Students' Learning Styles In High School EFL Classroom

A learning style refers to an individual's natural, habitual, and preferred ways of absorbing, processing, and retaining new information and skills which persist regardless of teaching methods or content area (Kinsella, 1993). Every person has a learning style and learning strengths and weakness. Learning styles are value-neutral; that is, no one style is better than others. The research on language learning styles started from the 1970s and much developed its theory during the following decades. The main contributors to this field are Dunn (1975; 1979; 1989), Price (1980), Kinsella (1993; 1994), Keefe (1979; 1987), Reid (1984; 1987, 1990, 1993), Bassano (1989; 1992), Christison (1995), Claxton (1987), and Oxford (1989; 1994). Up to date, the study has been concerning with: i) inventories of learning styles, ii) the related factors in the forming of learning styles, iii) the link between language learning styles and learning strategies, iv) learning styles and classroom teaching, v) learners' learning styles and. their language acquisition.According to Reid (2000), there are three categories in learning styles: i) cognitive learning styles, ii) sensory learning styles, iii) affective/temperament learning styles. Each category focuses on different aspects of language learners. Following a cognitive and social-constructivism theoretical framework, the present study intends to investigate the perceptual learning styles lugh school students in China. Each student is an independent individual who has his own preferences in language learning. Students in high school may well enjoy theirown group preferences. It is hoped that educators and teachers need to acknowledge different learning styles in different learners so that they can adjust curriculum accordingly or adopt their teaching styles to learners. Thus, the paper attempts to answer the following research questions:i) What are the second language learning styles of high school students in China?ii) Is there any relationship between learning styles and learning achievement? If yes, theniii) How to develop or adjust learners' styles to enhance the effectiveness of learning?iv) What is the difference between Grade One and Grade Two in learning styles?v) How to design student-empowered classroom according to students' learning styles?The study was carried out on 123 students (63 grade one learners and 60 grade two learners) using a 3-scale questionnaire of perceptual learning styles. Statistical device was used to investigate the aspects mentioned above. The study revealed the characteristics of Chinese high school students' learning styles, offered suggestions on learning strategies to students, also discussed the possible ways to fulfill student-empowered classroom.According to the research, some key findings emerge from the results. First of all, most of high school students are tactile/kinesthetic learners. They prefer to use hand-on experiment in learning language, but visual/verbal and auditory are the least preferred way in language learning. This preference is mostly due to their age factor, the educational system and the grammar-translation teaching method in their previous study. Secondly, though Grade One students and Grade Two are the same in taking tactile/kinesthetic as their first choice. They share some differences in other three learning styles. Thirdly, the difference between good learners and poor learners does exist. Good ones enjoy strong preferences in every learning style; while, poor ones donotMoreover, this paper offers suggestions on learning strategies to learners with different learning styles and discusses the possible ways to fulfill student-empowered classroom.