EFL Learning Styles Used by Female Undergraduate Students and Its Relationship to Achievement Level

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate the preferred learning styles of undergraduate Saudi students at King Khalid University, Saudi Arabia and to examine the influence of achievement level on the choice of learning styles. A total of 110 undergraduate students participated in the study. They were in their third year of study and were majoring in English. Data was collected by means of a questionnaire and by an English achievement test. Reid’s (1987) questionnaire was used to determine the students’ preferred learning styles. It identifies six learning styles referred to as perceptual learning styles; they are visual learners, auditory learners, kinesthetic learners, tactile learners, group learners and individual learners. An English achievement test was conducted to classify students according to their academic grade. The results showed the preferred learning styles used by undergraduate Saudi students at KKU. The order of the preferred learning styles based on sensory channels was as follows: visual, tactile, kinesthetic and finally the least frequent one was auditory, furthermore, the results revealed that students prefer individual learning more than group learning. Besides that, the findings also indicated that there was no statistically significant relationship between the learning styles and achievement level except with the group learning style which was used by students who got grade Excellent or Very Good. The study concluded by providing some possible implications of the study for English teachers.