The Correlation Of Perceptual Learning Style And L2Mental Lexicon

Perceptual learning style means individuals acquire knowledge most comfortably through sensory channels. It has been focused on by scholars since the1980s. Mental lexicon represents the words in permanent memory. The study of it could be traced back to the1960s. Although the two aspects have been discussed respectively for a long term, they have never been researched together. Therefore this study aims to find out ESL students’ major perceptual learning style, their characteristics of L2mental lexicon, and deeply explore the correlation between them.This study is mainly a quantitative study in which three questionnaires are administered to100juniors from Heilongjiang Institute of Technology. One questionnaire is Reid’s Perceptual Learning Style Preference Survey. It aims at investigating the subjects’major perceptual learning style. Another two questionnaires are Word Association Test and the Depth of Individual Word Knowledge Test, which aim at observing characteristics of L2mental lexicon. At last, the relationships between major perceptual learning style and L2mental lexicon are examined by SPSS.We can get some results from this paper. The first result is that ESL students in China prefer visual learning style most. Each student possesses several perceptual learning styles. The second one is that the organization of L2mental lexicon is not stable. As L2learners’familiarity to words increases, it changes from phonologically to semantically. The third one is that visual learning style is positive correlation with syntagmatic response and clang-other response.This study, on the one hand, enables students to completely know their major perceptual learning style so that their achievement can be better. On the other, according to students’perceptual learning style, teachers use different teaching methods to help students with their English vocabulary study.