A Study on the Influence of the Matching between Learning Style and Teaching Style on the Academic Record of English Majors

Abstract

Educational researches, over the last few decades, have focused on the debate over which classroom pedagogy best encourages learning: the match approach, the mismatch approach or the balanced approach. Most studies on this issue appear to support the argument that the matching between teaching style and learning style can improve students’ learning efficiency. However, those related supporting researches are usually limited to the secondary education. Furthermore, a factor prone to be ignored is that students’ learning style may change, for instructional objectives differ in different learning periods. Therefore, in order to conduct a more accurate and reliable research, this study will focus on 150 English majors and 3 teachers from Beijing International Studies University. The “Style Analysis Survey” [1] was used to test teachers’ and students’ style preferences. Conclusions have been reached that the match approach is needed in “global, analytic” and “visual, auditory” dimensions. However, the mismatch approach is needed in “introverted and extroverted” dimension. What’s more, the “open students” usually achieve better academic record than the “closure-oriented students”. Based on all these findings, the balanced approach is more recommended than the match approach or the mismatch approach in English major education.