Learning style preferences and learning strategy use of Armenian University learners

Abstract

In Soviet times language teaching in Armenia was dominated by a teacher-centered, book-centered and grammar-translation method. There was a ‘one-size-fits-all’ type of syllabus tailored for all students, irrespective of their personal inclinations, and teacher instructions were presented mostly through lecturing; the learning material was presented explicitly and students were to memorize grammar rules and long lists of vocabulary. This is not to underestimate the professional qualities of the teacher’s working in educational system, since most of them were really knowledgeable in their profession and cared about their students, but the application of innovative approaches was not rewarded at that time. Nevertheless, it should be admitted that there were a lot of positive aspects in the traditional educational system, and many of the approaches applied then are still applicable. However, today the educational system in Armenia is starting to change and more contemporary methods are starting prevail in teaching. Such contemporary methods of language teaching aim at communication, and the learner is regarded as a “…”whole person” who uses intellectual, social, emotional, and physical resources and is therefore not merely a cognitive/metacognitive information-processing machine”(Oxford, 1992-1993). This means that the learners have unique individualities and their own preferences toward learning. And these factors may be crucial in ensuring success in language learning. Learning styles and language learning strategies are key factors that influence the process of language learning. Learning styles make the language learners unique; whereas language learning strategies help learners to become aware of the way they use their language learning aptitude. A number of studies, for example Harshbarger et al. (1986, as cited in Oxford, 1996) have convincingly demonstrated that there is a strong direct relationship between learning styles and learning strategies, and that the consideration of this relationship can lead to improvements in language learning. This research is a statistical survey that aims to identify whether there is one learning style that is shared by most Armenian university students studying English. The paper also seeks to investigate the relationship between learning styles and learning strategies, i.e., whether the strategy choice of Armenian students is driven by their individual learning style preferences. The students’ learning styles were investigated and identified by means of the SAS (1993), whereas the use of learning strategies was investigated by means of the SILL (1989) – both questionnaires designed by Rebecca Oxford. The research was conducted in five major educational institutions of Armenia so that the results could be generalized to the Armenian student population. Although, approximately 70 students participated in the study, only 60 were eventually considered in the data analysis. The rest were discarded for a number of reasons, later discussed in Chapter 4. The results of the study revealed that three out of the eleven learning styles identified by Oxford, namely global, closure-oriented, and extroverted were shared by the majority of Armenian university learners. The study also showed that each learning style had a particular pattern of strategy use, in which one or two strategy groups were more actively used than the others by the representatives of that style. The study also demonstrated that overall learning strategy use of Armenian university learners is medium level, i.e. Armenian learners were not very active users of learning strategies. Nevertheless, no low strategy users were observed either. This means that although Armenian learners are aware of learning strategies, they use them moderately. The validity of the identification of typical learning style was established by means of the Chi-square statistical test, since the variables were measured on a nominal scale. The validity of the relationship of the learning styles and strategies was established by means of a one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) statistical test, as the variables were measured on both nominal and ordinal scales. The study demonstrated that there was a statistically significant and meaningful relationship between learning styles and strategies. This is to say, the learners’ strategy choice depends on their individual learning style preference. However, since his research is the first in its kind conducted in Armenia, it can serve only as a starting point for possible directions in future research. Consequently, further research is needed to make more conclusive claims. This research paper is a joint thesis of two authors: Hranoush Ginosyan and Shoghik Sargsyan. Shoghik Sargsyan primarily dealt with the analysis of the SAS questionnaire, as well as the discussion of the identified learning styles typical of Armenian university learners (Part 1 of the research findings). Hranoush Ginosyan was primarily responsible for the analysis of the SILL questionnaire as well as for investigating the relationship between learning styles and learning strategies (Part 2 of the research findings). The responsibility for the review of the literature, formulation of the research questions and the hypotheses, the data collection, the discussion of the limitations of the study, potential threats to the internal and external validity of the study and the conclusion with suggestions for further research was shared equally by both of the authors.