Crosscultural differences in learning styles of secondary English learners

Bilingual Research Journal, Summer 2002 by Park, Clara C

This study also showed statistically significant differences between students who had been in the United States for eight or more years and those who had been here less than eight years (Scheffe test, p

Individual Learning

There was a statistically significant ethnic group difference in preferences for individual learning, especially between Armenian students who showed major preference and Mexican students who showed minor preference (Scheffe test, p

Conclusion

The results of this study shed important light on the learning style preferences of Armenian, Hmong, Korean, Vietnamese, and Mexican English learners in secondary schools and have great implications for teachers, teacher educators, and curriculum developers.

Secondary English learners in this study favored a variety of instructional strategies. They exhibited either major or minor learning style preferences for all four basic perceptual learning styles and ethnic group differences in group and individual learning styles. All the ethnic groups indicated either major or minor preferences for kinesthetic and tactile learning. All of them appeared to be visual learners. In addition, 11mong, Mexican, and Vietnamese students preferred group learning while Armenian and Korean students did not. Further research would be necessary to identify other learning style preferences of these groups in addition to these basic learning styles examined in the study.

Pedagogical Implications

Based upon the findings of this study, teachers are encouraged to try to use more visual materials to provide effective instruction for these English learners. Using real objects, pictures, charts, character webs, maps, graphs, computer graphics, graphic organizers, semantic maps, and showing films and videos along with other materials that can make instructional content visual would be helpful for these students. In addition, teachers could have students draw pictures or create charts and diagrams to help explore the meaning of what they read and discuss.

This study also shows that cooperative learning activities in small groups appear to match the learning style preferences of Hmong, Mexican, and Vietnamese students but would be a mismatch with Armenian and Korean students. Teachers need to carefully orchestrate small group activities for Hmong, Mexican, and Vietnamese students while starting with pairing techniques for Armenian and Korean students who do not care for group learning, especially during the initial stage of their adjustment to an American classroom setting.

In addition, educators need to plan instructional activities and develop curricular materials that will require whole body involvement and provide experiential and interactive learning for these students so that they can learn by doing. An emphasis on total physical response activities (Asher, 1982) that synchronize verbal statements with body movements is a must for any newcomer in a beginning-level ESL class. In early intermediate ESL classes, teachers may have students engage in game, dance, or drama activities, for example, having students take part in a "people hunt" or a square dance, play "Hokey Pokey" or "London Bridge," sing an American pop song or a favorite song of their country, or engage in a guessing game such as charades. Later they may write about these activities. Or in some advanced ESL classes, as in the movie Erin Brockovich, teachers could have students check the chromium level of drinking water in their neighborhood, as well as interview people in the community using formula questions, to determine if the water quality is hazard-free, and write about it into an "I-Search Paper" (a report) with illustrations and their recommendations (Macrorie, 1988).1 Or in a social studies class teachers could have students act out a historical incident of the American Civil War by dividing a class into two groups. First, they have one half of the class act out the role of the Southern soldiers, and the other half of the class act out as Northern soldiers all in appropriate masks or paper costumes. Then, they have two groups debate against each other defending their positions, take them out into the baseball field, and have them simulate the actual Civil War. Then, back in the classroom, teachers might have students write a letter home pretending to be a soldier in the Civil War. Likewise, in an English class, teachers could have students roleplay story characters, make comic strips or do a story-board (a series of pictures illustrating the story line) of what they have just read and discussed (Park, 1994), or create a character mobile or a mural of a story. In science or math classes, teachers may use materials that will involve them in laboratory experiments and have them discuss, draw, and write about them in learning teams, as well as a variety of computer-assisted instructional activities with the use of Internet and content-related computer games. Also, hands-on activities, such math manipulatives as fraction stacks and bars, pattern blocks and cuisenaire rods, colored chips, base-ten blocks, algebra and integer tiles, geoboards, task cards, electroboards, flip-charts, and computer-assisted instruction will greatly assist all students, especially Hmong students.2 These findings also have great implications for materials development and for teacher education.