Learning Styles of Indonesian EFL Students: Culture and Learning

Abstract

This paper discussed learning style preferences of the first year students at English Study Program Universitas Brawijaya Malang. Barsch Learning Styles Inventory (BLSI) was used as the instrument for 73 respondents. The results showed that the majority of respondents (61.7%) prefer visual mode, 24.6% were auditory learners, 5.5% of them were kinesthetic, and the other 8.2% were bimodal learners who combine visual and auditory modes in learning English. Understanding the styles of learning can be very useful for the students to learn in the way they learn best through the activities that enable them to understand the material easier, so it can improve their motivation and language abilities, enjoy the learning process, decrease stress, and eventually get better achievement.