LEARNING STYLES AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE OF FIRST YEAR UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS OF BENUE STATE UNIVERSITY, MAKURDI

Abstract

The study investigated the relationship between learning styles and academic achievement in English Language of first year undergraduate students of Benue State University, Makurdi, Nigeria. Using a sample of 761 out of a population of 4,677 first-year undergraduate students from eight Faculties during the 2024/2025 academic session, the study employed correlational design to investigate the relationship between learning styles and academic achievement. A survey was conducted to gather data using the Version 7.8 of the Visual, Auditory, Read and write, and Kinesthetic(VARK) questionnaire that was validated with the Kuder-Richardson formula yielding an internal consistency of 0.94. Data were analyzed using regression analysis to answer five research questions and test five hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that each learning style—visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and verbal—plays a crucial role in students' academic performance in English langauge although their impacts vary. This means no single learning style dominates academic achievement across the board, and students may benefit most when their specific preferences are acknowledged in the learning process. The joint predictive power of visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and verbal learning styles on academic achievement was 5.5%, with a significant F-value (p = 0.000). This means that the combination of these learning styles explains a small but significant portion of the variance in academic achievement. Individual analysis shows that verbal and auditory learning styles made the most significant contributions, while kinesthetic and visual learning styles were less predictive in combination. The relationship between learning styles and students’ achievement in English is the basis for recommending that university lecturers need to vary their teaching methods and approaches to accommodate the students’ preferred learning styles.