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Learning styles and attrition in foreign language study
Abstract
The principal purpose of this study was to determine whether a relationship existed between second-year language students' learning style and continuance of language study. Kolb's Learning Style Inventory was given to 544 second-year language students to determine the students' learning styles. Other data collected included: (1) achievement grade received; (2) language being studied; (3) continuance in language study. A significant relationship was found between learning styles and continuation of language study with the assimilator having the most observed differences. The analysis of the same relationship for each language yielded significance in the Spanish student group. Additionally, the study investigated the learning styles of second-year language students. There were more assimilators and divergers than convergers and accommodators in the overall group of second-year language students. A third finding indicated that German students were significantly different from both French and Spanish students on the Feeling/Thinking dimension of Kolb's Learning Style Inventory. A fourth finding was that the analysis of grade by continuation of language study yielded significance. The fifth finding indicated that the relationship between regular and gifted language students by learning style was significant for both French and Spanish students. The Spanish gifted group had a larger percentage of accommodators than was expected. The French gifted had more assimilators than was expected.
Subject Area
Curricula|Teaching|Language arts
Recommended Citation
Trayer, Marie Elizabeth, "Learning styles and attrition in foreign language study" (1989). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8918565.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8918565