The contributions of students' learning styles, thinking styles and their attitudes towards studying their specializations in the English language to their achievement at the college level

Abstract EN

The objective of this study was to examine whether students` learning styles, thinking styles and their attitudes studying their special specializations in English can be used as predictors of their English achievement.

Survey research methods were employed to obtain data (n=181 first year university-level students of the Special Education and Kindergarten Departments at Taif University) who received the English 101 course in their first year at the university.

Biggs, Kember & Leung (2001) Learning Style Inventory (2F-SPQ-R) was used as the basis for assessing respondents' learning style preferences.

The Sternberg and Wagner’s (1992) Thinking Styles Inventory (TSI) was used to assess students` thinking styles.

A questionnaire prepared by the researchers was used to collect data on the students` attitudes to study their specializations in English.

Results were statistically analyzed using multiple regression, correlations, descriptive statistics, reliability, ANOVAS, and the t-test.

The results of the correlation analysis revealed the absence of a relationship between thinking styles and surface learning styles.

There was also a negative relationship between thinking styles and deep learning style p<0.01 (r = 0.328-0.428).

The results of regression analysis indicated that students’ academic achievement was not related to students’ thinking styles and learning styles.

The findings also revealed that there was a positive relationship between achievement and attitudes.

According to the Briggs, et al (2001) questionnaire, the results reported that students were equal in deep and surface approach scores