A Correlative Study Between Perceptual Learning Styles And Language Learning Strategies Of Senior Middle School Students In Science And Arts

These years, the emphasis of English teaching in China has been shifted from teachersto students, and naturally, the stress of teaching research has been transformed into how toguide learners’learning from how to teach, which indicates the transition of focus from objectto subject. Consequently, great importance should be attached to individual differences, whichinvolve many aspects. Among them, learning Styles and learning strategies are two mainaspects and factors which have significant influence on learning effects. In history, there havebeen a great number of scholars conducting researches on learning styles or language learningstrategies. Nevertheless, most of researches centered on cognitive learning styles or learningstrategies of college students. It cannot be denied that senior middle school period is a keystage during which English learners form learning styles of their own and master learningstrategies. Thus the study concerning this period necessarily has a profound and long effect ontheir language learning in the future. Allowing for the factors mentioned above, this study isdesigned to reveal the differences between science and arts students in senior middle school interms of perceptive learning styles and language learning strategies and respectively exploretheir mutual correlation, which indicates great theoretical significance. As to practical aspects,teachers could adjust their teaching styles to learners’learning characteristics according to adiversity of learning style preferences and choices of learning strategies of arts students andscience students. In addition, the research result can offer guidance to teachers working onforeign language teaching of higher education by adjusting their teaching methods inaccordance to different majors.This study is aimed at finding answers to the three questions below:Are there any significant differences on learners’learning styles between arts andscience students of senior middle school? If there exist, what are their separate characteristics?Are there any significant differences on the choices of learners’language learningstrategies between arts and science students of senior middle school? If there exist, what aretheir separate characteristics?Are learning styles correlated to language learning strategies for senior middle schoolstudents in arts and science respectively? If correlated, on what extent?This research is mainly conducted in the form of survey. In this study, 149 studentsfrom science class and arts class in Senior 2 and Senior 3 of Locomotive Middle School inDatong, Shanxi province have accomplished the survey. And two questionnaires wereconducted in the study for data collection: one is Oxford’s (1989) Strategy Inventory forLanguage Learning (SILL) and the other is Joy Reid’s (1987) Perceptual Learning StylePreferences (PLSP). The statistical data analysis was conducted by utilizing the softwareSPSS 19.0 (the Statistical Package for Social Science).It can be manifested from the data analysis that:1. There exist no significant differences in terms of perceptual learning styles betweenarts and science students in senior middle school. They both have a tendency to tactile andauditory learning styles.2. There are no significant differences with regard to language learning strategiesbetween science and arts students in senior middle school. For both groups, the mostfrequently used language learning strategy is metacognitive strategy and the least frequentlyused one is social strategy. However, on the aspect of the utilization frequency of mostlanguage learning strategies, arts students show superiority to science students.3. With regard to science students, auditory and kinesthetic learning styles arecorrelated to multiple learning strategies significantly and positively; In terms of arts students,visual, tactile, auditory and team learning styles are related to multiple learning strategiessignificantly and positively. The scope of correlation between perceptive learning styles andlanguage learning strategies of arts students is wider than that of science students.