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Humanities
- ISSN: 2155-7993
- Journal of Modern Education Review
A Study of EFL College Students’ Learning Styles and Learning Strategies
Chia-Wei Hsu, Shu-Chu Chen
(Department of Applied Foreign Languages, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology , Taiwan)
Abstract: Research in the area of learning style and strategies in EFL contexts is mostly being conducted in primary schools, junior high schools, or senior high schools. Comparatively fewer studies concentrated on college students’ learning styles and strategy use. In addition, most previous studies adopted Kolb’s (1985) Learning Style Inventory or Reid’s (1987) PLSPQ to measure learners’ learning style preference. Few of them used Felder and Soloman’s (1988) Index of Learning Styles (ILS), which is more concise and easy to be administered in written or computer formats. In order to fill in the void, the purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between tertiary level EFL college students’ learning styles, and learning strategies. Participants were 109 freshmen, with 79 male and 30 female students. The instruments were Felder and Soloman’s (1988) Index of Learning Styles (ILS) and Schmitt’s (1997) taxonomy of vocabulary learning strategies. Descriptive statistics and one-way ANOVA were conducted and the results showed that most of the participants were balanced type of learners on all learning style dimensions. For their use of vocabulary learning strategies, most of the participants used determination and cognitive strategies more frequently than other strategies. Finally, for the effect of learning styles on learners’ strategy choice, ANOVA analyses showed that only active, reflective and balanced types of learners affect their choice in social, memory, and metacognitive strategies. Results showed that students bring to the classroom a great diversity of learning styles, and the best practice for EFL teachers is to offer courses which employ many teaching styles, and to design tasks which help students in developing their learning styles they are weak, and plan their teaching using a balanced teaching approach.
Key words: learning styles, learning strategies, tertiary level
