A correlational-comparative study of students' perceptual learning style preferences in learning English as a foreign language and their academic achievement in the Cetana academic program for English at Myanmar Institute of Theology

Abstract

This study was conducted mainly to investigate the perceptual learning styles of the students in the Cetana Academic Program for English (CAPE) at the Myanmar Institute of Theology which is in Insein Township, Yangon, Myanmar. This study was carried out to determine the preferred learning styles of the students and compare and correlate those learning styles with the students’ learning achievement. The research was conducted from December 8 to 9, 2016 at CAPE. In this study, Reid’s Perceptual Learning Styles Questionnaire was used as the primary source of data collection. The data collected from the 118 questionnaires were analyzed by percentage and frequency, mean and standard deviations, One-way ANOVA and Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient. This study found out that the students preferred kinesthetic learning style most followed by mixed, group, auditory, visual and tactile and individual learning styles. There was no relationship between learning styles and learning achievement. The results of this study demonstrated that the Elementary to Upper-intermediate students did favor kinesthetic projects as their most preferred learning style. There was no significant difference between the Elementary to Upper-intermediate students’ learning achievement, according to their most preferred learning style. It is recommended that CAPE uses current data to plan future professional development and school-wide changes in teacher instruction to help create a learning environment that best supports students’ learning styles.