| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立高雄師範大學 === 英語學系 === 99 === The study aimed to investigate the preferred learning styles and the use of English listening strategies for the overall students. Moreover, it is intended to explore if there is any significant difference in the preferred learning styles and in the use of English listening strategies for the students among different colleges.
The subjects in the study comprised 618 undergraduates, all of who were non-English majors, from two education universities and one comprehensive university in southern Taiwan. They were studying in four colleges including College of Humanities, College of Education, College of Science and College of Technology & Engineering. The subjects were required to answer two questionnaires on preferred learning styles and on the use of English listening strategies. Furthermore, thirty-eight of them were interviewed according to the four open-ended questions on the interview form. By analyzing the subjects’ responses to the questionnaires and to the interview, the researcher examined the preferred learning styles and the use of English listening strategies for the overall students; in addition, the differences in the preferred learning styles and in the use of English listening strategies for the students among different colleges were compared as well. The collected data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Based on the data analysis, the major findings of this study are summarized as follows:
1. There is a significant difference in the preferred learning style for the overall students. The most preferred learning style is visual style; yet kinesthetic is the least preferred learning style for the overall students. The reason may be attributed to the traditional teaching modality, in which more visual styles and few tactile and kinesthetic styles are applied. In the rank of preference for the learning style for the overall students, they are visual, auditory, group, individual, tactile and kinesthetic learning styles.
2. There is no significant difference in the preferred learning styles for the students among different colleges.
3. There is a significant difference in the use of English listening strategies for the overall students. The most frequently-used English listening strategy by the overall students is memory strategy; by contrast, the least frequently-used one is social strategy. In the order of frequency of listening strategy use for the overall students, they are memory, compensation, cognitive, metacognitive, social and affective strategies. The results also show that the overall students do not use the six English listening strategies averagely.
4. There are significant differences in the use of English listening strategies for the students among different colleges. To be specific, the differences in the use of compensation, memory, cognitive, metacognitive, affective strategies are highly significant among the students from different colleges. Moreover, the interview results show that most of the subjects are able to identify their own preferred learning styles; yet some of them seem to be confused with what English listening strategies they are using. They also agree that learning English helps elevate their international competiveness edges. Nevertheless, they have little confidence in their English competence, especially in English listening, which can be attributed to their (a) lack of incentives to learn English such as entrance exams, (b) lack of authentic English-friendly environment, (c) being insufficiently self-motivated, and (d) being distracted by academic professions.
On the basis of the study findings, some pedagogical implications are proposed. For undergraduates, they may develop less preferred learning styles, like kinesthetic and tactile styles. Likewise, they may develop less-frequently used English listening strategies, such as affective and social strategies. For English educators, they may take various learning styles and bountiful English listening strategies into consideration in teaching English listening. For administrators in higher education, they may take care of different learning styles and English listening strategies of students from different colleges. For instance, the students from College of Science in this study do not like the six selected learning styles and the six English listening strategies except for the individual learning style and the social listening strategy. To promote undergraduates’ English competence, administrators may design some language learning programs for students in need to explore other learning styles and English listening strategies.
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