A Study Of The Individual Differences Exhibited By Grade Two Students In Language Learning Styles In Tianjin Senior High Schools

The paper investigated the language learning styles preferred by Chinese senior high school students who learn English as a foreign language in China. The purpose of this study was to determine the individual differences in learning styles in terms of gender, subject-orientation (arts or science) and type of schools. A total of four hundred and thirty grade-two students selected from five high schools in Tianjin, China participated in the study. The study used a questionnaire which included ten learning styles classified into four categories. The data were quantitatively analyzed with the Statistic Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS17.0).The findings of the study revealed key differences in learning style preferences. High school students in Grade Two showed strongest preference for group, field-dependent, and auditory styles, but expressed least preference for tolerance of ambiguity, kinesthetic and risk-taking styles. Significant differences of learning styles existed in gender, in subject-orientation, and in school types. While girls favored auditory, tactile and individual styles, boys preferred group learning style. Arts students favored auditory, kinesthetic and tactile learning styles more strongly than science students. In light of the differences of learning styles in school types, statistical significance was found with regard to field-dependent, field-independent, tolerance of ambiguity, visual, group and individual learning styles. Students from municipal-level key schools were most tolerant of ambiguity and were most inclined to field-independent learning style. Students from non-key schools showed strongest preference for field-dependent style and group learning style, but they showed least preference for field-independent and individual learning styles. Students from district-level key schools liked visual learning style best.Based on above findings, the current author outlined some implications and put forward some suggestions for both teachers and students. Teachers are supposed to take into consideration the differences exhibited by students in learning styles in gender and subject-orientation when they conduct their lessons, and vary the ways to design tasks, present tasks and organize activities. Students are advised to be aware of their preferences in learning styles and make full use of preferred styles to promote learning. Further study is recommended in some aspects, such as the necessity to duplicate the research with more diverse participants, to carry out interviews to explore the reasons of the findings, to conduct a pre-test on learning styles for arts students and science students, and make a comparison between the results from the pre-test and those from the post-test to see whether the differences are influenced by the different subjects which students have learned, and to investigate how to provide strategy training for the students in order to extend their learning styles to tackle different learning tasks.