Learning styles of language learners in an EFL writing class

Abstract

EFL sholars have widely discussed how to manage a class to suit students' learning styles, and a number of studies have investigated learning styles and their influences on students' academic achievement. This paper presents results from a study of learnng styles of Thai English major students in an EFL writing class. The objectives of the study were to identify the learning styles of these students and to see whether there were significant differences of their learning styles based on their achievement levels in their English writing course. The participants of this study were 88 second-year English majors in the B.A. Program at the Faculty of Humanities, Srinakharinwirot University, Thailand. The instruments used in the study were the Memletics Learning Styles Inventory and a semi-structured interview. Cronbach?s alpha of the inventory was 0.75. The data were analyzed using means and the one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Data analysis showed that the average primary and secondary learning styles of the students were social and aural and there were no significant differences of the students' learning styles based on their achievement levels in the writing class. © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.