Perceptual Learning Style Preferences: A Study on Adult Learners of Persian as a Foreign Language

Depending on language background, culture, age range and gender, language learners adopt different learning styles. Although learning styles is one of the well-studied topics in the field of foreign language learning, to our knowledge, no study has explored this topic in the context of learners of Persian as a foreign language. This study aimed to investigate the perceptual learning style preferences of 97 learners of Persian who had acquired Persian in 40 different countries. In this cross-sectional survey study, Reid’s (1997) Perceptual Learning Style Preferences Questionnaire was used for data collection. A variety of statistical tests were used to answer the research questions which related to the learning style profiles of learners of Persian as a foreign language and the learning style differences in terms of level of education, geographic location, gender and age. Results of independent samples t-test and Mann-Whitney test did not show a statistically significant difference between the average scores and learning style preferences of men and women. Kruksal-Wallis test did not indicate a significant difference between the scores and learning style preferences of different age ranges. As for geographic region, there was a statistically significant difference between Asians and Europeans only in terms of group and haptic style scores. The average scores and individual style preferences differed significantly among subjects who were at different levels of education (bachelor’s, master’s and PhD).