strategies.This paper starts from the definition of learning styles,introduces the classification of learning styles as well as their main features.This paper also includes a survey,which investigates the learning styles of Chinese college non-English majors.The purpose of the survey is to identify the sensory and cognitive English learning style preferences of Chinese college non-English majors.By analyzing the learning characteristics of students who have different learning styles,some related learning strategies and teaching strategies are provided according to those different characteristics to satisfy students of different learning styles.The aim is to make full use of advantages of each learning style and strengthen its weakness.Therefore,improvement in English learning of college non-English majors can be achieved.Participants of the survey are 128 non-English majored freshmen from three schools of Hefei University of Technology.The instrument used in this survey is a Perceptual Learning Style Preference Questionnaire.The conclusion of the survey is that so far as the sensory learning style is concerned,the majority of the participants have visual/nonverbal learning style; some of them are tactile/kinesthetic learners;only very few of them are auditory learners.As far as the affeetive learning styles are concerned,most students prefer to study individually to study in a group.The Chi-Square Tests in the Statistical Package for Social Sciences(SPSS) indicates that there is no statistically significant relationship between Chinese college non-English majors' perceptual English learning style preferences and such variables as gender,major and student's English levels. This paper also mentions the causes of forming this learning style preference in Chinese college English class.A conclusion has been reached that although most participants are visual learners,every learning style more or less has its own advocates.So the consideration of teaching differently according to different individuals and different learning styles is necessary.Providing different learning strategies and teaching strategies can satisfy learners of different learning styles.In order to improve students' study effect,and help teachers organize class more effectively,this paper provides students of different learning styles with different learning strategies;at the same time,provides teachers with corresponding teaching strategies.At last,in order to put these strategies into practice,a classroom activity is designed to be referred by teachers and students.Some suggestions are put forward for Chinese college English teaching practice of non-English majors.On the one hand,students should be encouraged to stretch their learning styles,and then develop learning strategies typically associated with these styles.In this way,learning styles and learning strategies are linked so as to achieve learning success.On the other hand,teachers can vary their instructional techniques to communicate effectively with students who show contrasting styles of learning.Therefore teaching styles and learning styles can be matched. Moreover,it is important for teachers to pay much attention to course design,to make it flexible,responsive and creative to satisfy the needs of students of different learning styles.Compared with other papers which studied the learning styles,this paper relates learning styles to learning strategies and teaching strategies.Rather than study learning styles or learning strategies purely,this paper provides related learning strategies and teaching strategies based on different learning styles in the teaching mode of " instructed by teacher and centered on students" to achieve the goal of improving the college non-English majors' English learning.In a word,the importance of studying learning style lies in the practice in which learners and teachers can apply corresponding and effective learning and teaching strategies to enhance the learning and teaching effect after they identify the students' individual learning styles.