Research, Science And Engineering College English Learners' Learning Styles

The focus of the foreign language learning research has gradually been shifted from the exploration of the teaching method and the teaching materials to the individual differences (ID) of the learners in the West since 1960s. Learning style is one of the significant factors in ID and it attracts more and more researchers' attention.The concept learning style was originally put forward by Herbert Thelen in 1954. 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, which includes the learning strategies that have been stabilized within a learner, the preference of some teaching stimuli and the learning tendency.Abundant researches on learning style have been conducted in the west. In China, however, most of the studies are restricted to the theoretical discussion and there are just relatively few practical studies. Most of the practical studies that have been administered choose English majors as their subjects.Hence, based on the former studies, the current study studies the learning styles of college students majoring in science and technology and seeks to provide answers to the following questions:(1) What kind of learning style preferences do non-English majors at the university level have?(2) Are there some possible links between gender and learning style preferences?(3) Is there any significant relationship between learning style preferences and language learning achievements?(4) Do their learning style preferences change during the first and second year of the university?In a search for answers to the four questions above, the current study has some major findings as follows:Firstly, the data from the current study indicate that the learners are more or less oriented to perceptual learning styles especially visual learning style and they prefer extrovert, intuitive and global learning styles.Secondly, there is no significant difference between gender and learning style preferences. That is to say, male and female learners nearly have the same learning style preferences.Thirdly, in the investigation on the correlation between variables of learning style construct and the foreign language learning achievement, it is found that hands-on learning style correlates with the foreign language achievement negatively. A hands-on learner is likely to get a low mark in CET 4.Finally, the data show that the learners' learning style preferences don't change during their study in the university. This finding verifies the hypothesis that learning styles are relatively stable.In the end of the study, pedagogical suggestions are put forward for adjusting to the learners' learning style preferences and fostering more flexibility of learners'learning styles.In brief, it is hoped that this study will help arouse the awareness of learning styles and deepen the understanding of the learning style construct, enrich the current research in the ID domain and shed some light on the current foreign language education.