Investigating the Relationship between Learners’ Perceived EFL Teacher Support Adaptivity and Learning Styles

Studies have shown that students with varying learning styles require different types and levels of support from their teachers in order to succeed. Since not many empirical studies have been conducted to support or refute this correlation within the EFL context from the learners’ perspective, this study mainly aimed to see to what extent EL teachers’ adaptive support caters to their students’ varying learning styles. Thus, to investigate the relationship between EFL Learners’ perceptions of Teacher Support Adaptivity and their various Learning Styles, ۲۰۵ EFL learners from intact classes completed the Questionnaire on Teacher Support Adaptivity (QTSA) and Kolb’s Leaning Style questionnaire. The relationship between each specific learning style to teacher support adaptivity was examined using the Spearman rank order coefficient of correlation. The subsequent overall results indicated that there were statistically significant relationships between various learning styles and teacher support adaptivity. The results also showed that while Reflectors positively correlated to teacher support adaptivity, Activists, Theorists and Pragmatists types of learners negatively correlated to teacher support adaptivity. Furthermore, though statistically detectable, the correlation between teacher support adaptivity and pragmatist learning styles was only marginally significant. Therefore, it could be concluded that EFL teachers’ adaptive support (steering students’ learning process to their understanding) catered mostly to Reflectors and least to Pragmatist as perceived by their learners. The results of this study contribute to EFL research on the importance of adaptive teacher support that is compatible with various learning styles of the learners and provide input for further analysis in this context.

کلیدواژه ها:

Teacher Support Adaptivity ، Learning Styles