Exploring Students' Preference of English Learning Styles (A Survey on Non-English Language Education Department Students of FTK UIN Ar-Raniry)

This thesis entitled “Exploring Students’ Preference of English Learning Styles”. The aimed of this study were to understand the way non-English students learn English and to know their learning styles preferences in learning English. In completing the data, I used quantitative research involving one hundred and eighty respondents. The respondents of the study were non-English students from twelve Departments of Education and Teacher Training Faculty at Ar-Raniry State Islamic University and I chose fifteen students from each department by using convenience sampling. I used a close-ended questionnaire which requires the respondent to choose one of several specified answers, such as never, sometimes and often applies to the students. I modified the learning channel preference checklist questionnaire model reproduced by O’Brien and I used it as my instrument. The questionnaire contains VAK (visual, auditory, kinesthetic) learning styles. It was used to find out the types of language learning styles preferred by the students non-English Department. Based on the results of the questionnaire, it shows that one hundred and eighty students on non-English department of Education and Teacher Training Faculty learn English in various ways based on their preferences. Moreover, non-English department students’ learning styles preference with the highest percentages response in visual learning styles was found in Math education department (34.46%), and the highest percentage response in auditory learning styles was found in Counseling education department (35.64%), and the last, the highest percentage response in kinesthetic learning styles was found in Informatics Engineering education department (35.61%). I conclude that students have different learning style in learning English, and they have a different way of developing their English skills in learning. Keywords: learning English, students’ preference, and learning styles.