Learning Style
Preferences
Andrew D. Cohen
University of Minnesota
1
The learners’ typical
preferences for
approaching learning.
While style preferences
are relatively stable,
style-stretching is
possible.
2
Summary of Style Preferences
Sensory Style Preferences:
visual   auditory   hands on
Cognitive Style Preferences:
abstract-intuitive   concrete-sequential
global
  particular
synthesizing
  analytic
field-dependent   field-independent
Personality-Related Style Preferences:
extroverted
  introverted
reflective
  impulsive
open
  closure-oriented
3
Sensory Style Preferences
 visual – relying more on the
sense of sight and learn best
through visual means (e.g.,
books, video, charts,
pictures).
Visual Vera→
 auditory – preferring listening
and speaking activities (e.g.,
discussions, debates,
audiotapes, role-plays,
lectures).
4
 hands-on –
benefiting from
doing projects,
working with
objects and
moving around.
5
Cognitive Style
Preferences
 abstract-intuitive – futureoriented, enjoying abstract
thinking, and happy
speculating about
possibilities.
 concrete-sequential –
present-oriented, preferring
one-step-at-a-time activities
and wanting to know where
they are going in their
learning at every moment.
6
 more global – enjoying getting
the main idea and comfortable
communicating even without
knowing all the words or
concepts.
 more particular – focusing more
on details and remembering
specific information about a topic
well.
Particular Perry→
7
 more synthesizing –
summarizing material
well and noticing
similarities quickly.
 more analytic – pulling
ideas apart, doing well on
logical analysis and
contrast tasks, and
tending to focus on
grammar rules.
8
 more field-dependent – needs
context in order to focus and
understand something; takes
each language part one at a
time and may have difficulty
handling all of the parts at one
time.
 more field-independent – able
to keep a sense of the whole
while handling all the individual
parts as well without being
distracted
9
Personality-Related
Style Preferences
 extroverted – enjoying a wide
range of social, interactive learning
tasks (e.g., games, conversations,
debates, role-plays, simulations).
Extroverted Ellie→
 introverted – preferring more
independent work (e.g., studying or
reading by oneself or learning with
the computer) or enjoying working
with, say, one other person.
Introverted Iris→
10
 more reflective – processes
material at a low speed with
high accuracy; avoids risks and
guessing
 more impulsive – processes
material at a high speed with
low accuracy; often takes risks
and guesses
11
 keeping all options open –
enjoying discovery learning
where information is picked up
naturally and where learning
doesn’t involve a concern for
deadlines or rules.
Open-Oriented Oliver→
 closure-oriented – focusing
carefully on all learning tasks
and seek clarity, meeting
deadlines, planning ahead for
assignments and staying
organized, and wanting explicit
directions and decisions.
12
A Learning Style Survey: Assessing
Your Own Learning Styles by Andrew D.
Cohen, Rebecca L. Oxford, & Julie C. Chi
(2001) – downloadable from the CARLA
website at:
http://www.carla.umn.edu/about/profiles/Cohen
This measure was informed by earlier work
conducted by Rebecca Oxford, Madeline
Ehrman, and Betty Lou Leaver:
13
Concerns about Styles
 Are the descriptions of style too vague and
superficial?
 How certain that assessing the style constructs
through measures? What if the characteristic is more
an ability than a style preference?
 And what if a person comes out in the middle on a
dichotomous measure?
 Asking learners to self-report about their style
preferences isn’t as valuable as actually giving them
performance tasks where their style preferences
emerge.
 See Ch. 5, “Learning styles and cognitive styles” in
14
Dörnyei (2005) on individual differences.
 Oxford, R. L. (1993). Style Analysis Survey. In J. Reid
(Ed.) (1995). Learning styles in the ESL/EFL
classroom (pp. 208-215). Boston: Heinle & Heinle.
 Ehrman, M. E. & Leaver, B. L. (1997). Sorting our
global and analytic functions in second language
learning. Paper presented at the American Association
for Applied Linguistics annual meeting, Orlando, FL,
March 8-11, 1997.
 Ehrman, M. E. & Leaver, B. L. (2001). E&L
Questionnaire.
 Ehrman, M. & Leaver, B. L. (2003). Cognitive styles in
the service of language learning. System, 31(3), 313330.
 Dörnyei, Z. (2005). The psychology of the language
15
learner. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Teacher-Learner Style
Conflicts in the Classroom
 The teacher is more analytic, reflective,
and auditory, while the learner is more
global, impulsive, and visual,
 The teacher is more open-oriented, while
the learner is more closure-oriented,
 The teacher is more concrete-sequential,
while the learner is more randomintuitive,
16
 The teacher is more concrete-sequential,
visual, and reflective, while the learner is
more random-intuitive, auditory, and
impulsive,
 The teacher is more extroverted and handson, while the learner is more introverted and
visual.
[From Oxford, R. L. & Lavine, R. Z. (1992).
Teacher-student style wars in the language
classroom: Research insights and suggestions.
ADFL Bulletin, 23 (2), 38-45.]
17
To avoid or resolve such
conflicts:
 Assessment of students' and teachers' styles
and use of this information in understanding
classroom dynamics,
 Changes in the teacher's instructional style,
 Style-stretching by students,
 Changes in the way group work is done in the
classroom,
 Changes in the curriculum,
 Changes in the way style conflicts are viewed.
18