An Investigation of the Perceptual Learning Style Preferences of Thai University Students in the EFL Learning Context

Abstract

Learning styles are some of thei n fluential factors affecting language learning. Therefore, English language teachers should have information of their students’ learning style preferences in order to create appropriate lesson plans and teaching techniques that suit with their students learning style preferences. This research aimed to examine Thai university EFLstudents’ learning style preferences by employing a Perceptual Learning Style Preference Questionnaire (PLSPQ) as a research instrument. The participants were 174 second year students at a university in southern Thailand. The collected data were analyzed by using mean and the standard deviation. The results showed that Group Keywords learning was the most preferred learning style among Thai EFL university students (=4.27) followed by Auditory and Kinesthetic, Visual, and Tactile learning styles respectively while Individual was the less preferred learning style of the participants in this study (=2.37). It is evident from the findings that each student preferred a different style of learning. Based on this, it is recommended that English language teachers should be aware that they should offer a variety of teaching technics for their students and encourage them to use appropriate learning strategies for their successful language learning. Last but not least, it is recommended for English language teachers to study about their students’ learning styles preferences at the beginning of the course, which may also help students to be self-aware of their own learning styles preferences.

Keywords

• learning styles
• successful language learning
• thai efl learners