Investigating the Relationships between Learning Styles , Strategies and the Academic Performance of Saudi English Majors

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to identify the learning style and strategies preferences of female EFL majors at Taibah University as well as to investigate the relationship of learning styles and learning strategies to academic performance in the Methodology One Course. Data was collected from a sample of (88) participants. The instruments used in this study were: (a) The Language Style Preferences Questionnaire; (b) The Strategy Inventory for Language Learning SILL (Oxford (7) Version 7.0); (3) An EFL Methodology One Course achievement test. Results showed that the visual learning style was the most preferred by the majority of participants. The strategies most frequently employed were cognitive strategies followed by metacognitive strategies. The results also revealed a significant relationship between the visual learning style and memory strategies. Another significant relationship was found between the visual learning style and affective strategies. However, the findings demonstrated the lack of a significant relationship between learning styles and academic performance. In contrast, a significant positive relationship was found between participants' use of learning strategies and their academic