A Study On The Correlation Between English Perceptual Learning Style And Vocabulary Learning Strategies Of Senior Middle School Students

Researches on teaching English as a foreign language in middle schools have focused more on the students'learning than the teachers'teaching. Learners' learning effects are relevant to learning styles and learning strategies. The purpose of the thesis is to find the answers to the following questions:⑴Which perceptual learning styles are preferred by senior middle school students?⑵What's the characteristics of vocabulary learning strategies among senior middle school students?⑶What's the correlation between perceptual learning styles and vocabulary learning strategies?The research is carried out in my own classes. Students from my two classes are asked to finish 2 questionnaires. The first questionnaire is Perceptual Learning Preferences Survey by Kinsella(1993). The second one is Vocabulary Learning Strategies Survey based on the research of Huang(2007) and Li(2003). The data obtained from the two questionnaires is completed by SPSS. The results are as follows:⑴Senior middle school students don't have a strong preference for a certain perceptual learning style. Among the 4 learning styles, that is, visual/verbal, visual/nonverbal, auditory, and tactile kinesthetic styles, students prefer visual/nonverbal and tactile kinesthetic styles to auditory and visual/verbal styles.⑵Vocabulary learning strategies of senior middle school students are of low level. They prefer to use cognitive strategies and seldom use other strategies such as metacognitive strategies, resource strategies and applying strategies. Among cognitive strategies, students use contextualization most frequently. Note-taking and repetiton place the second and the third, which are followed by dictionary using. However, guessing, association and word-formation, which are beneficial to reduce students' memorizing burdens and improve their vocabulary learning efficiency, are used least compared with other cognitive strategies.⑶There are correlations between perceptual learning styles and vocabulary learning strategies, but not in a high level except that visual/verbal style and dictionary-using strategy have a significant correlation with each other and its probability is relatively high.The findings of the research are not consistent with the traditional teaching beliefs and behaviors. The results of the research could help teachers get a better understanding of students'perceptual learning styles and their vocabulary learning strategies. Therefore, it is beneficial to improve teachers'teaching in senior middle school.