Learning style of a good

language learner
1. Definition of learning style
2. Different learning style preferences & questionnaires
3. The impact of various learning style characteristics on a personal
learning
 1. What is a Learning Style?
a. The history of learning style:
 334 BC, Aristotle said that “each child possessed specific talents and skills”
 In the early 1900’s, several personality theories and classifications were advanced
=> Focues on Memory and visual or oral instructional methods
Reasearch reduced due to student’s IQ and academic achievement
 Early in 20th century - CARL JUNG - theory on human personality differences
 After WWII - Isabel Briggs Myers - developed Instrument (MBTI)
 In the last half of the 1900’s, many educators are attempting to apply the results within the
classroom
 Early 1980’s - David Kolb - Developed model indicating preference for
+ How students take infor in: concrete experience or abstract conceptualization
+ How students interalize infor: active experimentation or reflective observation
 1. What is a Learning Style?
b. Definition of Learning styles
• Learning style is described as a group of chracteristics,
atitudes, and behaviors that define our ways of learning.
=> Simply: different approaches or ways of learning
• Different styles influence
1) The way students learn
2) How teachers teach
3) How the two interact
 2. Different learning style preferences &
questionnaires

a. Overview of models
• In research from Coffield et al. (2004) identified
71 different models
• Neil Fleming's VAK/VARK model:
+ In 1987, Neil, a teacher from New Zealand
developed the most wideknown learning style model
VAK (VISUAL, AUDITORY, KINESTHETIC)
 2. Different learning style preferences &
questionnaires
a. The most recent test & Why choosing Learning Style Survey (LSS) for our research:
1) Joy Reid’s (1995) Perceptual learning style preference questionnaire (PLSPQ)
2) Rebecca Oxford’s (1993) Style Analysis Survey (SAS) ~ PLSPQ but longer => SAS is a
user-friendly test, a self-scoring sheet, explainations about results, some practical tips &
suggestions
3) Cohen, Oxford, and Chi’s (2001) Learning Style Survey (LSS) ~ Improvement of SAS
=> Increased the breadth of the test & more focused on language - related issues
Ex: There are 7 major activities representing 12 different aspects of the participant’s learning
style => It is a clear indication of the participant’s overall style preferences
2. Different learning style preferences &
questionnaires
 3. The impact of various learning style
characteristics on a personal learning
a. Different kinds of mismatch (6 conflicts)

The His/her
teacher’s The ability
teaching Student’s
style
Learning
Style
Learning
The His/her strategies
The
syllabus believe applied
language
about
task
learning
 3. The impact of various learning style
characteristics on a personal learning
b. Style-based instructions are given out to apply and improve the
learning effectiveness in the research’s participants (Dörnyei, 2005)
The teacher can modify
learning task <-> students’
preferences (Peacock, 2001)

Understand their learning

styles => Make it effective
(Oxford & Anderson, 1995)

Teachers teach the way they

learned best ( Kinsella, 1995)