A Case Study On Learning Style-based Training Of EFL Reading Strategies In Senior High School

Over the past decades, it is firmly believed that to learn a foreign language well owes exclusively to finding the most effective teaching approaches and compiling excellent teaching materials. This being the case, researchers in the foreign language teaching area have remained committed in their efforts to formulate ideal teaching methods and design their dreamed teaching materials. Numerous studies in such areas emerged focusing on teaching methodologies and course designing. To some extent, their efforts have really paid off, with many different teaching approaches introduced to language teachers and various course books hitting the market. When students are seated in the same classroom, taught in the same way and instructed by the same teacher, something interesting happens, though. Some students are progressing rapidly and confidently; yet some others seem to be struggling, feeling depressed and frustrated.Successful teaching and learning only occur when we have considered three major factors:teaching approaches, teaching materials and learner factors. In the past, learner factors are usually neglected by researchers as something irrelevant or less relevant. Nowadays, a shift of focus from "how to teach" to "how to learn" is going on in EFL learning and teaching research. Researchers such as Brown (2002), Littlewood (2008) and He Guangkeng (2011) assert that EFL teaching can hardly achieve more success without taking learner factors into due consideration.Since the mid-1970s, researchers in language teaching field began to investigate the differences among learners (later termed as "learner factors") and their impact on language learning. Their research justifies that learner factors do affect language learning significantly. Learner factors cover many aspects between individuals, ranging from gender, age, learning motivation, learning styles, etc.How to cultivate high school students’EFL reading ability is always an arduous task perplexing Chinese English teachers in the senior high level. So English reading instruction has never been distracted from teachers’scope of attention. To achieve that ambition, reading strategy training is always high on the agenda of reading instruction tasks. Besides, the National Curriculum Standard for English in Senior High School stipulates that learning strategy makes up an essential part of the EFL curriculum aims. Reading strategy, undoubtedly, ranks among the major EFL learning strategies.This thesis intends to seek a new perspective by training students’EFL reading strategies based on their FI/FD (field-independence or field-dependence) learning styles. The research hypothesis is:reading strategy training based on students’FI/FD learning style differences in the senior high school classroom will significantly improve students’reading ability. To testify this hypothesis, the following research questions are to be answered.(1) How does the difference between FI/FD learning styles affect students’choice of EFL reading strategies?(2) Will students’EFL reading ability be able to be enhanced by training their reading strategies based on the difference in their learning styles?(3) In what way can teachers train their students’EFL reading strategies based on the difference in their learning styles?This research is conducted by applying both quantitative and qualitative studies, taking four students from Tongxiang High School as subjects in a case study. The whole study falls into four stages.Stage 1:Use Group Embedment Figure Test (GEFT) and a pretest to select the subjects needed in this study. Two subjects are FI learners, the other two are FD learners, and meanwhile 2 boys and 2 girls. One-Sample t-test is administered via SPSS to testify that the mean of the subjects’pretest scores show no significant difference when compared to the mean of the whole grade.Stage 2:Survey the subjects on their EFL reading strategy use by using the EFL Reading Strategy Inventory for Senior Middle School Students (ERSISMiSS). The result is reserved for later use. Then specific training is done on the subjects based on their FI/FD learning style differences for two months. The training observes the style-matching and style-dismatching principles.Stage 3:After two months of regular training, a posttest is done on the subjects to measure their reading proficiency level. Two weeks later, a postponed posttest is conducted to confirm the result from the posttest. Then, ERSISMiSS is used again to assess subjects’current reading strategy use and its result is also saved for later use.Stage 4:The data collected during the research process are analyzed quantitatively by using SPSS 16.0. Also, some of the data are studied qualitatively for evidence to confirm the research outcome. The conclusion is based on the previous analyses.From this study, it can be concluded that learning style-based training of EFL reading strategies can effectively improve students’reading ability by means of stretching their learning styles and expanding their scope of active reading strategy use.The thesis is laid out as below:Chapter 1 is the Introduction, which briefs the research background and significance.Chapter 2 presents the Literature Review. It first defines the key variables in this study and then reviews the previous relevant research conducted at home and abroad.Chapter 3 illustrates the Research Methodology. This part elaborates on how this study is carried out during the whole process.Chapter 4 focuses on the Results and Discussion. This part first presents the data in course of the research procedures, and then analyzes these data.Chapter 5 deals with the Conclusion. It includes the major findings of this study, suggestions for teachers and students as well as the limitations of this study.