ABSTRACT

Ihdina, Fasya. 2021. Learning Styles and Language Learning Strategies used by ELESP Students Batch 2020 during Covid-19 pandemic. English Language Education Study Program. Sarjana Program of Lambung Mangkurat University of Banjarmasin. Advisors: (I) Emma Rosana Febriyanti, M.Pd; (II) Dini Noor Arini, M.Pd.

Keywords: learning styles, language learning strategies, Covid-19 pandemic.

             The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the ways of how people live, including in the education field. Since the virus spread to the entire world, the Indonesian government applied the Learning from Home policy. Therefore, as for all parties participating in the education field, all teaching and learning processes must be done online. However, the students faced troubles and obstacles in doing this.The major obstacle is how to adapt the teaching and learning process by online learning and what the students' learning styles and language learning strategies used in this situation.

            Based on those issues, this study aimed to find out what are the learning styles and language learning strategies used in the time of Covid-19 pandemic by English Language Education Study Program students’ batch 2020. This study applied a descriptive quantitative. 75 students were consisting of 31 males and 44 females in this study were selected by using purposive sampling. Their data was collected through two instruments, questionnaires and interviews. Descriptive Statistics were used to group the students according to their major, minor and negligible learning style preference categories and it used to investigate what are their most chosen learning styles and strategies.

This study found that ELESP students’ batch 2020 have various learning styles and strategies based on their needs. The first questionnaire, which PLSQ (Perceptual Learning Styles Questionnaire) found that three learning style preference categories are the most preferred by the responses, auditory, kinesthetic, and individual learning, being (38,47, 37,6 and 36,32) respectively, fall into the major learning style preferences category.

Moreover, the second questionnaire, which SILL (Strategy Inventory for Language Learning) found that the most preferred strategy category of all, with a mean score of 52,75 was the one related to metacognitive strategies. Social strategies ranked second with an average of 35,23. The third place in the ranking order was taken by cognitive strategies with a mean score of 31,57. In addition, the interview found that the result of those two questionnaires is related to the respondents’ responses.      

Based on the findings, it can be concluded that most ELESP students used Auditory, Kinesthetic, and Individual as their major learning styles, then Metacognitive, Social, and Cognitive as their major learning strategies. Therefore, it was suggested for the students to improve and build awareness in their major learning styles and language learning strategies for their learning processes in their university life.