A Study On English Learning Styles Of High School Students

In recent years,with the deepening of the reform of foreign language teaching,the focus of language teaching research has gradually turned to the individual differences of learners,and the learning style has received more and more attention from language researchers.To be personalized in our English teaching,we must fully consider the personality and essential characteristics of the students.This thesis first sorted out the definition and types of English learning styles,and then summarized the researches of the learning style over the years.The Perceptual Learning Style Preference Questionnaire designed by Reid in 1987 was used to investigate students from five classes in Yueyang County No.1 Middle School and their English achievement tested in the mid-term exam was also adopted.Individual interviews to four students were conducted subsequently.Combining the results of the questionnaire survey and interviews,this thesis analyzed high school students' English learning styles and the forming reasons,and it proposed the corresponding teaching strategies to improve students' English learning style and improve English scores.The problems explored in this study are:(1)What is the general situation of high school students' English learning style?(2)What are the gender difference in English learning styles among high school students?(3)What is the relationship between English learning styles and English learning achievements? The results show that:(1)The majority of subjects do not show apparent learning styles(2)There are significant gender differences in the visual,practical,individual,and reflective learning styles.What is more,girls prefer theses four learning styles more than boys.There is no significant difference in auditory,cooperative,and impulsive learning styles with different genders.(3)Impulsive type has a significant negative impact on students' achievement,indicating that the more impulsive the students are,the worse the students' academic performance will be.Reflective type has a significant positive impact on students' achievement,indicating that the more reflective the students are,the better the students' academic performance will be.Visual,auditory,practical,individual,and cooperative types have no significant impact on student achievement.In view of the characteristics of high school students' English learning styles,as well as students' advantages and weaknesses in English learning,this paper proposed some targeted teaching suggestions: Teachers should identify students' English learning styles and help them stretch their learning styles.Teachers also should fully understand characteristics of each student's learning style,correctly treat the learning styles of male and female students in the learning process,and work out teaching goals and tasks and teach them according to their aptitude.Finally they should match teaching styles to students' learning styles.Students should know their English learning styles to improve their English.They also should adjust their learning strategies based on the characteristics of their learning styles.