A Comparative Study On The Vocabulary Acquisition Based On Different Perceptual Learning Styles Of Senior High School Students

In recent decades, the focus of the research in foreign language teaching in China has changed from teaching methods to students’ learning strategies. The New English Curriculum states in2011that more focus should be on the individual development of students. The learning style is one part of individual difference therefore the investigation in learning styles is the new trend of foreign language teaching.Vocabulary is the basic unit of language which is also the foundation of language competence. Lewis considers that vocabulary acquisition is the center of second language teaching and learning. But vocabulary has been a difficult point to Chinese students as a majority of schools still use the traditional methods in teaching which ignore learners’ learning interest and activeness.In order to help learners improve efficiency and promote language proficiency in vocabulary acquisition, the author tries to put the theory of perceptual learning styles into vocabulary acquisition. The research questions are as follow:1.What is the overall picture of students’ perceptual learning styles?2.Which group studies vocabulary better, the visual or the auditory learners?3.Which group has higher language achievement, the visual or the auditory learners? The study is a combination of qualitative and quantitative research.150students in senior school have taken part in the research(including100are in experimental groups,50are in controlled group), in which the perceptual styles survey and vocabulary level test have been put into investigation. The investigation begins with the questionnaire which includes personal information(class, sex and age) and three different types(visual, auditory and haptic). The two experimental groups have been found to show no significant difference after Nation’s Vocabulary Level Test(2000). In addition, in order to compare the difference between subjects in visual and auditory types, the mid-term test is treated as the pre-test while the final-term test is as the post-test. Oxford’s Perceptual styles surveys are put to have34visual learners,31auditory learners and26haptic ones. Meanwhile, the vocabulary dictations and vocabulary tests are also conducted to show the difference. SPSS17.0is used to help the author to analyze the data by independent t-test,one-way ANOVA, descriptive statistics and correlation. An interview has been on after the teaching period to demonstrate students show interest in the teaching on perceptual learning.The study has revealed several findings:First, the students have multi-learning styles in which the visual and auditory are the most favourite types rather than haptic styles; Secondly, visual learners can do better in vocabulary acquisition compared with auditory learners. When the visual learners are taught according to certain type, they can learn vocabulary better and achieve better in language achievement.Based on the above findings,more attention should be put on the empirical study of vocabulary acquisition and other areas based on the perceptual learning styles in further teaching.