Investigating Algerian EFL Students' Learning-Style and Brain-Dominance Profiles

Abstract

Learning styles and brain-dominance preferences continue to attract, today, the attention of both researchers and practitioners in the field of education. Learners are different from each other and this difference matters in learner-centred instruction. This work is an attempt to identify the students' learning-style and brain-dominance profiles at the Department of English, Larbi Ben M'hidi University, Oum el Bouaghi, Algeria. Seventy two Master Two-level students took part in this study. The Barsch Learning-Style Inventory and the Brain-Dominance Inventory were used as data collection tools. The results show that most of the participants have a visual mode of learning, whether predominantly or in combination with the auditory mode. In addition, the majority of the students are found to have a slight preference either to the left-or the right-brain hemisphere. The paper eventually discusses ways to enable teachers to tailor classroom instructional strategies to students' learning preferences, and hence capitalize on their learning strengths.