earticle

영어

Learning style instruments continue to enjoy widespread use despite the questionable reliability and validity. The study examined whether reliability and validity of Reid’s (1984) Perceptual Learning Style Preference Questionnaire (PLSPQ) hold true across Korean EFL college students. The PLSPQ was administered to 309 students from eight major areas. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficients, ranging from .65 to .81, yielded good reliability with the exception of the Auditory scale. Exploratory factor analysis indicating the dimensionality of the PLSPQ, however, produced that certain items did not clearly group into the six learning styles as Reid hypothesized. Thus, seven-factor solution in the present study was not conceptually consistent with Reid’s learning style model. Subsequently, a four-factor solution as an alternative would provide a more orthogonal and conceptually acceptable learning style framework for the students sampled. The study further identified the students’ preferred English learning styles and explored whether their gender and major fields of study affect the learning styles in terms of the four-factor solution. Due to the mixed evidence for the reliability and validity of the instrument, the study suggested more replication studies of the factor structure that shows distinct characteristics of Korean EFL students.