Resumen de Learning styles and generation Z at university: Perceptual learning preferences and digital media in the EFL classroom
Teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) has been one of the major concerns of the Spanish educational system for the last decades. The gradual pedagogical evolution towards a communicative approach together with the emergence of new social technological devices have created a completely new EFL scenario. In this interactive and digital context, a new generation of learners, known as Generation Z, has developed a different learning profile with specific characteristics, needs and prospects. Accordingly, learners perceive and produce information in multiple modes and therefore both students and teachers should consider perceptual learning styles in the EFL classroom. This study aims to obtain some findings that evince the high number of EFL students with a Multimodal Learning Style and the preference of digital media to printed material among the EFL students at University. It addresses two research questions: (1) Do EFL students have a multimodal or an unimodal learning preference at University?, and (2) do EFL students prefer to use digital media or printed materials at University? Two hundred and five students of legal English at Universitat Jaume I participated in this study. The three instruments of this study were (1) a printed learning dossier, (2) eight Kahoots and (3) a questionnaire on Google forms. Results suggest a slight preference towards the auditory style and a clear tendency to digital materials. Further research should focus on the design of new perceptual learning styles’ questionnaires and on the use of other digital tools with the purpose of knowing the types of learning and teaching strategies that lead to effective language teaching.
