A Correlational Study Between Chinese College Students' Learning Styles And Their Language Achievement

In recent years individual learner differences have aroused great interest particularly among researchers of Second Language Acquisition and there have increasingly been a multitude of variables used to account for individual differences. Among those, learning style has especially attracted researchers' and instructors' attention. Many empirical studies have provided evidence that students whose learning styles are matched with learning resources and learning environments achieve statistically higher academically; those whose learning styles mismatch with their environments do less well (Bailey, 2000; Billings and Cobb, 1992; Cook, 1991; Douglass, 1979; Dunn, 1986). However, few related studies on this topic have been conducted in China. Moreover, articles of learning styles in language learning journals in China are mostly concerned with summaries of the research development of learning styles in western world (Li Zhe, 2000; Qin Xiaoqing, 1997; Tan Dingliang, 1994,1995; Wang Lifei, 1998; Ye Bixia, 2000). Only a few quantitative studies were conducted with a focus on the relationship between learning styles and language achievement of Chinese English majors (Wang Chuming, 1992; Hu Xiaoqiong, 1997; Wu Yian et al., 1993; Yu Xinle, 1997). The learning styles of university students from different academic disciplines or majors are so far much less researched. In addition, even in West Countries few studies have investigated into the relations among students' learning styles, academic achievement, and academic disciplines (Saleh, 2001; Loo, 2002; Baldwin & Reckers, 1984; Dunn and Price, 1990; Jacobs 1990).The overall purpose of the present study is to find the relations among students' learning styles, language achievement and academic disciplines.Based on this research purpose, there are three research questions as the following:1. What is the general situation of all participants' learning styles?2. Do students within each academic discipline and across academic discipline differ in their learning styles, including their differences in learning styles based on gender?3. Do students within each academic discipline and across academic discipline differ in their learning styles based on students' second language proficiency levels? What are the correlations between students' learning styles and their second language achievement?The participants in this study were 422 students from Henan University of Science and Technology (HAUST). The instruments include two English proficiency tests of CET-4 and TEM-4, and Feng Liguang's Chinese College Students'Learning Style Questionnaire. When learning styles were examined based on academic disciplines, the results showed only the hemisphere dominances appeared significant differences. With respect to male and female students' learning style differences, male presented significant higher tendencies in extroversion, achievement motivation, visual and right hemispheric preferences, while female students showed significanthigher tendencies in introversion than male students. No correlations were found between English majors second language achievement and their learning styles, but Non-English majors showed that their second language achievement have positive correlation with achievement motivation, and have negative correlation with tactile learning style. However, when the learning styles are examined based on each Non-English academic discipline, the different correlations between learning styles and language achievement were found within each discipline.The practical significance of this study is that the results can be used to help students increase their ESL language learning proficiency through their particular strength with learning styles so as to enhance their active roles in learning. Theoretically, this study can enrich people's understanding of the learning styles and the existing learning style theory, in particular, those related to Chinese college students as ESL learners.