A Study Of English Perceptual Learning Styles Of Junior School Students

With the advocating of quality education and educators’ long time exploration and research on teaching practice, "learner centered" idea is drawing more and more attention in the education field. Individual differences of learners undoubtedly became the focus of researches. Learning style, one of the most important factors of individual differences, which directly participates in and influences learners’ learning activities, naturally became the focus among researchers. However, both Chinese and overseas researchers mainly study learning styles of college students, few researchers have investigated the learning styles of the students in middle schools,especially in junior middle schools. To make up for the deficiencies of the achievements in learning styles, this thesis focuses on the investigation of perceptual learning styles of students in junior middle school, and put forward some suggestions for junior middle school English teaching and learning.The author first consulted relevant literature on learning styles and perceptual learning styles, then rearranged the definition, classification, characteristics, influencing factors and relevant researches on perceptual learning styles,which established the theoretical basis of this research. Finally, the author used Brien’s perceptual learning style questionnaire to investigate 210 Grade 8 students in Chong Qing NO.1 middle school. Data were analyzed with SPSS17.0 statistical software.Meanwhile,12 students and 2 teachers were interviewed,findings are as follows:1.In the process of English learning, junior middle school students’ preference for perceptual learning styles are in the following order: visual, tactile and auditory, most students’ preferences for those styles are of medium level. 2. junior middle school students’ perceptual learning style preferences don’t vary between two different school areas.3. junior middle school students’ perceptual learning style preferences show some differences between genders, boy students prefer haptic more than girl students, besides, though gender doesn’t influence students’ preferences for visual, boy students do better than girl students when dealing with tables and figures.4.Those above characteristics of students are based on the combined influence of English listening and speaking ability of students, English learning experience in elementary schools, teachers’ teaching methods in school, family education as well as students’ out-school English learning.Based on those findings, this paper put forward some suggestions on English teaching and learning from teachers’, students’ and parents’ aspects. First, English teachers should take proper teaching measures which match with students’ learning styles by designing diversified teaching activities, learning tasks as well as evaluating students learning results in different ways and with various standards. Second, students should know and learn their learning styles and take proper learning strategies accordingly. Meanwhile, students should take measures to expand their learning styles. Finally, parents should respect and understand students’ learning styles and renew their ideas about education, as well as encourage students to learn English through various ways.