Differences Between Visual Style and Verbal Style Learners in Learning English

Abstract

English proverb is an interested part when learner applied it in real life situation. The participants of this study were chosen from a big university in the middle area of Taiwan. The researchers selected some learners from Department of Foreign Language (DFL) and Department of Non-Foreign Language (DNFL). 40 students were from DFL, and 40 students were from DNFL. According to learner's short-term memory (STM) abilities, the researchers separated participants into four quadrants (Q1-Q4). According to visual style and verbal style of learning style, learning content representation (LCR) types are clarified into Type A, B, C. The research question is that participants with different STM abilities, how different LCR types affect the learning performance of English proverbs? The authors' results described that LCR with pictorial annotation (Type A) help participants with lower verbal ability and higher visual ability (Q2) to have better performance than other three quadrants, because type A participants feel easier to learn content presented in a visual form than in a verbal form. Providing LCR with both written and pictorial annotation (Type C) helps learners best with higher verbal ability and higher visual ability (Q1) in the recognition test. Providing redundancy learning content lead a higher cognitive load and result to irritation and lack of concentration, in accordance with the Cognitive Load theory. It implied that providing simple learning materials (only written annotation, Type B) is useful to participants with lower verbal ability and lower visual ability (Q3). The research results show that instructors should provide suitable learning materials to their learners in accordance with their STM abilities.