Learning Styles and Composition

Abstract

methods (12; 13). In studies of first language writing classes, composition researchers Jensen and DiTiberio (7; 8) have used the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) with writers at various levels of proficiency, concluding that individual students' personality types influence their approach to writing tasks and responses to freshman English instruction. Often composition instruction for native speakers is based on a particular pedagogical theory, but the approach suggested may not always be appropriate for students found within a particular writing class. Freewriting activities, such as those encouraged by Elbow, and the often-used process approach of multiple drafts and peer editing may not be successful for students. Jensen and DiTiberio (7) suggest that different students engage in different writing processes, not one uniform writing process. For example, some may need to incubate ideas a long time before writing, whereas others may benefit greatly from freewriting activities. Some students may think a draft through thoroughly in their heads before writing, while others may engage in discovery, finding what they wish to say through a lengthy drafting process. An important parallel stream of research in second language pedagogy is focused on language-learning (e.g., 23; 24; 32). However, these researchers recognize that more fundamental processes underlie students' and choices. Oxford notes, New research indicates that language learning style (general approach to learning) is a very major influence on students' choices. of learning strategies (24: p. 2). Oxford and Ehrman (3; 25) are exploring the connections between styles and strategies, using as their measurement of style the MYBTI. See Figure I for definitions of strategy, style, and learning style. The MBTI is a self-report inventory which has been used in a wide variety of settings for educational, career, and family counseling. The instrument is based on Jung's theory of psychological type and his views on perception and judgment, as expanded by the work of Isabel Briggs Myers (17; 18; 20). Perception involves all the ways of becoming aware of things, people, happenings, or ideas, and judgment involves all the ways of coming to conclusions about what has been perceived (19: p. 1). From self-report, the MBTI attempts to identify an individual's basic preferences in terms of his or her habitual use of perception and judgment. Each of the four scales of the MBTI represents polar opposites, and the theory assumes that each pole is valuable and at times indispensable. Every person is presumed to use both poles of each of the four scales at some times, but to respond first or most often in a preferred style. See Figure II for descriptions of each of the four major bipolar scales of the MBTI. In a study of the relationships between personality preferences and foreign language learning, Moody identified specific learning preferences associated with dimensions of MBTI type, which are described in Figure III. Reference to some of these specific learning preferences will be made in interpreting our results.