Learning Styles and Performance in Second Language Tasks

Given the paucity of research that has examined associations between learning styles and chosen academic discipline in connection with performance on different second language (L2) verbal fluency tasks, the authors undertook the current study with the aim of investigating the relationship between Greek students' learning styles and performance on English phonological, syntactic, and semantic tasks. Differences by gender and academic discipline (science vs. arts) were also examined in order to elucidate the role that these individual differences play in L2 learning. More specifically, the authors investigated (a) the preference for a specific learning style among males and females and among arts and science students, (b) the association of learning styles with high or low scores in L2 verbal fluency tasks, and (c) each learning style's relative contribution to performance on L2 verbal fluency tasks. In this study, females performed better than males in both syntax and semantics, confirming earlier studies which found a female advantage for verbal skills especially in semantics but not phonology. Although some studies have found no significant difference in learning style preference between males and females, this study corroborates previous findings that revealed a tendency for females to emphasise a divergent learning style. (Contains 3 tables.)