Abstracts Education

Adult ESL Language Learning Strategies: Case Studies of Preferred Learning Styles and Perceived Cultural Influence in Academic Listening Tasks

by Macel A. Braxton

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence that cultural background and preferred learning styles had on the language learning strategies that English as a second language (ESL) students chose to use in an English as a second language (ESL) university classroom, specifically one dealing with academic listening. Academic listening prepares the ESL students for the skills that they will need to enter a university and to be able to retrieve the information from their professor's lectures and from their class discussions within the course work itself. Qualitative methodologies were used to gather and analyze the data. Four ESL students served as individual case study subjects. Data were collected by classroom observations, three video taped observations as well as two private interviews with each of the four ESL case study subjects, one interview with the ESL teacher, an example page of students' note-taking skills from lectures, and informal discussions with two informants. The qualitative findings suggested that cultural background and preferred learning styles influenced the language learning strategies used by the four ESL students when they performed academic listening tasks. Memorization, participation, native language, religion, and body language were perceived cultural variables which seemed to influence the language learning strategies used by the four ESL students. Thus, the ESL students improved their note-taking skills and were able to develop their listening comprehension skills due to these perceived cultural variables. The four ESL students relied on two learning style preferences (i.e., visual and auditory) because they provided a means for them to understand the listening tasks which they performed in their ESL academic listening class. These two learning style preferences seemed to influence their listening behaviors as well as aiding them in learning English. Memorization and guessing served as the main language learning strategies which aided the four ESL students in comprehending the lecture information when they took notes in their ESL academic listening class. The ESL teacher's strategies were perceived as valuable in enhancing the ESL students' listening comprehension and aiding in their learning of English. The use of language learning strategies appeared to produce a positive effect on ESL students' academic listening skills development and served as a means to aid them in acquiring academic English.