1

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY of POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
LÊ SA A STUDY ON STUDENTS’ ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING
STYLE PREFERENCES AT DO LUONG 2 HIGH SCHOOL, DO
LUONG DISTRICT, NGHE AN PROVINCE

( Nghiên cứu phương pháp học tiếng anh ưa thích của học sinh trường
Đô Lương 2, huyện Đô Lương, tỉnh Nghệ An) M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS
Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60.14.10
Hanoi-2010

2

6

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration i
Abstract ii
Acknowledgements iii
List of table contents iv
List of tables vii
PART A: INTRODUCTION

I.1. Rationale 1
I.2. Aims of the study 2
I.3. Research questions 2
I.4. Scope of the study 2
I.5. Significance of the study 3
I.6. Design of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1. Literature Review 5
1.1. Definition of learning styles 5
1.2. Classification of learning styles 5
1.2.1. Perceptual learning styles 6
1.2.2. Cognitive learning styles 7
1.2.3. Active and reflective learners 7
1.3. The importance of understanding students‟ learning styles 7
1.4. Mismatches between Teachers' and Students' perceptions of learning
activities………………………………………………………… 9
1.5. The need to study students‟ learning styles and meet students‟ needs and

1. Conclusions……………………………………………………………………29
2. Suggested teaching and leaning activities for different learning styles………30
2.1 Suggested teaching activities………………………………………………30
2.2 Suggested leaning activities ………………………………………………34
3. Limitations of the study 36
4. Suggestions for further studies 37
REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………… 38
8

APPENDIXES
Appendix 1: Survey questionnaire for students
Appendix 2: Survey questionnaire for teachers
Appendix 3: Written test set by the teachers

10

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale

Since the end of the 20
th
century, communicative language teaching has been central
in the agenda of second and foreign language teaching. It has become the order of the day
to curriculum developers and English language teachers around the world. Although
Vietnam accepted communicative language teaching a little bit later than many other
countries, the principles of communicative language teaching have been used as the
foundation of the curriculum development and pre-service and in-service teacher training
programs.
Many researchers and scholars have proposed that second or foreign language

learning styles and adjust teaching accordingly.
 To make suggestions on how to satisfy students‟ learning styles better in classroom.

3. Research questions

The study is aimed at investigating learning style preferences of the students at Do
Luong 2 High School and the extent of the teacher‟s awareness of them and the extent of
improvement after teachers are awareness of their learner‟s learning styles. The study is
carried out to find answers to the following the questions:
1) What are the learning styles preferences of the students at Do Luong 2 high
school?
2) What is the gap between students‟ learning styles and teachers‟ teaching styles in
our school, if any?
3) How to narrow the gap between teaching and learning so as to bring about
students‟ expected learning outcomes?

4. Scope of the study

The main focus of the study is on the investigation of the students‟ learning styles
at Do Luong 2 school and the importance of learning styles. Particularly, this minor thesis
only refers to the categorization of the students' learning styles in our school; finger out the
gaps between students' learning styles and teachers' awareness and provide some
techniques for different learning styles.

12

5. Significance of the study

Oxford (2003) emphasized that learning styles and strategies of individual
students can work together or conflict with a given instructional methodology. If there is a

Chapter 2 presents the research methodology of the study. It provides information
about the setting of the study, participants, data collection instruments and data collect
procedure.
Chapter 3 is the main part of the study whose major findings are revealed and
discussed
Part III is conclusion that presents some conclusions, suggested teaching and learning
activities for different learning styles, limitations and suggestions for further studies.
14


Ngô Đình Phương), they classify learning styles into 2 major categories: Perceptual and
15

cognitive learning styles. According to this definition, other learning styles categorized by
M Felder (1995) seemed to belong to this list, however, the researcher wants to add one
more styles of learners: active and reflective learners.

1.2.1 Perceptual learning styles

In the first category which is based on perception, there are different sub-
categories which are visual learners, auditory learners, kinesthetic learners, tactile learners
and haptic learners.
Visual learners: DVC website online emphasizes that with this kind of learning
style, you learn best when information is presented visually and in a written language
format. Hence, visual learners learn more effectively through images, colors and maps.
When seeing something, they can learn better. Therefore, when they want to remember
something, they often visualize a picture of it in their mind.
Auditory learners: Auditory learners prefer learning in a situation when information
is presented auditory in an oral language format. These kinds of learners are interested in
learning through ears because they have good sense of pitch and rhythm. Therefore, when
trying to remember something, they can often "hear" the way someone told them the
information, or the way them previously repeated it out loud. Interacting with others in a
listening/speaking exchange helps them learn better.
Kinesthetic learners: Kinesthetic learners learn more effectively through concrete
body experience or body movement. They often use their body and sense of touch to
explore the world around.
Tactile learners: Tactile learners learn best from touching. They are interested in
learning through experiencing or doing something. They like experiencing the world and
acting out events. For instance, when trying to remember a phone number, they may
remember the pattern of their fingers as pressing the numbers.

In order to realise the importance in understanding students‟ learning styles, and
also to accommodate for different learning styles in the classrooms, students should
complete a learning style instrument early in the course. This would enable students to
realise their own learning style as well as those of their classmates. Teachers should be
aware that students learn differently, which should make them aware that they have to
approach teaching from different perspectives. Teaching and learning styles should be of
the greatest interest to educators, particularly the relationship between the two.
However, one of the weaknesses of learning style research is the lack of
investigation into the matching of teaching and learning styles. Theoretically, many
17

variables exist in educational literature reviews, but very few researchers deal with the
matching of teaching and learning styles. Peacock (2001) is one of the significant and
influential researchers who investigated the matching of teaching and learning styles in real
settings. He concluded that serious disparities exist between the LS of the students and the
teaching styles of the teachers. Matching teaching and learning in the classroom means that
instructors should try to accommodate the different learning styles of students. Some
researchers investigated teachers as well as administrators in the schools, as the two are
closely related, interdependent, and influence students‟ success. Adaptability to different
learning styles plays a key role in students‟ academic achievement. Researchers who
investigated the teaching styles of the teachers affirmed that the teachers could influence
students‟ achievement by employing different ways of presenting the information. Such
studies have indicated the need to match the teaching styles of the teachers and the learning
styles of students in order to increase competency in both teaching and learning.
In order to satisfy expectations, teachers tend to shift from their natural teaching
practices to the practices the administration expects of them. Teaching and learning are
active processes that go hand in hand, while lecturers and learners are interdependent of
one another. If this concept is realized, teachers would be able to enhance their
effectiveness and enable students to achieve their full potential (Forest, 2004).
Investigation into the teaching styles asserts that the disparity between teaching and

exercises or individual in-class grammar exercises.

1.4 Mismatches between Teachers’ and Students’ Perceptions of Learning Activities

One of the main requirements of learner-centered language teaching is to
understand the learners‟ needs and expectations as well as their learning preferences. Also,
teachers and students may not perceive of the same activity in a similar manner. By
contrast, mismatches in their opinions or perception are always in existence. According to
Riazi and Riasati (2007, cited in Nga Thai (2009)), various studies have shown that
students‟ perceptions and opinions mismatched with those of teachers which lead to
learning failure, frustration and de-motivation. This can be seen clearly from the results of
their study in terms of studying styles and Hue‟s study in 2004. Although students hated
working individually, learning new words through translation or looking up new words in a
dictionary, or focusing on only receptive skills, teachers did not recognize this. They still
did not change their teaching method in the way such as creating context for students to
guess the new words, using words in a sentence, or creating chance for their students to
talk and discuss with other learners. Therefore, Riazi and Riasati (2007) concluded that to
19

improve learners‟ learning outcome, teachers should encourage students to work in groups
or pairs instead of working individually, and prepare the lessons and words in a context
that is easy for learners to guess the meaning so that learners‟ receptive and productive
skills are both developed.
The serious clash also happened in Hue‟s study (2004) in which although both
learners and teachers recognized the importance of grammar and they were quite sure
about their grammar knowledge, the learning atmosphere was not very good. Students felt
bored and dissatisfied because teacher‟s explanation was so monotonous and repetitive.
Thus, they were less active and enthusiastic in the language learning lesson. Savigon
(2001) suggested that teachers should not consider their learners the vase, and pour the
knowledge into their head.

awareness of learning strategies and enable them to use a wide range of appropriate
strategies since students are not always aware of the power of consciously using L2
learning strategies for making learning quicker and more effective.” ( Nykios and Oxford,
1993).
In summary, chapter 1 has presented some theoretical background knowledge related to
the topic of the study. It has discussed some concepts and ideas concerning to the issue of
learning styles in general and learning styles in L2 study in particular. Besides, the
importance of understanding students’ learning style, mismatches between teachers’ and
students’ perceptions of learning activities and the need to study students’ learning styles
and meet students’ needs and demands were also discussed. The following chapter will
display the detailed description of the methodology, the procedures of the study. 21

CHAPTER 2. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
In this chapter, the writer provides some information about the basic settings for
the study. The participants, the data collection instruments and the data collection

22

English is not their main concern, thus no students pay attention to it before
coming into high school. Many students prefer natural subjects to social ones. Each class
average has only four or six good students at English. The others know a little or nothing
about English. Some students used to be good at English but they ignore it when coming
into high school because of some subjective and objective reasons. They learn English
whenever they like and their main purposes are only to pass the examinations.
In order to get information to fulfill the aims of the study, two survey
questionnaires are designed. The questionnaire was administered to 286 students of grades
12 at the school. Their ages vary from 17 to 19. There time of length of English learning is
different: 90% started learning English at grade 6; only 10% started at grade 10.

2.2.2 Teachers

There are nine teachers at Do Luong high school, two of them are on maternal
leave, so only seven teachers who were teaching at the school were invited to join the
study. Their ages range between late-twenties and forty- five years old. The length of
teaching English is also different, minimum level of four years and maximum of more than
twenty years. Five of them have got the University Bachelor‟ Degree in English, one
finished the in-service training course in English seven years ago because he used to be a
teacher of Russian and one has M.A degree and one is doing M.A course. As rural
teachers, they have few opportunities to upgrade their teaching and do not have a lot of
teaching facilities and materials to help their work. Despite all these disadvantages, they
are helpful, friendly and dedicated teachers. Most of them want to devote their whole lives
for teaching. They all have a great desire to acquire knowledge of how to teach English
well. Also, they are always willing to help their students tackle with difficulties in learning

2.3 Data Instruments


The questionnaires were delivered to 286 students at Do Luong 2 high school at the
beginning of the class time so that they could complete it during the breaks and then, were
collected by the monitors of the classes. The numbers of collected surveys were used for
analysis.

* The questionnaire completed by the teachers
The questionnaire designed for the teachers‟ aims at finding out the teachers‟
teaching styles in the English classes, the differences between students‟ learning styles and
24

teachers‟ teaching styles in order to fill in the gaps between them. The questionnaires for
teachers were given to 7 teachers during the breaks of the lessons and collected by the
researcher. The number of collected surveys was 7 and all used for analysis.
The researcher believes that from the information obtained, some useful suggestions
could be made to minimize the difficulties encountered and thus improve the teaching and
learning English at Do Luong 2 high school.

2.4 Data collection procedure

- The questionnaires were given to pupils of the twelve grade groups at Do Luong 2
high school. This was done at the end of March 2010.
- The set of questionnaire for teachers was delivered at the beginning of April, 2010
- The written test set by the teachers was carried out at the end of May.
In summary, the second chapter has presented the methodology, the procedures of the
study. The following chapter will display the results of the study under the light of the
above discussed theories.


specialized in English, and their majors are Math, Physics, Chemistry and Biology, they
are mostly interested in learning English. Other three classes (12A8, 12A9 and 12A10) are
not three best classes in learning English. Many of them like learning English and some
focus on the other subjects. Some do not like to learn English. They must study it only to
pass the examinations. In summary, there are 74.12% students who are interested in
learning English and only a small number of students do not enjoy learning English
(25.87%). Question
Choices
Students
Percentage

Yes
212
74.12%
No
74
25.87%

Table 1: Students and their interest in learning English

26

3.2 The way of learning in class
Question

thought their students preferred to work by themselves independently of their peers. In
other words, there seemed to be disagreement between students and teachers with respect
to this issue.

3.3 Preferences of learning items

The learning item I like is:
Students
Percentage
Teachers
Percentage
to study grammar.
69/286
24.12%
4
57.14%
to learn many new words.
73/286
25.52%
1
14.28%
to practice the sounds and
pronunciation.
71/286
24.82%
0
0%
to learn English words by seeing them.
134/286
46.85%


3.4 Preferences of teaching methodologies
Question
Students
Percentage
Teachers
Percentage
A. Reading
53/286
18.53%
2/7
28.57%
B.Listening to and use
cassettes, or CDs
31/286
10.84%
0
0%
C. Listening and taking notes
34/286
11.89%
1/7
14.28%
D. Games
192/286
67.13%
5/7
71.43%
E. Conversations
21/286

students liked learning with pictures, films, and videos. The reason may be that they favor
teaching methodologies that involve both visual and auditory senses in addition to
interesting stories. Listening to and use cassettes, or CDs and listening and taking notes are
not interesting for students (10.84% to 11.89% respectively). Conversations was the least
favorable to the students (7.34%) whereas 57.14% of the teachers thought that their
students liked learning by conversation. The reason could be this kind of activity requires
more interaction and effort from students.

3.5 The frequency degree of teacher's using activities in class
Activity
always
often
sometimes
seldom
A. using English songs, music
0
(0%)
11
(3.85%)
46
(16.08%)
229
(80.07%)
B. using maps, wall-chairs, diagrams
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
31
(10.84%)

0
(0%)
0
(0%)
76
(26.57%)
210
(73.43%)
G. using handouts, pictures, games
63
(22.03%)
76
(26.57%)
134
(46.85%)
13
(4.54%)

Table 5: The frequency degree of teacher's using activities in class