A STUDY ON THE STUDENTS’ LEARNING STYLE AT SMU 2 BATU

Learning is private activity because we cannot see how other people think as they learn. We have realized that the differences between one student with others already exist. Those differences are not only about shape, body, or face but also about learning styles. Learning style are not abilities; rather, their preference to use their abilities (Santrock, 2001). Students have different interest, abilities, and preferences. Each student should carefully choose the learning style, that is suitable with his study needs. And students are the only ones who can choose learning style for themselves, therefore, they have a great control over how much and how well they learn through the learning style they choose. Various ways of learning are often ignored by teachers. That is why the writer was interested in studying the students’ learning style to know the kinds of learning style and to find the style mostly used by the students in learning English. The research design used in this study was descriptive quantitative research. The population of this study were second grade students of SMU 2 Batu, where 40 students were chosen by using simple random sampling. The instruments used to collect data were Reid’s Perceptual Learning Style Questioner and interview. All data were collected in October 2004. Based on the finding of the research, there were three kinds of learning style: visual learning style, auditory learning style, and kinesthetic learning style. And the style mostly used by the students in learning English was kinesthetic