The Influence Of English Majors’ Learning Styles On Their English Writing Competence

With the development of learner-centered education in the world, language learners’ individual differences have attracted the attention of researchers and teachers. Learning style, as an important individual difference, has been studied a lot in the field of second language acquisition since 1960s.This study aims to explore three questions:(1) What perceptual learning styles do English majors prefer? (2) Is there any correlation between English majors’perceptual learning styles and writing ability? If there is, what is it and how does it influence their writing? (3) Which kind of learning style can better improve students’English writing ability, and why?The present study adopts both quantitative and qualitative methods. The subjects in this research are 80 English major sophomores from Qingdao University of Science and Technology. The data collection instruments are questionnaire, writing test and interview. The SPSS 17.0 was then used to analyze the relevant data. The analyses include descriptive statistics, independent sample T-test and correlation analysis.Based on the data analysis, this study concludes the following findings:(1) The perceptual learning styles of English majors can be classified into six types:visual learning style, auditory learning style, tactile learning style, kinesthetic learning style, group learning styles and individual learning styles. (2) There is a certain correlation between English majors’ learning styles and their writing ability. They unconsciously and actively make use of the learning styles which are beneficial for their writing ability. It is helpful for them to improve their writing ability if they grasp the proper English Learning Style Models. (3) There is a positive correlation between visual and tactile learning style students and their writing ability, because visual learning style students prefer to read things and take notes, tactile learning style students also like taking notes and writing outlines, which are all helpful to improve their writing ability.Based on the above findings, some implications are presented for EFL teaching. First, teachers should help students identify their learning styles and develop self-awareness with some assessment instruments. At the same time, they should also encourage students to expand their styles. Teachers should also try to match their teaching styles with students’ learning styles by designing classroom activities of different styles, presenting information in various perceptual learning modalities, and using diverse teaching methods.