A Study On The Correlation Among English Perceptual Learning Styles,Tolerance Of Ambiguity And English Achievements Of Junior High School Students

Studies based on the ―learner-centered‖ pedagogical idea have found that in the process of foreign language learning,individual differences such as learners’ learning styles and affective factors cause differences of their language learning performance.Perceptual style is a learning style that directly participates in and regulates learners’ learning activities,and tolerance of ambiguity is an inevitable affective factor in foreign language learning.They both have important research significance.However,reviewing on relevant domestic articles and works,research subjects in related studies are mainly college students and senior high school students,and research focusing the relationship among perceptual learning style,tolerance of ambiguity and English achievements is relatively rare.In view of this,this study takes junior high school students as the research subjects to study the correlation among the three above-mentioned factors,in order to provide references for junior high school English teaching.The research subjects are 171 Grade 8 students from a junior high school in Huizhou,Guangdong Province.The Perceptual Learning Style Preference Questionnaire and English as a Second Language Tolerance of Ambiguity Scale are main research instruments in present study.This research attempts to answer the following four questions:(1)What is the overall situation of perceptual learning styles and tolerance of ambiguity of junior high school students?(2)What is the correlation between junior high school students’ perceptual learning styles and tolerance of ambiguity?(3)What is the correlation between junior high school students’ perceptual learning style and English achievements?(4)What is the correlation between junior high school students’ tolerance of ambiguity and English achievements?Results indicate that:(1)Auditory learning style is the most popular perceptual learning style among junior students;Majority of students have a moderate level of tolerance of ambiguity,and only a few students have relatively high or low level of tolerance of ambiguity;(2)There is a significantly negative correlation between group learning style and tolerance of ambiguity degree,while other five kinds of perceptual learning styles are not significantly correlated with tolerance of ambiguity.(3)There is a significantly positive correlation between individual learning style and English achievements,while other five kinds of perceptual learning styles are not significantly correlated with English achievements.(4)There is a significantly positive correlation between junior high school students’ tolerance of ambiguity degree and their English achievements.The research provides certain teaching enlightenments for English teaching and learning.For teachers,(1)they are to make full use of the modern multimedia teaching equipment to promote students’ development of various perceptual learning styles;(2)their teaching method should match students’ learning style in English teaching as much as possible;and(3)they are to help students improve level of tolerance of ambiguity.For students,(1)they should be aware of both their perceptual learning style preference and their level of tolerance of ambiguity;(2)they are to cultivate multiple types of perceptual learning styles;and(3)they are to improve tolerance of ambiguity level and learn to regulate emotions consciously in English learning.