A Study On The Relationship Between Junior High School Students’ English Learning Styles,Learning Strategies And English Achievements

The study of individual learner factors has received increasing attention over the last 20 to 30 years.Among many factors,learning styles and learning strategies are the most significant individual differences in the way learners study.Related studies have been conducted with university students as subjects.In addition,most of the studies on the correlation between English learning styles,learning strategies and English achievements only explore the correlation between the two variables.What’s more,most of the studies on learning styles have focused on perceived learning styles,which cannot provide a complete understanding of students’ learning styles;The English Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education(2022 Edition)classifies learning strategies into metacognitive strategies,cognitive strategies,communicative strategies and affective management strategies,but previous investigations of learning strategies have focused on memory strategies,compensatory strategies,metacognitive strategies,affective strategies,so they do not fully fit the new curriculum.This study takes junior high school students as the research subjects and attempts to explore students’ learning style preferences and learning strategy use characteristics,as well as the relationship between English learning styles,learning strategies and English achievements,with the aim of providing some suggestions for practical English teaching.This study adopts a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods.138 junior high school students were selected as the research subjects.The following three main research questions were asked in this study:(1)What is the current situation of English learning styles and learning strategies among junior high school students?(2)Which learning styles and learning strategies differ significantly in high and low English achievement groups?(3)What is the relationship between junior high school students’ English learning styles,learning strategies and English achievements? The English Learning Style Survey Scale,the English Learning Strategies Scale and the two English test scores were used as survey instruments to collect data and were analyzed by the statistical software SPSS 24.0.Moreover,interviews were conducted with 10 students in this study and the content was audiorecorded with permission for later analysis.The results of the study show that: first,in terms of students’ overall English learning styles,junior high school students developed significant learning styles in the four dimensions of sensory preference,personality traits,information processing and mission accomplished.While in the dimension of thinking,the students developed very significant learning styles.Students’ learning strategies were at a medium level.The dimensions of learning strategies were,in descending order,metacognitive strategies,cognitive strategies,affective strategies and communicative strategies.Second,significant differences existed between high and low group in the dimension of information processing,mission accomplished and thinking,with the high group having a more pronounced tendency than the low group.There were significant differences between high and low group in the use of learning strategies in general and in each dimension,with the high group outperforming the low group.Third,there was a significant low correlation between English learning styles and English achievements in the dimension of information processing,mission accomplished and thinking;a significant moderate correlation between overall use of learning strategies and English achievements.There was a significant moderate correlation between learning styles and learning strategies.The multiple linear regression analysis revealed that learning styles explained 14.9% of the variance in English achievements,learning strategies explained 26.1% of the variance in English achievements,learning styles explained 28.7% of the total variance in learning strategies.The combination of learning styles and learning strategies explained 52.1% of the variance in English achievements,which was a higher predictor of achievements than learning styles and learning strategies alone.Finally,based on the above findings,the author makes some suggestions on how to tailor teaching to students’ different learning styles and guide students on how to adopt suitable learning strategies for learning in junior high school English teaching,and discusses the limitations of the study as well as future research directions in order to provide some reference for junior high school English teaching and subsequent research.