Learning Styles as Predictors of Student's Test Performance

Raising awareness of learning styles as a major component of communicative competence in learners may lead to greater levels of success in English as a foreign language. This study was an attempt to investigate the role of learning styles as predictors of test performance. The participants of the study were 152 B.A. level students majoring in English teaching at Imam Khomeini international university in Qazvin and Takestan Islamic Azad University. To get ensured of the homogeneity of the participants prior to the study, the researchers administered a test of general language proficiency which showed no significant differences among the participants in this regard. Then, the learning styles questionnaire adapted from Honey and Mumford (2000) was administered to the participants. At the end of the semester, the participants took part in their usual final exams. The obtained data were analyzed using multiple regression analysis. The results revealed that out of the four learning styles of theorist, activist, reflective, and pragmatist as possible predictors, only reflective and pragmatist styles accounted for a statistically significant portion of the variance in final test performance. The findings of this study may have theoretical and pedagogical implications for language learners, teachers, and syllabus designers.