An investigation into english learning styles of the 11th grade students and some suggested activities = nghiên cứu phong cách học tiếng anh của học sinh lớp 11 và một vài hoạt động gợi ý

Vinh UniversityForeign language department ---***---Nguyễn Thị Thanh Loan An investigation into English learning styles activities Nghiên cứu phong cách học tiếng anh của học sinh lớ

Vinh University

Foreign language department

-*** -Nguyễn Thị Thanh Loan

An investigation into English learning styles

activities

(Nghiên cứu phong cách học tiếng anh của học sinh lớp

11 và một vài hoạt động gợi ý)

Graduation thesis Field: English Methodology

Vinh, 2009

Vinh University Foreign language department

-*** -An investigation into English learning styles

activities

(Nghiên cứu phong cách học tiếng anh của học sinh lớp

11 và một vài hoạt động gợi ý)

Graduation thesis Field: English Methodology

Additionally, I wish to express my deep gratitude to the foreign languagelibrarian who gives much useful help to get necessary materials for this thesis Also, I am really thankful for the enthusiastic participation of students andteachers in Le Hong Phong High School who give me a great deal of help tofinish this thesis

Finally, I am grateful to my dedicated friends and my beloved family whogive me a great deal of encouragement and useful advice during my studyingprocess

Vinh, December, 25th 2008

FLA: First Language Acquisition

SLA: Second Language Learning

SLL: Second Language Learning

Lists of figures

Figure 2.1 Students and Their Interest in Leaning English 17

Figure 2.2 Chart Showing Students and their Interest in Leaning English 18

Figure 2.3 Students’ Personalities 18

Figure 2.4 Chart Showing Students’ Personalities 19

Figure 2.5 Students’ Opinion about their Favorite Activities 19

Figure 2.6 Chart Showing Students’ Opinion about the Favorite Activities 19

Figure 2.8 Students’ Ideas about the importance degree of learning styles in English leaning success 20

Figure 2.7 Students’ Opinion about the Importance of Learning Styles in Target Language Leaning 21

Figure 2.9 Chart Showing Students’ Ideas about the Importance Degree of Learning Styles in English Leaning Success 21

Figure 2.10 The Frequency Degree of Teacher’s Using Variety of Activities in the Class 22

Figure 2.11 Students’ Opinion about Teachers’ Teaching Styles 23

Figure 2.12 Chart Showing Students’ Opinion about Teachers’ Teaching Styles 23

Figure 2.13 Students’ Satisfaction about Teacher’s Pedagogical Methods 23

Figure 2.14 Chart Showing Students’ Satisfaction about Teacher’s Pedagogical Methods 24

Figure 2.15 Students’ Change in Learning Ways 24

Figure 2.16 Students' Understanding about Their Learning Styles 25

Figure 2.17 Chart Shows Percentage of Students' Perceptual Learning Styles 25

Figure 2.18 Percentage of Students' Perceptual Learning Styles 25

Figure 2.19 Students' answers to questions about cognitive learning styles 26

Figure 2.20 Types of Cognitive Learning styles 27

table of contents Acknowledgements I Abbreviations II Lists of figures III Table of contents Iv Part I: Introduction 1

1 Reasons for Choosing the Topic 1

2 Aims of the Study 1

3 Scope of the Study 2

4 Methods of the Study 2

5 Design of the Study 2

Part II: DEVELOPMENT 3

Chapter 1: Theoretical Background 3

1.1 First and Second Language Learning: 3

1.1.1. First and Second Language: 3

1.1.2 Learning and Acquisition: 3

1.1.3 First and Second Language Learning: 3

1.1.3.1 Behaviourist: 3

1.1.3.2 Innatism: 4

1.1.3.3 Interactionist Position: 5

1.2 Factors Affecting Second Language Learning 5

1.3 Learning Styles 6

1.3.1 Definition: 6

1.3.2 Classification 7

1.3.3 Factors affecting learning styles 10

1.4 Application of Learning Styles into teaching English 11

1.5 Ways to Identify Students’ Learning Styles: 12

1.5.1 Observation: 12

1.5.2 Questionnaire: 13

1.5.3 Interview: 14

Chapter 2: Investigation into Students' Learning Styles in Le Hong Phong High School- Nghe An 15

2.1 Overview of the Survey: 15

2.1.1 Aims of the Survey: 15

2.1.2 Informant and Settings: 15

2.2 Description of the Survey Questionnaires: 16

2.2.1 Survey Questionnaires: 16

2.2.2 Results and Findings: 17

Chapter 3: Suggestions for Teachers to Use Variety of Activities to Agree Students’ Learning Style 29

3.1 Preparation of Lesson Plans: 29

3.2 Suggestions of Some Appropriate Activities for Each Learner: 30

3.2.1 For Visual learners: 30

3.2.1.1 Using Visual Aids in Teaching: 30

3.2.1.2 Writing Story through Pictures 31

3.2.1.3 Remembering Words 32

3.2.1.4 Movie – watching 33

3.2.2 For Auditory learners: 34

3.2.2.1 Using Audio Aids: 34

3.2.2.2 Story- telling: 35

3.2.2.3 Using Music in Class: 36

3.2.2.4 Listening in Motion: 38

3.2.2.5 Repeating Hard Words: 39

3.2.3 For Kinesthetic Learner: 40

3.2.3.1 Using Visual Aids and Objects: 40

3.2.3.2 Role- playing: 40

3.2.3.3 Action Games: 41

3.3 Suggestions for Students to Take Advantages of Their Strengths in Learning English 42

3.3.1 For Visual Learner: 43

3.3.3 For Kinesthetic Learners: 44

3.3.2 For Auditory Learners 44

Part III : Conclusion 45

Preference 47

Part I: Introduction

1 Reasons for Choosing the Topic

Learning style is an important factor that affects to the second languagelearning (SLL) In fact, many researchers and teachers seem to know of theconcept, and most of them find learning styles interesting and important.However, there is little research that reveals about the relationship betweenlearning styles and success in English learning Therefore, the author wouldlike to find out more information about learning styles and its application inteaching English

Moreover, the classroom teachers tend to ignore students’ learning stylesalthough they know that there are always many kinds of learning styles in aclass Meanwhile each learner has his own way to learn and to processinformation, teachers often only use the same methods to teach This leads to

the low results in the teaching and learning process Thus, the author wouldlike to present some suggestions that may be useful for teachers to adjustthese teaching styles so that they are suitable for students' learning styles Lastly, the author is being trained to be a teacher of English in the nearfuture She is aware that knowing and catering to students’ learning styles canhelp them a great deal to improve their English

With all the reasons above, the author finds it interesting to conduct this

study entitled “An Investigation into English Learning Styles of the 11 th grade students and Some Suggested Activities ”

2 Aims of the Study

The study aims at

- Investigating into learning styles and its benefits in secondlanguage learning

- Providing teachers, students with activities needed to satisfystudents’ learning styles in classroom

- Providing students with some clues for them to helpthemselves in learning English

3 Scope of the Study

In the limitation of a thesis, the author only wishes to help focus onlearning styles and the importance of learning styles, some suggestions forstudents to help them to make use of their strengths and some clues forteachers to satisfy students’ learning styles in classroom

4 Methods of the Study

To complete this study, the following methods were employed:

- analytic and synthetic methods

- comparative and contrastive methods

- descriptive methods Firstly, the author uses analytic and synthetic methods to review thetheories related to the matter in concerned to form a theoretical framework forthe analysis, collect books and materials, find and select necessaryinformation

Then, the information received from the survey is analyzed and sorted tomake a clear distinction about students learning styles The results arearranged into categories for comparison

Finally, descriptive methods are used to make a description about someactivities suitable for each learning styles

5 Design of the Study

The thesis consists of three main parts: introduction, development andconclusion

Part I: Introduction

This part includes five sub-parts: reasons, aims, scope, methods and design ofthe study

Part II: Development

This part consists of three chapters:

Chapter 1: Theoretical Background

In this chapter, the author reviews some aspects of theory that relate tolearning styles as a theoretical background for the study The theories aboutfirst and second language learning and factors affecting second languagelearning are presented in the comparison with the first language learning.Additionally, learning style's definitions and classifications are presentedform different points of view The author also discusses the factors affectingstudents' learning styles and ways to identify their learning styles

Chapter 2: Investigation into Students' Learning Styles in Le Hong PhongHigh School- Nghe An

In this chapter, the results of a survey on students' learning styles in LeHong Phong High School are presented with some comments and anlysis Theauthor describes the aims, informant and settings, survey questionnaires,results and findings to make the clear understanding about students' learningstyles in high school

Chapter 3: Suggested Teaching and Learning Activities for Different LearningStyles

In this chapter, suggested activities for teachers are presented first to helpthem accommodate students' learning styles at the classroom level.Additionally, activities for students are discussed to help them make use oftheir strengths in learning styles

Part III: Conclusion

This part summarizes what has been discussed in the two parts above andoffers some suggestions for further studies

Part 2: DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1: Theoretical Background 1.2 First and Second Language Learning

1.2.1 First and Second Language

First language is the language that an individual learn first First language isalso called native language or mother tongue

Second language is defined as any language other than the first language in awide sense In narrower sense, it is a language learned after the first language in

a context where the language is used widely in the speech community

1.1.2 Learning and Acquisition

Learning is a conscious process of study and attention to form and rulelearning The results of learning are the explicit knowledge about the form of alanguage and the ability to verbalize this knowledge In contrast, acquisition isthe natural way and this definition refers to an unconscious process that involvesthrough using language for meaningful communication

According to Krashen (1982, cited in Nguyen Thi Van Lam and Ngo DinhPhuong 2007), acquisition is the more important process and he asserts that onlyacquired language is readily available for natural, fluent communication Further,

he claims that learning cannot turn into acquisition

1.1.3 First and Second Language Learning

There have been three main theoretical approaches to explaining the relationbetween first and second language learning: behaviorist, annatist andinteractionist approaches

1.1.3.1 Behaviourist

Behaviorism is a psychological theory of learning which was very influential

in the 1940s and 1950s Traditional behaviourists believed that language learning

is the result of imitation, practice, feedback on success and habit formation.Behaviorism accounts for second language acquisition (SLA) with the sametheory as for first language acquisition (FLA) Behaviorists explain that theprocess of learning first language as well as the second language can take placethrough imitation, practice, reinforcement and habit formation Languagedevelopment is viewed as the formation of habits formed in the first language

and these habits interfere with the new ones needed for the second language(Lado 1964, cited in Nguyen Thi Van Lam and Ngo Dinh Phuong 2007)

Behaviourism was often linked to the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis(CAH) which was developed by structured linguists The CAH predicts thatwhere there are similarities between the first language and the target language,the learner will acquire target structures with ease and where there aredifferences, the learner will have difficulties (Nguyen Thi Van Lam and NgoDinh Phuong, 2007)

1.1.3.2 Innatism

The linguist Noam Chomsky claims that children are biologicallyprogrammed for language and that language develops in the child in just thesame way that other biological functions develop For Chomsky, languageacquisition is similar to the way the children learn to walk The environment -the availability of people who speak to the child - and the child's biologicalendowment will do the rest In Chomsky's writing, language acquisition is based

on the hypothesis that innate knowledge of the principles of Universal Grammar(UG) permits all the children to acquire the language of their environment,during a critical period in their development According to Chomsky's theory, heexplains Universal Grammar as a set of principles that are common to alllanguages and argues that the language acquisition device works successfullyonly when it is stimulated at the right time called "Critical period"

Linguists working within innatist theory assume that the U.G offer the bestperspective from which to understand SLA Krashen (1982, cited in Nguyen ThiVan Lam and Ngo Dinh Phuong 2007) presented five hypotheses whichconstitute what he calls the "Monitor Model" by origin: Acquisition- LearningHypothesis, Monitor Hypothesis, Natural Order Hypothesis, Input Hypothesisand Effective Filter Hypothesis

1.1.3.3 Interactionist Position

According to the Interactionist Position, language develops as a result of thecomplex interplay between the uniquely human characteristics of the child andthe environment in which the child develops (Cited in the Nguyen Thi Van Lamand Ngo Dinh Phuong, 2007) In the Interactionists' point of view, much secondlanguage acquisition takes place through conversational interaction Besides, LexVygosky had the sociocutural theory of human mental processing which assumesthat language develops entirely from social interaction He referred to the child's

zone of proximal development as what the child could do in interaction with

another

In short, behaviorism can explain how some aspects of the language such asword meanings and some language routines are learned Innatism can accountfor the complexity of the knowledge that all learners eventually attain.Interactionists view that learners develop language through one-to-oneinteraction

1.2 Factors Affecting Second Language Learning

There are many factors that affect second language learning (SLL) Some ofthem are intelligence, aptitude, personality, motivation, attitudes and learnerpreferences (Nguyen Thi Van Lam and Ngo Dinh Phuong, 2007)

Intelligence is one of the factors which are related to success in SLL Theterm "intelligence” refers to performance on certain kinds of tests The new way

of testing the relation between intelligence and second language learners’success called IQ (intelligence quotient) came into being as a good means ofpredicting the rate of success of language learners

Aptitude is also a factor that has an effect on second language learning.Aptitude is considered such as a special ability to learn a foreign languagequickly It consists of different types of abilities such as to identify andmemorize new sounds, to understand the function of particular words insentences; how words function grammatically in sentences, to figure outgrammatical rules from language samples and memory for new words

Personality is another factor believed to have many effects on the success

in learning Some studies have found that success in language learning iscorrelated with learner scores on characteristic often associated with extroversionsuch as assertiveness and adventurousness; others have found that successfullearners do not get high score on measures of extroversion Inhibition, self-esteem, empathy, dominance, talkativeness, and responsiveness are also factors

of personality affecting students’ leaning in some degrees

Furthermore, motivation and positive attitudes are viewed to affect success

in SLL The overall findings show that positive attitudes and motivation arerelated to success in second language learning There are two kinds of motivation

in learning; they are integrative motivation which refers to language learning forpersonal growth and cultural enrichment and entrustment motivation forlanguage learning for more immediate or practical goals Linguistics proves thatinternal motivation is better than external motivation

Additionally, learner preferences (learning styles and learner belief) exert aneffect on the process of second language learning Learner beliefs are usuallybased on previous learning experiences and the assumptions that a particular type

of instruction is the best way for them to learn Learning styles are the wayslearners use to absorb, process and retain the new information Learners’preferences for learning will influence the kinds of strategies they use in order tolearn new material The teacher can use this information to help leaners expandtheir repertoire of learning strategies and thus develop greater flexibility in theirways of approaching language learning

1.3 Learning Styles

1.3.1 Definition

The layman’s understanding of learning styles is something like the way inwhich you learn or the special strengths and tactics of the learner Thesedefinitions are very broad to be of any practical use

According to Light Bown and Spada (1995, cited in Nguyen Thi Van Lamand Ngo Dinh Phuong 2007), the term “learning styles” has been used todescribe an individual’s natural, habitual and preferred way of absorbing,processing and retaining new information and skills This definition is usedwidely in academic

For Dunn and Dunn (1978), learning styles is the way in which eachindividual learner to begin to concentrate on, process, absorb and retain new anddifficult information This seems similar to Light Bown and Spada’s definition Curry (1987) speaks of “individual differences in individual cognitiveapproach and process of learning” , Kolb (1984) defines it as “dialectic tensionbetween the apprehension and transformation dimensions”

Mc Cathy (1987) defines learning style as “the combination of how weperceive and how we process that forms the uniqueness of our learning styles,our most comfortable way to learn.”

Also, there are many researchers and scholar who have been trying to definelearning style and most of them focus on students’ ways to absorb, process andretain new information

1.3.2 Classification

According to Gardner (1993), there are eight types of learning styles:Verbal (linguistic), logical (mathematic), visual (partial), bodily (kinesthetic),musical (rhythmic), interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalistic learningstyles

Kolb (1984) classifies four major learning styles: imaginative learners,analytic learners, common sense learners and dynamic learners Imaginativelearners can perceive information concretely, process information by thinkingabout it They want to listen and share information to learn and need topersonally involve in and see all sides.

Analytic learners can perceive information abstractly and processinformation by thinking about it Furthermore, they need details and specificideas They are also skilled verbally and often integrate their observation intowhat they already know

Common sense learners are those who perceive information abstractly.The most prominent characteristic of this kind of the learners is that theyprocess information by doing it They are problem solvers and are skillsoriented They like to experiment and tinker with things Common senselearners need to know how things work and want to work on real problems.They especially want to apply learning into real purposes

Dynamic learners perceive information concretely They also processinformation by doing They like changes and are risk-takers They are notsequential and like to pursue interests in diverse ways

According to Light Bown and Spada (1999, cited in Nguyen Thi Van Lamand Ngo Dinh Phuong 2007), there are two types of learning styles:perceptual and cognitive learning styles

Perceptual learning styles are based on perception-aware of directlythrough any of the senses, especially sight or hearing There are five subtypes

of perceptual learning styles They are visual learners, auditory learners,kinesthetic learners, tactile learners and haptic learners

Visual learners prefer using images, pictures, colors and maps to organizeinformation and communicate with others This kind of learner cannot learnsomething well until they have seen it Visual learners have a good spatialsense, which gives them good sense of direction

Kinesthetic learners learn more effectively through concrete bodyexperience or body movement They often use their body and sense of touch

to learn about the world around They like to think out issues, ideas andproblems while they exercise

Auditory learners can learn effectively through the ears They have goodsense of pitch and rhythm Moreover, they can remember tunes and soundpatterns more easily than others

Tactile learners can learn more effectively through touching Tactilelearners are those who learn through experiencing or doing things For thisreason, tactile learners may become bored more quickly than other studentswhile listening to a class lecture Tactile learners like to experience the worldand act out events To remember a phone number, tactile learners may rememberthe pattern of their fingers as the press the numbers

Haptic learners can learn more effectively through touching and bodymovement, a combination of the kinesthetic and tactile styles Haptic learningrefers to the sense of touch or grasp These learners like a "hands on" approach tolearning, like to do artwork or doodle on notebooks, and succeed with tasksrequiring manipulation

In cognitive learning styles, Light Bown and Spada (1999) divide them intotwo subtypes: field-independent learners and field-dependent learners Field-independent learners are more analytical, they can pick out hidden figures in acomplicated drawing more quickly They tend to perceive elementsindependently of a context or field and focus on details or see the details separatefrom the background

Field dependent learners are more relational and more inclined to see thewhole drawing and have difficulties separating it into parts They tend toperceive the whole field or situation and focus on general meaning They seethings more holistically or generally

Listed below are the principal characteristics of the two cognitive styles andthe implications of each for second language learning (Ellis, 1993)

i.e perceives a field in terms of its

component parts; parts are

distinguished from background

2 Holistic

i.e perceives field as a whole;

parts are fused with background

4 Socially sensitive

i.e greater skill in

interpersonal/social relationships

4 Not so socially aware

i.e less skilled in interpersonal/social relationships

In the scope of a thesis, the author would like to deal with three main kinds

of perceptual learning styles (visual, auditory and kinesthetic ) and two mainkinds of cognitive learning styles (field-independent, field-dependent)

1.3.3 Factors Affecting Learning Styles

There are several factors that can influence a student’s learning styles Theyare environmental, personality, developmental and psychological factors

The environment can affect all learning styles to some degree Some studentsachieve better in warm environments and others in cool environments (Hart,1981) If the room is too hot or too cold, or if there is outside noise making itdifficult to concentrate or hear, all learning will be affected However, somelearners may be more affected than others Other environmental factors that mayaffect learning include furniture or design Some people prefer studying in awooden, plastic, or steel chair, but others become so uncomfortable inconventional classroom seats that they are prevented from learning

A student’s personality can also have some bearing on his or her preferredlearning style A normally outgoing person may need to engage in groupactivities so that they feel they have a chance to discuss the learning Morereserved people may resist group activities and prefer to work alone Therefore,students’ own emotion may also affect their ability to learn

One of the most important things to understand about learning styles is thatthey are developmental in nature Your learning style changes over time, based

on your experiences and your level of education This is a natural process, sopeople who have been out of school for some time may be surprised to find thatthey do not learn the same way they remember learning before

Sociological factors may also affect learning Teachers need to be aware ofthe students’ learning styles under various conditions Variations that enhance,

or inhibit, learning may include learning alone, in pairs, in small groups, as part

of a team, with either an authoritative or a collegial adult, and wanting variety asopposed to patterns and routines (Dunn and Dunn, 1993)

Physiological characteristics are another factor that can affect students'learning These characteristics refer to when and how students learn best

Understanding students’ physiological characteristics is an effective way forteachers to help students learn based on their perceptual strengths Thecharacteristics include time of day, outside stimulation, energy level, andmobility while studying Some like to eat, chew gum, or drink while learning Some older students may even prefer to smoke while learning Still otherstudents may have perceptual strengths in the area of energy level or mobility They may study better or work better in a classroom situation if they can movearound while learning and not be confined to one desk space (Dunn and Dunn,1993).

1.4 Application of Learning Styles into Teaching English

Learner’s preferences for learning, whether due to their learning styles ortheir belief about how languages are learned will influence the kinds of strategiesthey choose to learn new materials Teachers can use this information to helptheir learners to expand their repertoire of learning strategies and thus developgreater flexibility in their ways of approaching language learning Students notonly can identify preferred learning styles, but students can score higher on tests,have better attitudes, and are more efficient if they are taught in ways to whichthey can more easily relate Therefore, it is an advantage that the teacher shouldtake of to teach students in their preferred styles

Even though learning styles will differ among students in the classroom, theteacher should try to make changes in their classroom that will be beneficial toevery learning style Some of these changes include room redesign, thedevelopment of small group technique, preparation of lesson plans, appropriateactivities for each learner etc

One of the key factors for students in having acknowledge of their learningstyles is improved self-esteem (Martin and Potter, 1998) “Now these at-riskstudents exhibit confidence and accept responsibility for their own learning” (Perrin, 1990, p.24) When they are willing to struggle to learn, they can be more

in control of their environment and ask for what they need (Martin and Potter,1998)

Many believe that “schools should spend more time developing students’awareness of their styles rather than pushing teachers into more in serviceworkshops” about adapting curriculum (O’ Brien, 1989, p.85) When studentsunderstand their learning styles, they no longer feel different because theyrequire total quiet to study Meanwhile others involve in activities actively

Dunn (1993) claims that “students can learn almost any subject matter” when they are taught with methods and approaches responsive to their learningstyles strengths; these same students fail when they are taught in an instructionalstyle dissonant with their strengths.

1.5 Ways to Identify Students Learning Styles’

There are many ways to identify students’ learning styles Below the authorwould like to present three most popular ways for teachers to apply at the classlevel They are observation, interview and questionnaires

However, this method is limited in observable behaviors and it is ratherdifficult to make exact statistics of students’ learning styles

Therefore, it is easy for teachers to apply both observable behaviors and theirwords into the identification

In an interview, teachers depend partly on students’ utterances to identifytheir learning styles because each learner often has different ways to expresstheir ideas Visual learners often express their point of view by the phrases: “As Ican see” , “let’s look at differences” , “I cannot quite picture it” , “see how thisworks for you” , “let’s draw a map ", etc Kinesthetic learners often say “that feelright to me” , “I have a good feeling about this” , etc Auditory learners speak of

“that sounds right” , “tune into what I am saying” , etc However, this way ofassessment is limited in a small number of students It takes a very long time toinvestigate in the larger scope

1.5.3 Questionnaire

Using a questionnaire in the survey is the third way of learning stylesidentification In this way, the teacher uses a questionnaire including a certainnumber of questions relating to learning styles Using a questionnaire, theteacher can test and identify learning styles accurately (Beaty, 1986) Forinstance, it is difficult to determine whether a students’ hyperactivity is due to aneed for mobility, an informal setting arrangement, kinesthetic resources or alack of disciplines A questionnaire is a reliable and valid entrustment and onlycomprehensive one that can diagnose many learning styles traits that influenceindividuals (Shaughnessy, 1998)

One of the advantages of learning styles questionnaire is that it can assess therate of different learning styles in a vast number of students It gets informationaccurately and simultaneously The analysis of the received information is alsoeasier than interview and observation This way helps the teacher to collect evenstudents’ attitudes and beliefs There are many researchers’ questionnaires whichteachers can use to identify learners’ learning styles They are VAK survey(Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic), VARK survey (Visual, Auditory, Reading,Kinesthetic), Barbara Fretz’s Model or Ray Barsch’s Model, etc (Martin andPotter, 1998)

Observation, interview and questionnaire are the most popular ways for theteacher to assess students’ learning styles at class level Each way has its ownbenefits and difficulties The teacher should choose the sutable technique due tohis aims and the scope of the identification Also, the teacher can use threetechniques stimultaneously to get the highest results

To investigate English learning styles of students in Le Hong Phong HighSchool, the author uses the third technique – questionnaire because of itsaccuracy and popularity

Chapter 2: Investigation into students' learning styles in Le Hong Phong high school- Nghe An.

2.1 Overview of the Survey

2.1.1 Aims of the Survey

Students' learning style has been considered one of the important factorsaffecting the learner's success in learning English Teachers' profoundunderstanding about students' learning styles is the basis to promote learner'sresults Thus, it is essential to get hold of students' preferences or morespecifically their learning styles Students’ learning styles may be different fromone another despite the fact that they are taught by the same teachers and thesame methods Although the survey occurs in the scope of students in class level,the survey will partly point out the facts about the application of learning styles

in learning English and the differences in the proportions of students' learningstyles in high school

2.1.2 Informant and Settings:

After her teaching practice at Le Hong Phong High School, the authorcollects some information about English teaching and learning here There aresix teachers of English, most of whom are still young (30- 35 years old) andresponsible for their teaching There is only one teacher who passed the Englishteaching test in choosing excellent teachers of Nghe An province in 2009

There are three grades 10, 11 and 12 with 27 classes in Le Hong Phong HighSchool in the school year 2008-2009 All of students are studying the newEnglish textbooks Students in Le Hong Phong High School are not quite good atlearning English There is only one 12th grade class learning the textbookEnglish 12 (advanced) However, the result of English learning in this class isnot very high There has been no excellent English student over the past fewyears

Grade 11 is considered to learn at the normal level in comparison with grade

10 and 12 The objectives of the survey are two classes 11A1 and 11A2 that areacknowledged to be two best 11th grade classes in leaning English Having

chances to practice teaching English in theses classes, the author finds thatstudents here are quite interested in leaning English In fact, they are specialized

in Math, Physics, Biology and Chemistry However, they still pay attention tolearning English The survey questionnaire was conducted among quite a largenumber of the students in these classes to investigate their learning styles

- Objects: 95 students from two classes of 11A1 and 11A2 in Le HongPhong High School

- The form of carrying out the survey: using questionnaires and analysis thedata

The first questionnaire including 15 questions helps make a clear and fullunderstanding about students’ background, ideas and their preferred styles.Question 1 reveals about how much time the students have been learning Englishfor Question 2 shows us students’ interest in learning English Question 3enables the author to analyze students’ personalities Question 4 shows theinformation about students’ most favorite activities in class Question 5 and 6reveal about students’ ideas on the role of learning styles in the success of targetlanguage learning Question 7 estimates the frequency degree of the teacher’susing variety of activities in the class Questions 8 and 9 indicate students’satisfaction about teaching styles Question 10 enables us to know how oftenstudents change their leaning ways Questions 11, 12 and 13 are the basis for theauthor to classify students into field dependent and field independent learners.Question 14 shows students’ understanding about their learning styles Finally,question 15 reveals about students’ results in leaning in the last term

The second questionnaire helps the author classify students into three types:visual learners, auditory learners and kinesthetic learners There are 15 questions

in this questionnaire These questions aim to assess students’ learning styles due

to three subtypes: visual learners, auditory learners and kinesthetic learners.Students will read the questions carefully and decide if they always apply thestatements or sometimes or seldom Questions 1, 6, 10, 12 and 15 help theteacher to identify auditory learners Questions 2, 4, 7, 9 and 13 are used toassess visual learners Questions 3, 5, 8, 11 and 14 are used to identifykinesthetic learners

2.2.2 Results and Findings

All students in the survey learn English when they were in grade 6 They thushave been learning English for 6 years so far Classes 11A1 and 11A2 are thetwo best classes in learning English of grade 11 They are learning Basic Englishtextbooks and have 3 classes of English per week and an English extra-class eachweek Although they are not specialized in English, and their majors are Math,Physics, Biology and Chemistry, they are mostly interested in leaning English(82.11 %) and only a small number of students do not enjoy leaning English(17.89%)

34.74 32.65 11.58

Figure 2.1 Students’ Personalities

As it can be seen clearly from the chart, talkativeness and activeness are twomost popular personalities in students, 51.57 % and 36.84% espectively Self-esteem (34.47 %,) and sociability (32.65 %) rank the second group in students'personalities Approximately 20% of all are sensitive and reserved A few ofstudents think that they are conservative and shy with the same percentage of11.58% In short, mostly students think they are active, sociable, and talkative.These personalities are extroversive and this is good for English learningprocess

Additionally, question 4 shows us the students' opinions about the activitiesthey like best in an English class The bar chart below shows the informationabout the activities which students believe that they are fruitful for their Englishlearning As it can be seen from the chart, students' most favorite activity in theclass is playing games 25.27% of students think that they learn best when theyare involved in games The second favorite activity is listening sounds 17.89%

of them claim that listening to music is an effective way for them to learnEnglish Writing and reading are two least interesting for students Only 7.37%and 10.53% of students take delights to these activities 16.84% of students like

to watch videos or power point presentations in the class and only 13.68% ofthem think that doing exercises in the textbook helps them to get moreknowledge

Students’ Opinion about their Favorite Activities

17.89

25.27 13.68

8.42 7.37 10.53

16.84

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

A listening to English songs

B playing games

C doing exercises from textbooks

D discussions, debates, presentations

E writing: stories, sentences, poems

F reading: stories, newspaper articles

G watching videos

%

Figure 2.2 Students’ Opinion about their Favorite Activities

This result provides evidence that students like a variety of activities Eachlearner has their own belief about activities that are suitable for them Therefore,

it is very necessary for the teacher to create a lot of activities to satisfy students’belief.

Besides, question 5 indicates students' points of view about the role oflearning styles in English learning

5 the role of learning

styles in target language

in English learning 44.21% of students estimate learning styles as a veryimportant factor effecting to learning process, the same number of students think

it is important and only 11.58% do not think the same

Furthermore, the students in 11A1 and 11A2 display their views on the role oflearning styles by ranking it in five other factors relating to the success inlearning English in question 6

Students’ Ideas about the Importance Degree of

the 1st the 2nd the 3rd the 4th the 5th

Figure 2.3 Students’ Ideas about the Importance Degree of Learning Styles in

English Leaning Success The bar chart indicates students' point of view about the role of learningstyles in comparison with 4 other factors affecting the results of languagelearning process These factors are students' motivation, students' attitude,students' personality and teacher's methods As it can be seen clearly from thechart, 31.58% of students rank learning styles the second important factor.28.42% of them think it is the third important factor Only 8.42% claim thatlearning styles play the least important role among five factors This figure

claims that students are highly aware the importance of their learning styles insuccess of English learning

The table below reveals about the frequency degree of activities that teachersuse in class The chart shows the fact that teachers have not yet used a variety ofactivities in the classroom 71 students say that teachers seldom let studentswatch any videos Games, physical activities, music and power pointpresentations are in the same situation Teachers seldom use them in theclassroom

Table 2.3 The Frequency Degree of Teacher’s Using a Variety of Activities

in the Class

According to the author's experience in teaching in Le Hong Phong HighSchool, the activity is used most widely is group discussion Due to the results ofthe survey, this experience is partly true 47 students state that discussions anddebates are often used in the English class 61 students claim that teachersseldom use music or activities relate to music in the classroom This isreasonable because teachers have to teach due to the textbooks However, musicshould be used more often to cater to auditory learners

Besides, question 8 indicates students' belief about the relevance of teachingstyles to their learning styles 45.26% of students think that teachers' teachingways are not suitable for their learning styles 6.32% of them sometimes feel theway of teaching is good for them 28.42% think that they often learn well due toteachers' pedagogical ways 20% of students totally agree with teachers'methods This can be understood because of the fact that 11A1 are taught by aprovincially excellent English teacher who has active and creative methods toteach

Degree

B using charts, graphs, lists,