Learning Styles In English Language

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.0 Introduction

According to Aditi (2015), English language is considered to be one of the most important languages in the world. English holds the third place as the most spoken languages around the world, after Chinese in the first place ans Spanish in the second place (Ethnologue, 2014). In Malaysia, English is spoken as a second language. It is a mandatory subject taught in primary, secondary and tertiary education level Malaysia. The Malaysian Educational Ministry emphasizes strongly on learning the English language because it helps students in many ways in the future. English language is not only used for communication but also for other purposes. That is the reason why Malaysian Government school teaches all

As a teacher in order to help students to gain knowledge efficiently, it is important to understand and identify their learning styles (Cuaresma, 2008). This is evident that learning styles have become an ideal part of a students’ learning process. According to Brown, 1994, when students’ learning styles matches with the teachers teaching strategies, their motivation, performance and achievement will develop as well as be enhanced.

In SMK Puncak Alam, English students of Form 4 are not performing well in the English subject (Appendix 1). Most of the students score below average and the students whom fail the exam holds the highest overall percentage. This scenario could be due to the mismatch between learning styles and teaching strategies. Based on a research done by Caffery in 1980 on 1,689 teacher-students pair, the findings revealed that the greater the match between the students’ and the teacher’s style, the higher the students’ grade point average. However, the greater the mismatch between the students’ and teacher’s style, the lower the students grade point

It is important for a student to understand well on their individual preferred learning style in order to sustain good performances in learning. Firstly, this study will be beneficial to upper secondary English teachers to identify the students preferable learning style whether it is visual, auditory or kinesthetic. This aids the teachers to review and alter their teaching methods according to the students learning styles. This study will also provide suggestion to educators on the types of activities that can be used in classroom to cater students’ preferable learning styles. Besides that, this study also helps learner to identify which type of learning styles do they