Learning and Teaching Styles in the Focus: The Case of Iranian EFL Learners and Teachers

Abstract

Underlying any learning and teaching process is a set of preferred Learning Styles (LSs) and Teaching Styles (TSs) which epitomize the overall educational policy and identification of which is sine qua non for any reform of the educational system. This ex-post-facto study scrutinized preference of Iranian EFL teachers' for Expert, Formal Authority, Personal Model, Facilitator, and Delegator TSs and their students' tendencies towards Visual, Auditory, and Kinaesthetic student LSs. We collected the research data based on Grasha's (1996) Teaching Style Questionnaire administered to 30 Iranian EFL teachers and the Barsch Learning Style Questionnaire (1991) administered to 300 Iranian EFL learners. Descriptive statistics of the research data revealed that majority of Iranian EFL learners opt for the visual learning style and teachers highly favour facilitating foreign language learning. However, Visual and Delegate Learning and Teaching Styles reflected the lowest frequencies. The findings underscore the need to raise teachers’ awareness of LSs so that they can modify their teaching according to their students’ preferences.

Keywords

• learner EFL
• English Learners
• English Teachers
• Learning styles
• Teaching Styles