A Study Of English Learning Styles Of Junior Middle School Students

In a long time, we have taken a lot of detours in our English teaching. Teachers have been in a dominant position and ignored the individual differences of students, which are contrary to the laws of language acquisition. In recent years, with the progress of the quality-oriented education, the research focus has shifted from object to subject. With more attention to the individual differences in teaching, the focus of English teaching shifted from the"teacher-centred"teaching to the"student-centred"learning. Research on learning styles is very important in the"student-centred"teaching approach. It is an important guarantee of effective teaching. Compared with other former researches, the study of different learning styles of junior middle school students is not enough.This thesis gives a systematic and scientific summary of different English learning styles. Then it gives a more detailed overview of the authoritative research results at home and abroad. It also looks into the research status of learning styles in our country. Taking Social constructivist theory as a framework, I made a survey among 85 students (47 boys and 38 girls) from Grade 3 in No. 2 Junior Middle School of Zi Chuan, using Reid's learning style questionnaires. I investigated the distribution of middle school students'learning styles and the differences between boys and girls by dividing them into groups. Before the research, pretest was made to the students. During the research, each activity was carried out according to the different learning styles. Teachers investigated by writing teaching diaries, observing in the classroom and having an interview with the students. Then a posttest was made after three months.According to the survey, 16 out of the 85 students are visual style, occupying 18.82 percent of the total number. There are 24 students who like studying by themselves. It's about 28.23 percent of the total number. Most of the students like activities and studying in groups. It's about 52.95 percent of the total number. The research also shows that boys are more outstanding than girls in learning styles. Boys prefer to learn through activities while girls prefer to learn by listening. Among the 20 excellent students, 41 percent of students like learning by listening and 52 percent like studying in groups. There are only 3 students who like"learning by doing", less than 10 percent.Through three months'research and observation, the results of the last test show that the students'learning achievement is improved. Based on the research, the thesis makes several advices on English teaching in junior middle school. It provides some teaching and learning strategies in the hope of promoting effective teaching with attention to individual differences. As for teachers, for one thing we should learn about and respect the learning styles of the students and organize more activities. For another we should enrich the learning styles of the students and guide the students to learn by themselves in various styles.