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An investigative study to explore the link between the learning styles and

the language learning strategies of undergraduate EAP learners in Poland

Abstract

Many recent studies have concluded that the numbers of adult students are increasing and in some

cases, these adult learners have outnumbered conventional college learners in the field of tertiary

education. According to one study, over 80% of the undergraduate learners in the U.S.A were

classified as adult learners, (ational !entre of "ducation Statistics, #00#$. ver &'% of high school

students were more than # years old and )*% were inde+endent students (!entre of ost Secondary

and "conomic Success, #0--$.

he increased numbers of adult learners in tertiary education has led researchers to e/+lore various

as+ects of adult education in general and their language learning methods and styles to acuire

1nowledge in +articular. hrough this study, the learning strategies and styles of undergraduate "Alearners of the olish university are identified and e/+lored to see whether there is any +ossible lin1 in

between them.

2uestionnaires are used as a +rimary tool for data collection. he uestionnaires target to obtain the

answers of the uestions related to adult students3 demogra+hical information, language learning

methods and, and learning styles. 4Malley4s learning strategies and 5olb model for learning styles

are used to develo+ the uestionnaires. 6or em+irical e/amination, the outcomes from the

uestionnaires are analysed and com+ared and based on the results, discussion, suggestions and

conclusion are drawn.

Key terms

7igher education in oland, Adult learners, 4Malley language learning strategies, 5olb earning

styles.

1.0 ntroduction

he methods that adult students use to acuire language 1nowledge and satisfy heir individual learning

styles are the hot to+ics of discussion for researchers around the world (/ford, #00&$. 9n the +ast two

decades, a large number of researches have been conducted to measure and evaluate learning styles

and methods of adult students in different countries (Al:7ebaishi, #0-#$ but very few have focused the

olish language learners of higher education. According to one of the researches, the effective use of

the learning styles and strategies by language learners can fetch +roductive language outcomes,

enhance their ca+abilities in language learning, and hel+ them to +erform better in the target language

in and outside classrooms (unan, -;88, -;;$.

!onsidering the adult language education in oland, it is evident that more focus is given on the way

the language 1nowledge can be acuired than facilitating learners to obtain the realistic 1nowledge.

According to one of the studies, an effective 1nowledge acuisition does not only mean the +ossession

of 1nowledge instead it is about being able to find out:of:the bo/ solutions of the +roblems and

establishing com+etencies to +rocess and a++ly the 1nowledge gained in an effective and efficient way

(sui, #00'


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com+etencies (>ruen, #00-$. 6urthermore, one research has concluded that the +referred learning

styles of the language students +lay an im+ortant role in the target language acuisition (ei:shi,

#0-#$. here is an obvious relationshi+ between a learning style and the choice of the method that is

used to acuire 1nowledge by adult learners (i and 2in, #00'$. 9t is commonly observed among the

language learners that they use those methods to acuire 1nowledge that are in line with the way they

learn better (/ford and yi1os, -;8;$. n the one hand, the adult language learners4 a++roaches to

1nowledge acuisition based on their own strengths, wea1nesses and +references, are related with

their internal dis+osition. n the other hand, the methods that they use to acuire language are related

to their su+erficial com+etencies which they use 1nowingly and un1nowingly. he im+ulse for

selecting the best:suited learning method is largely de+endent on the a++roach that adult learners use

to learn (=en and ?ohnson, -;;*$.

Suffice it to say that not many researches have analy@ed the relationshi+ between various +referred

learning a++roaches and learning methods in the +ers+ective of "A learners of the olish higher

education. !onseuently, through this study, the learning strategies and styles of undergraduate "A

learners of the olish university are identified and e/+lored to see whether there is any +ossible lin1 in

between them.

1.1 !ackground"

he bac1ground of the research is divided into three main sections. he first section deals with the

bac1ground information about olish higher education system. he second section discusses the

learning styles based on the (5olb model, -;8)$ and finally, the last section targets the learning

strategies +ro+osed by (4Malley et al.,-;8$. All these sections are su++orted and reviewed in light of

the recent studies that have been conducted to e/+lore and analy@e the adult language learners4

learning strategies and styles.

1.1.1 #igher Education in Poland

At the +resent time, the tertiary learning system in oland is going through lots of changes. ne of thereasons is that oland has the ) thlargest numbers of adult learners. !urrently a++ro/imately # million

adult learners are studying at more than )0 establishments of higher education. Maority of the olish

higher educational institutions offer a wide variety of undergraduate and +ostgraduate courses and

most of them also offer high valued olish and foreign languages +rogrammes (Ministry of Science

and 7igher "ducation oland, #0-#$. hese institutions offer a varied range of o+tions for studies i.e.

+art:time, full:time, o+tional, evening and distance learning though full time degree +rogrammes are

considered as the most +o+ular and im+ortant +art of learning +rogrammes.

ne of the im+ortant features of olish higher education system is that unli1e the U5, it offers

e/tremely com+etitive or rather free higher level education u+ to the highest level of education. Some

of the olish universities are ma1ing tremendous contributions in the fields of science and internet and

hence enoy worldwide recognition i.e. the =arsaw University is ran1ed as the &&th and the?agiellonian University as the &*-st to+ universities according to the =orld University ran1ing #0-):

#0-. he olish universities offer &:years long undergraduate +rogrammes with the two additional

years for the +ostgraduate degrees, recogni@ed and accredited by the "uro+ean !redit ransfer and

Accumulation System ("!S$ and based on the "uro+ean standard, students can transfer their credit

hours to any other university in "uro+ean Union for study e/change +rogrammes (Ministry of Science

and 7igher "ducation oland, #0-'$.


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$igure%1"olish higher education (ada+ted< htt+


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According to the study, these language learning strategies can be categori@ed into three main ty+es

(4Malley et al., -;8$. !ognitive Strategies

!. Social and Affective Strategies

A. (etacognitive )trategies

Metacongnitive strategies include +re+aration for 1nowledge acuisition, understanding, considering

and reasoning about the 1nowledge (Care, #0-#$. Adult learners who follow these strategies tend to

visuali@e the e/+ected activity for acuiring 1nowledge, +refer to wor1 with directed attention and

focs on the +articular areas of the target language in+ut. hey +refer to rely on self:management by

establishing the com+rehension of the learning environment in order to underta1e the language

learning activities effectively. Adult learners who are following these language strategies also 1ee+ a

close eye on the +rogress in the language, identify the +roblems before they may ham+er their learning

+rocess and firmly believe in self:assessment (7ismanoglu, #000$.

!. *ognitive )trategies

=hen it comes to !ognitive strategies, one of the researches concludes that they are restricted to

+articular language acuisition activities and reuire language content to be modified in order for its

effective functioning (4Mally, et.al.,-;8*$. he adult learning following these strategies tend to 1ee+

their focus on co+ying a language model by re+etition and ma1e use of language content through the

use of dictionaries, boo1s and other resources. hey +refer dividing the language activities into

different ty+es to establish understanding and remember the vital information by ma1ing notes of

im+ortant words, ideas and e/+ressions. hey intentionally use acuired or self:created set of e/+licit

or understood regulations in order to com+rehend the target language (iu, #0-0$. hey choose

various e/+ressions and terminologies to understand a language activity and understand better when

ma1e a connection of a new +iece of 1nowledge with the +reviously acuired learning. hey li1e to+rocess and acuire the 1nowledge by writing the main +oints of the learning and freuently use

translation, transfer and inferencing to underta1e the language tas1s (!ohen, #000$.

*. )ocial and Affective )trategies

Social strategies are centred around the activities such as clarification and collaboration that learners

decide to underta1e in order to coo+erate and communicate with other students and native s+ea1ers

while affective strategies are normally used to eradicate, mange fretfulness or motivation by

controlling feelings, thin1ing, and im+ulse (>rown, #00*$.

1.1.+ Kolb,s learning model

here are +lethora of research targeting the varied range of learning models which differ in their

methodologies and a++lications but out of numerous ty+es, one stands out and bears significant

im+ortance among the educators of adult learning. his model of learning is 1nown as 5olb learning

model (Muir, #00-$. According to 5olb, learning methods should be considered rather steady

set of traits than +ermanent +atterns of collective character, behavioural, tem+eramental,

emotional and mental characteristics of adult learners. herefore, it is suitable to consider

them as adult learner s4 characteristic +atterns of strengths, wea1nesses and +references in ta1ing in,

+rocessing, and retrieving information (=olfe, -;**$.


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$igure +" 5olb4s leaning styles and e/+eriential learning model (ada+ted from htt+oo1, #00*$. o e/+lain in more detail, following are the four summari@ed versions

of learning styles that are +ro+osed by 5olb (5olb, -;8), -;;;a, -;;;b$.

1. -iverging concrete/ reflective

earners following diverging style of learning tend to be contem+lative and have modern, new andcreative ideas and methods to underta1e learning. hey +refer to see the a++lications of their learning

in real:world from different +ers+ectives and learn better by watching others than +erforming the

learning tas1s. Diverging style learners tend to have broad cultural interests and 1een to collate

1nowledge. =hen it comes to academic or +rofessional learning conditions, they li1e to function

collectively than individually, and are rece+tive to criticism and reviews on +erformance (5olb and

>oyat@is, -;;;$.

&. Assimilating abstract/ reflective

Adult learners of assimilating style can +rocess a variety of 1nowledge and assimilate into

summari@ed, rational form. hey tend to be more concerned with +lans, designs and theory than

individuals. 6or them, the theory needs to rationally correct than its im+lementation in the real world.his learning style is +articularly significant for the learners who li1e to read, attend tal1s and formal

classroom discussions, investigate mathematical models that have a closed form solutions and as+ire

to be in information and science occu+ations (!offield, et.al.,#00)$.

+. *onverging abstract/ active

!onverging learning style focuses on the realistic im+lementation of theories and effective resolutions

of issues. Adult learners of this learning style tend to have an ease in identifying the resolution of the

+roblems and ma1e choices based on them. hey are more comfortable non:theoretical learning

activities and issues and find it easy to test innovative conce+ts, +roects and +ro+osals and imitate the

o+eration of the real world +rocesses or systems (5olb and 5olb, #00$.

. Accommodating concrete/ active
http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/styles/learning_styles.jpghttp://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/styles/learning_styles.jpg


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Adult learners of this style +refer to acuire 1nowledge by +artici+ating actively in the learning

+rocess. hey have no +roblem in e/ecuting ideas and gain innovative, and valuable observations. 6or

them, the instinct +lays an im+ortant +art in acuiring 1nowledge than using instrument of

inter+retation to shift the inter+retive focus from the +urely e/egetical a++roach towards a given te/t

to the systematic reconstruction of a theory that concerns the issues. earners with this style tend to be

de+endent on others in investigating and identifying the resolutions of the issues. hey li1e to function

better in grou+ when it comes to underta1ing the learning tas1s successfully (!hiong, #0--$.

1.& Purpose of the study

he main +ur+ose of this study is to gauge the influence of the learning styles of olish "A learners

of higher education on their +referred learning strategies to see if there is any +ossible lin1 that e/ists

in between them. Another reason for this study is to use the results from this research to hel+ the

course designers and educators so that they could establish better understanding of the learning

ca+abilities, styles and methods of adult olish learners which in result can hel+ them to bring

necessary changes in the learning conditions and content to ma1e the learning +rocess more effective

and efficient.

1.+ 2esearch 3uestions

his study targets to answer the following three im+ortant research uestions, through the hel+ of

uestionnaires that have been develo+ed in order to gauge the im+act of the learning styles of olish

"A learners of undergraduate courses on their learning strategies.A (6irst year, A++lied

inguistics$ degree +rogram at the olish university. he choice of the +o+ulation sam+le is carefully

and s+ecifically made. All the selected students for this study are the +artici+ants of the Fece+tive:

Discursive !ourse that is currently being taught by the researcher in collaboration with two other

teachers. ;0% of the +o+ulation sam+le com+rises of female students and the remaining -0% are

males.

4ender $re3uency Percent 5 6alid Percent *umulative Percent

Male -0 ;.# ;.# ;.#

6emale ; ;0.)8 ;0.)8 -00

otal -0 -00 -00.0

7able %1< Se/ of the res+ondents

Since the uestionnaires were e/ecuted to the selected students of >.A (6irst year, A++lied inguistics$

so ;).#&% of the learners fall into the age brac1et of -8:#0 years while only .**% in the age grou+ of

#-:#& years.

4ender 18%&0 &1%&+ &%&9 7otal

Male ; - 0 -0

6emale ;0 0 ;

otal -0

7able%&< Age grou+ of the res+ondents.

he uestionnaires have been used as the 1ey tool to collect data. here are three sections of the

uestionnaires. he first section deals with the age and gender of the learners while the remaining ones


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target the three learning strategies, based on (4Malley et al., -;8$ and the four learning styles

+ro+osed by (5olb, -;8)$.

1.+.1 Empirical Analysis

6or the em+irical analysis of the data obtained from the uestionnaires, SSS is used. A set of brief

descri+tive coefficients such as standard deviations and mean are used to categori@e the +referred

learning style and the learning methods. o use the statistical correlation in order to evaluate the

connection between the +referred learning methods and strategies of undergraduate "A students of

the olish university, correlation analysis is used.

1. 2esults and -iscussions

1..1 :hat are the preferred learning styles of EAP learners;

>y +rocessing the results for the +referred learning style, &;.0% re+resents the largest +ercentage of

the learners who indicated to be Accommodators. he results for the second most +referred learning

style +oint to !onvergers (#.*-%$. Assimilators come on the third with #0 %. Diverging learningstyle is found to be the least +referred one with -.#)% of learners.

>elow is the table:& de+icting the survey results of the "A learners about their +referred learning

styles, and the related freuency, +ercentages, and cumulative +ercentagesy evaluating the results, it is found that )-.;% of the learners, who re+resent the largest grou+ in the

+o+ulation sam+le, indicated that they +refer metacognitive strategies for language learning. he

second most +referred strategies are social and affective strategies chosen by &'.-;% learners. he

least +referred learning strategies are found to be cognitive strategies, +referred by #-.;-% of the "A

students


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>elow is the table: de+icting the survey results of the "A learners about their +referred learning

strategies, and the related freuency, +ercentages, and cumulative +ercentagesased on the results from this study, it can be concluded that the learners of "A at the chosen olish

University +ossess the learning styles that are correlated with their +referred learning strategies.

7owever, it is also observed during the e/ecution of the uestionnaires for this +articular study that

some students were not aware of their +referred learning techniues and a++roaches which meant they

were not able to be involved in the learning +rocess as effectively as those who 1new their learning

styles and +referred methods to acuire 1nowledge (Marsha, #0--$. 9n order for the learners to get the

most out of the instruction, educators are reuired to develo+ conducive learning conditions where

students are encouraged to identify their +referred learning styles and methods to acuire language

learning. >y doing this, they can significantly hel+ students as well as teachers in achieving the desired

language outcomes effectively and efficiently. 6urthermore, for the "A teachers to consider the

students4 styles and strategies for language instruction while +re+aring the learning materials has a lot

of significance because when learners find the reuired 1nowledge fit to their learning styles and

strategies, they can be effectively stimulated for learning and achieve higher academic +erformances

(!hun Shih, -;;8$. 6or future researches, investigating the correlation between the learning styles andother variables li1e academic +erformances, motivation, learners, behavioural characteristics,


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millennial adult learners and mature learners can be uite interesting. >esides, incor+orating the larger

+o+ulation sam+le and using triangulation for cross:verification of the data into methodologies of

future researches are highly recommended.

2eferences

Al:7ebaishi, S.M.,(#0-#$< 9nvestigating the relationshi+s between learning styles, strategies, and the academic+erformance of Saudi "nglish Maor, 9nternational 9nterdisci+linary ?ournal of "ducation J Se+tember, #0-#,Golume -, 9ssue 8, +.+.-0:--,

>ruen, ?., (#00-$< Strategies for success< rofiling the effective learner of Kerman. 6oreign anguage Annals,&)< #-':##. D9< -0.----B.-;)): ;*#0.#00-.tb0#)0&./

>rown, D. 7. (#00*$. rinci+les of language learning L teaching. (th "ds.$. earson< ongman.

!ohen, A.D. (-;;8, #000$. Strategies in earning and Using a Second anguage. Addison =esley ongmanimited.

!offield, 6., Moseley, D., 7all, "., L "cclestone, 5. (#00)$. earning styles and +edagogy in +ost:-'learning< A systematic and critical review. www.SF!.ac.u1< earning and S1ills Fesearch !entre.Fetrieved ?anuary, -, #008itesl?.org>Articles>#ismanoglu%)trategies.html,

5olb, D. A. -;8). "/+eriential learning< "/+erience as the source of learning and develo+ment. ew ?erseyer, raining Fesources Krou+. --'7untington Avenue, >oston, MA 0#--', trgmcberQhaygrou+.com.

5olb, D. A. (-;;;b$. earning Style 9nventory:version &< echnical s+ecifications. FK 7ayBMc>er, raining

Fesources Krou+. --' 7untington Avenue, >oston, MA 0#--', trgmcberQhaygrou+.com.

5olb, D.A., L >oyat@is, F.".,(-;;;$< "/+eriential earning heory< revious Fesearch and ew Directions, herevised +a+er +ublished in F. ?. Sternberg and . 6. Chang ("ds.$, ers+ectives on cognitive, learning, andthin1ing styles. ?< awrence "rlbaum, #000.

5olb, R., L 5olb, D.A.,(#00$. earning styles and learning s+aces< enhancing e/+eriential learning in highereducation. Academy of Management earning and "ducation.#00, ), ++. -;&:#-#.

iu, ?.,(#0-0$< anguage earning Strategies and 9ts raining Model, 9nternational "ducation Studies Gol. &, o.&I August #0-0, School of 6oreign anguage, 2ingdao University of Science and echnology, .-0#.

i, ?., L 2in, .2.,(#00'$, anguage learning styles and strategies of tertiary:level "nglish learners in !hina,F"! ?ournal, &* (-$ (#00'$, ++. '*J8;

Muir, D.?.,(#00-$< Ada+ting nline "ducation to Different earning Styles, ational "ducational !om+uting!onference, T>uilding on the 6uture - ?uly #:#*, #00-V!hicago, 9, +.-.

Marsha, 6.,(#0--$< earning style and intelligence 6rom N!ollege L !areer Success< !oncise Gersion,N th ed.,htt+s


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3Malley, ?. M., !hamot, A. U., Stewner:Man@anares, K., 5u++er, .?. L Fusso, F.. (-;8$. earning strategiesused by beginning and intermediate "S students. anguage earning, &(-$< #-:)'.

3Malley, ?.M., L !hamot, A. (-;;0$. earning Strategies in Second anguage Acuisition. !ambridge

4Malley, ?.M., !hamot, A.U., L 5u++er, .,(-;8*$< he role of learning strategies in Second languageacuisition< Strategy use by students of "nglish, U.S.Army, Fesearch 9nstitute for the >ehavioural and SocialSciences, echnical Fe+ort *)#, AD:A-;# 00',htt+


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1. #lanning- Previewing the organiing concept of an anticipated learning task.&. $irected attention- /eciding in advance to attend in general to a learning task and to

ignore irrelevant distracters.+. Selecti"e attention- /eciding in advance to attend to specific aspects of language

input or situational details to assist in perforance of a task.. Sel%management- 0nderstanding the conditions that help one successfully

accoplish language tasks and arranging for the presence of those conditions.


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approaches based on practical value.

9 )on"erger 1. People with a 1onverging learning style can solve probles and will use their

learning to find solutions to practical issues.2. They prefer technical tasks2 and are less concerned with people and interpersonal

aspects.

. People with a 1onverging learning style are best at finding practical uses for ideasand theories.(. They can solve probles and ake decisions by finding solutions to 8uestions and

probles.

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