ESP in Vocational Institutes: A Mixed-Method Study of Students’ ESP Learning Style Preferences

In vocational institutes, English for Specific Purposes (ESP) education should incorporate basic linguistic skills with professional communication abilities. There is a problem with ESP teaching that uses the traditional teaching model of general English, which fails to consider the needs of students. To tackle this problem, the aim of this study is to identify the preferred perceptual ESP learning styles of 254 students in seven Chinese vocational institutes. Data collection and analysis were conducted using a mixed-methods approach that combined both quantitative and qualitative methods. An adapted version of the Perceptual Learning Style Preference Questionnaire (PLSPQ) developed by Joy Reid (1987) was used at the first stage. Subsequently, in response to the questionnaire results, 15 students participated in semi-structured interviews. The results showed that a significant number of students chose minor learning modes rather than major learning modes. According to the data analysis, kinesthetic learning was the most preferred learning style, whereas group learning was the least preferred. The second to fifth places belonged to individual, tactile, visual, and auditory learning styles. The findings of the study have implications for ESP teachers, curriculum designers, and researchers considering students’ preferred learning styles, changes in the learning environment, and materials adaptations.