Gender Differences in Korean Secondary School Students’ Learning Styles and L2 Motivation

초록

To date, gender differences in learning style has not been investigated from the perspective of L2 motivational self-system (Dörnyei, 2005, 2009). This study investigates the perceptual learning style preferences, ideal L2 self, ought-to L2 self, and motivated L2 behavior of 495 Korean male and female secondary school students. The results of the analysis, which is based on survey questionnaires, revealed that the female students were more strongly orientated towards visual learning, while the male students preferred kinesthetic learning. In addition, the female students exhibited a more vivid ideal L2 self and more motivated L2 behavior. The visual and the ideal L2 self were the most accurate predictors for distinguishing differences in learning preferences existing between male and female students. This indicates that the female students’ visual preference contributed to their greater ability to form a vivid ideal L2 self. Based on this, it is suggested that language teachers, and in turn their male students, would benefit from developing an understanding of the existing incompatibility between the male students’ preference for auditory and kinesthetic styles and the successful development of an ideal L2 self.

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