Exploring Egyptian EFL Students’ Learning Styles and Satisfaction with Web-Based Materials

Abstract

Due to the increasing demand on the incorporation of web-based materials into Egyptian higher educational institutions, this study examined students' learning styles, satisfaction with online learning, and the relationships be-tween these two variables and students' gender. The study was conducted on 51 EFL college students (24 males and 27 females) who were assigned to three lab classes. The participants were exposed to various web-based ma-terials (e.g., listening, reading, writing, and grammar) which were intro-duced as an add-on to face-to-face courses. An adapted form of Reid's (1998) Perceptual Learning Style Preference Questionnaire (PLSPQ) was used to identify participants' learning styles after exposure to web-based in-struction. Also, a 5-point Likert scale was administered to examine students' satisfaction with web-based learning. Statistical analyses revealed that kin-esthetic, tactile, and visual were the major styles the participants favored when working with online activities. Findings also showed highly positive perceptions toward web-based learning due to an array of benefits (e.g., usefulness, enjoyment, accessibility, convenience, and richness of re-sources). Finally, whereas students' gender had a significant effect on stu-dents' learning style preferences, it had no bearing on their satisfaction with web-based materials. Relevant interpretations and implications were offered.