Korean Elementary School Students’ Perceptual Learning Style, Ideal L2 Self, and Motivated Behavior

Abstract

This study reports the questionnaire results obtained from 974 Korean elementary school students. Their visual, auditory, and kinesthetic styles were compared with their ability to imagine their future, ideal L2 self, and motivated behavior. The students were mainly visually oriented and this orientation was significantly correlated with their ideal L2 self and motivated behavior, as was the students’ auditory orientation. In one gender differentiated finding, females preferred both visual and auditory learning styles, while males preferred the kinesthetic learning style. Regression analysis indicated that the students’ ideal L2 self is the most stable factor for predicting their motivated behavior, but that learning style preference also exerts a significant influence on students’ motivated behavior. These study results imply that Dornyei’s L2 motivational self-system can be expanded by incorporating various types of perceptual learning styles. Both visual and auditory styles positively affect students’ English learning motivation by creating and maintaining their ideal L2 self.