gaya belajjar dan mengajar

Learning styles and the negotiations of meaning of Indonesian EFL learners

Hery Yufrizal*)

Abstract

The learning style categories by the Indonesian EFL learners are described  using criteria established by Willing (1988) and are related to the patterns of negotiation of meaning by these learners when they engaged in conversations in English applying three task types: information gap tasks, jigsaw tasks and role play tasks.

The subjects of the study were forty students of the  English Department in the College of Education of a university in Indonesia. The participants were selected based on their answers to a learning style questionnaire adapted from Willing (1988).

Nine tasks representing three task types: information gap tasks, jigsaw tasks, and role play tasks were given to the learners in three dyadic interaction arrangements. The conversations were recorded, transcribed and coded using the coding system proposed by Pica et al (1989) which was developed by Martyn (forthcoming) through the QSR NUDIST computer program. Quantified data from the QSR NUDIST program were sent to SPSS statistic program for further analysis. Repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) using 9 x 5 x 2 x 2 design where nine refers to nine tasks, five refers to the learning styles, two refers to gender and the other two refers to proficiency was conducted to test the hypotheses.

The results showed that learning style had a significant effect on the quantity of interaction and the frequency of negotiation of meaning sequences. Learning style had no significant effect on the signals for negotiation of meaning and responses for negotiation of meaning

Implications of the findings were discussed in terms of the implications for future research and for pedagogical purposes particularly in terms of catering for individual learners’ need of second and foreign language learning.

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*) Presented in Post Graduate Seminar, Graduate School of Education, La Trobe University

Wednesday, 12 March 2000.