An investigation into learning style preferences of efl primary school students

Trang 1 _____________ DO HOANG LE VY AN INVESTIGATION INTO LEARNING STYLE PREFERENCES OF EFL PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching Code: 8140

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY _ DO HOANG LE VY AN INVESTIGATION INTO LEARNING STYLE PREFERENCES OF EFL PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching Code: 8140111 Supervisor: Vo Duy Duc, Ph.D BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN _ ĐỖ HOÀNG LÊ VY NGHIÊN CỨU SỞ THÍCH VỀ PHONG CÁCH HỌC TIẾNG ANH CỦA HỌC SINH TIỂU HỌC Ngành: Lý luận và phương pháp dạy học bộ môn Tiếng Anh Mã số: 8140111 Người hướng dẫn: TS Võ Duy Đức i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby acknowledge that this study is mine The data and findings discussed in the thesis are true and have not been published elsewhere Quy Nhon, 2023 Do Hoang Le Vy ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The completion of my master’s thesis is due not only to my own efforts, but also to the aid of organizations and people to whom I express my deepest appreciation I take this chance to express my deepest thanks to them for their support First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis supervisor, Dr Võ Duy Đức, for his continuous support, expert guidance, and patience throughout the study He provided me with assistance at every stage of the process and always expressed his faith in me I am gratefully indebted for his very valuable comments on this thesis I would also like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the headmaster at Australian Languages Center in Quy Nhon City and to the teachers who devoted their time to supporting me to complete this thesis I was also thankful to my colleagues for their support during my study time I am also grateful to Quy Nhon University, Post-graduate Department, and the Foreign Languages Department for the administrative assistance Last but not least, special thanks from the bottom of my heart to my parents who took care of my mental and physical health with unconditional affection I could not have finished this thesis without their continued support and encouragement which gave me strength and confidence to fulfill my dream iii ABSTRACT Students use different styles or ways of receiving and managing information during learning Identifying learning styles among different students can help students try to strengthen their preferred learning style and improve other nonpreferred learning styles This study aims to examine the preferred sensory modality and the learning preferences of EFL primary school students at a language center in Quy Nhon city and the correlation between gender and learning style preferences The participants of the study were 89 primary school students studying English at Australian Languages Center The data was gathered through then use of the VARK Questionnaire for Younger People developed by 2022 and interview The findings show that, for the unimodal learning styles, kinesthetic is most prevalent in male and female students The study also reveals that multimodal learning styles were found at all bimodal, trimodal, and quad-modal combinations The more blend of learning style, hence the frequency of determination of student learning style even less Also, no statistically significant differences were observed between male and female students concerning their learning preferences Despite the limitations of a small-scale study and time shortage, the researcher does hope that the findings would shed more light on the whole picture of learning style preferences iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Rationale 1 1.2 Aims and Objectives of the Study 4 1.2.1 Aims 4 1.2.2 Objectives 4 1.3 Research questions 4 1.4 Scope of the study 4 1.5 Significance of the Study 5 1.6 Organization of the Study 5 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6 2.1 Theory of Multiple Intelligences 6 2.2 Learning Style Preferences 13 2.3 Gender differences in learning style preferences 20 2.4 Related studies 24 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 30 3.1 Research design 30 3.2 Participants 32 3.3 Data collection 32 3.4 Data Analysis 34 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 36 4.1 Learning style preferences of primary school students 37 4.2 Learning style preferences by gender 39 4.2.1 Findings from Questionnaire 39 4.2.2 Findings from Interviews 44 4.3 Discussion 48 4.4 Summary 54 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 56 5.1 Summary of the key findings 56 v 5.2 Implications 58 5.3 Limitations 59 5.4 Suggestions for further research 59 REFERENCES 61 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1 VARK Learning Style by Gender p 40 Table 2 Multimodal Learning Style Based on Gender p 41 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 Overall Learning Style Preferences distribution p 37 Figure 2 Figure 3 Students’ Learning Style Preferences Frequency p 38 Figure 4 Figure 5 Percentage Figure 6 Determination of Unimodal VARK Learning Style by p 40 Gender Determination of Multimodal VARK Learning Style p 41 by Gender Specific Learning Style Preferences distribution in p 42 males Specific Learning Style Preferences distribution in p 43 females 1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter introduces the rationale, the objectives, the scope, and the research questions of the study Besides, the significance and the outline of the study are also mentioned 1.1 Rationale Second language is a socially dominant language needed for education, employment, and other basic purposes Second language also calls a foreign language, which is might be used for cross-cultural communication situations or studied as a curricular requirement (Troike, 2006) Nowadays, learning foreign language earlier is important, because learning foreign language can make children who learn it become more proficient in their native language and will be able to communicate with a foreigner There are great uses of English as a foreign language in the modern world, especially in education Psycholinguistic study shows that childhood is considered as the golden age for a young learner to learn the foreign language That’s why in this modern era, parents are looking for a school that provides an English lesson for their children In fact, in 21st century learning, students must have the ability to solve problems, think critically, find and evaluate information and can productively collaborate and communicate with other students Throughout their educational journeys, individual pupils employ various learning methods and get knowledge from a variety of sources An individual's natural, ingrained, and preferred method of taking in, processing, and remembering new knowledge and abilities can be referred to as their learning style Distinct pupils have distinct learning preferences, with a preference for a certain sensory mode to receive and process that learned information As a result, it is crucial to determine each student's unique learning style in order to support that type and enhance other less favoured learning styles