Study On Chinese Learning Styles Of Overseas Students From Central Asian Countries

It is necessary for teachers to gain a comprehensive understanding of the learning style preferences of overseas students in teaching Chinese as a second language in order to teach students in accordance with their aptitude. Meanwhile, it is also necessary for overseas students to learn their own learning styles so as to be more positive and effective in Chinese learning. Based on the systematically elaborated relevant theories of learning styles, the study conducted a multi-dimension survey of 300 overseas students randomly chosen from Central Asian countries who were learning Chinese in Xinjiang to know about their Chinese learning styles, using the methods of observation and questionnaire. And what's more, qualitative research was performed by means of interviewing the students to examine whether the coincidence of the findings from the questionnaire conforms to their actual performance and to know to what degree the teacher understands learning styles.The body of the thesis consists of six parts. Part one serves as a general introduction to this study, where the researcher expounds its background, literature reviews of learning styles, the purpose, significance and the chief content of the study. Part two provides an overview of related theories, acting as the theoretical background. Part three focuses on the research design and its implementation, including research methods and questionnaire design. Part four concerns the result of the survey and statistical analysis, where there are the general statistics of the sample, the result of overseas student and teacher interviews, as well as the general tendency of Chinese learning styles of the overseas students from Central Asian countries and the difference analysis. Part five presents the corresponding teaching strategies and suggestions in accordance with the characteristics of Chinese learning styles of overseas students from Central Asian countries. The ending part involves the conclusion of the study and suggestions for further study.The results suggest that overseas students from Central Asian countries have a diversified tendency in Chinese learning styles. First of all, their major learning styles are haptic, visual, concrete-sequential and group. Secondly, there are significant differences in such learning styles as visual, auditory, independent, dependent, global, analytic, concrete-sequential and intuitive. No significant gender differences are found in the other five types. Furthermore, there appear significant differences in independent, dependent, group, individual and no significant differences in the other ten types in different age groups. Last but not the least, there are significant differences in dependent, intuitive and no significant differences in the other eleven types among the students with different education backgrounds.Four suggestions are proposed according to the characteristics of Chinese learning styles of overseas students from Central Asian countries. Above all, teachers are supposed to understand and study students'learning.styles. Secondly, teachers should assist students to understand and extend their learning styles to lay a solid foundation for their lifelong learning. Thirdly, teaching Chinese as a second language should be carried out based on the cultural differences between China and Central Asian countries. Ultimately, great attention should be paid to multi-dimensional evaluation to improve evaluating modes of teaching Chinese as a second language.