Which Learning Style Is Most Effective In Learning Chinese As A Second Language

Abstract

Chinese is not only a tonal but also a visual language represented by tens of thousands of characters which are pictographic in nature. This presents a great challenge to learners whose mother tongue is alphabetical-based such as English. To assist English-speaking background learners to learn Chinese as a Second Language (CSL) well, a good understanding of which learning style is most effective in learning CSL is essential. This study attempts to investigate this issue which also has implications for the teaching of Languages Other Than English (LOTE). The specific research questions asked are: (1) which sensory learning style (visual versus auditory versus kinaesthetic) is dominant among secondary school girls in learning CSL; (2) which sensory learning style is most effective among this group of learners; (3) which type of learners achieve better test results, girls with single-sensory domination versus combined-sensory domination. The subjects were 67 secondary school girls aged between 14-18 years old from an independent K-12 girls’ school in Melbourne, Australia. A 14-item self-designed questionnaire based on Rose (1985) was administered to all the subjects at the beginning of the academic year in 2011 for learning background and styles profiling. Then, the subjects’ individual learning styles were compared with their CSL oral and written examinations scores collected in mid-2011. It has been found that visual learning dominates secondary school girls, and girls with auditory learning style have performed better in oral examinations and those with kinaesthetic learning style have performed better in written examinations. Implications for effective teaching of CSL and other LOTEs are discussed. The contribution this study has made to the existing literature is that girls can learn better by showing their natural learning style strengths without making their learning styles congruent with the teaching style as suggested in previous research.