A Survey Of English Perceptual Learning Styles Of Senior High School Students

Learning style is the learner’s habitual learning way and learning tendency.It is of great importance for teachers to understand the learners’ learning styles in their teaching organization.The teachers should not only pay attention to their teaching contents,but also adjust their teaching methods according to the students individual differences.With the implementation of quality education,learning style,as a key factor that affects students’ learning,has attracted more and more attention from scholars and teachers.It is,therefore,of great significance to study learners’ learning styles in that it can help stimulate students’ learning enthusiasm as well as improve teachers’ teaching efficiency.Based upon the learning style theory,this study aims to investigate and analyze senior high school students’ English perceptual learning styles.In order to achieve these research purposes,the present study aims to answer the following three research questions:(1)What are the main features of senior high school students’ English perceptual learning styles?(2)What is the correlation between senior high school students’ English perceptual learning styles and their English learning achievements?(3)What are the major factors affecting the features of senior high school students’ English perceptual learning styles?This study takes the students of Senior Grade Two in Xinxiang No.1 Middle School as its research subjects.The main research methods adopted in this study are questionnaire,English achievement test and interview.This research adopts Lynn O’Brien’s perceptual learning style questionnaire to investigate 223 students on their English perceptual learning styles.In combination with the students’ English mid-term examination results,the data analysis is carried out by SPSS17.0 software.In addition,15 students and 4 English teachers are selected as the interviewees.And finally,the data are collected,analyzed and discussed in detail.This study has got the following major findings(1)Senior high school students’ perceptual learning styles are various,and only a minority of students particularly like or dislike one of the perceptual learning styles.The most popular perceptual learning style is auditory learning style among the senior high school students,followed by haptic learning style and visual learning style.(2)There is a correlation between senior high school students’ English perceptual learning styles and their English learning achievements.There is no significant correlation between visual learning style and senior high school students’ English learning achievements.Auditory learning style is only significantly related to listening scores.The haptic learning style is positively correlated with senior high school students’ English total scores,reading and writing scores.(3)The major factors affecting the features of senior high school students’ English perceptual learning styles include the students’ personal characteristics,their interest in English learning,teachers’ teaching methods and family education ways.This study puts some suggestions for senior high school English teachers in improving their teaching efficiency.Firstly,English teachers in senior high school ought to use a variety of methods to help students understand their own learning styles and attach importance to expanding students’ learning styles that they do not have.Meanwhile,the teachers should adopt a variety of teaching methods when they guide students to master systematic knowledge.They also should take into account students’ individual differences as much as possible so that the students’ learning efficiency can be improved.