An Exploration of the Learning Style Preferences and English Listening Difficulties of Senior High School Students

• Main Authors: Chun-hao Lin, 林群皓
• Other Authors: Janet Yu-gi Chao
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/86509032096491510044

碩士 === 國立彰化師範大學 === 英語學系 === 101 === Due to the policy that the English listening comprehension test will be one of the testing sections for College Entrance Examination, English listening instructions at senior high school have become more and more important in Taiwan. The purpose of the present study aimed to investigate the learning style preferences and English listening difficulties among senior high school students. The data were collected from the questionnaires and the interview. There were 328 senior high school students for the second grade participating in this study and they were divided into high, mid, and low achievers based on scores of listening comprehension test. In addition, 12 students were individually interviewed for triangulating with questionnaire data. Besides, four instruments were applied: the English listening comprehension test, questionnaires for learning style preferences and listening difficulties, and the interview. Descriptive and inferential statistics were applied, and the interview data were transcribed and categorized for data analysis. The results were shown as follows. Firstly, senior high school students preferred visual style and considered the input text factor as their main English listening difficulty, such as unfamiliar vocabulary and longer texts. Secondly, high achievers had the preference for random-intuitive and global styles in their learning, mid achievers preferred visual, random-intuitive, and concrete-sequential styles, and low achievers favored visual style preference the most. Thirdly, high achievers thought the environment factor to be their major English listening difficulty, mid achievers considered the input text factor, and the low achievers had the main difficulty arising from the listener factor. Fourthly, different style preferences of achievers did have distinct English listening difficulties. Finally, the pedagogical implications for listening instructions were provided for English teachers at senior high school. Also, the limitations of the study and the suggestions for further studies were offered at the end of this study.