“The Correlation Between Learning Style and Interest in Learning English towards the Third Year Biology Students’ Ability in Writing A Paragraph of Past Activities at Bung Hatta University”.

Abstrak

This research was aimed at finding out a correlation between students’ learning style and their interest in learning English towards their writing skill of past activities in the third year Biology department of Bung Hatta University. The hypothesis of this research was if there was a significant correlation between the learning style and interest towards their writing ability of past tense.

            The number of the population was 18 students. The researcher took a total sample due to the population that was less than 30. The researcher gathered the data by using two questionnaires and one test. To analyze the reliability of questionnaires, the researcher used Alpha formula for VAK Questionnaire and K-R 21 formula for interest. The result of try out showed that the reliability of the VAK questionnaire was 0.82 (see appendix 4) and Interest questionnaire was 0.91 (see appendix 5). To find out the correlation between variables, the researcher used the Pearson Product Moment formula and Multiple Correlation formula.

            Based on the result of data analysis, the researcher found that students’ writing ability was moderate (22%) to good (48%), then the students with visual learning style were 61,2%, kinesthetic was 33%, and auditory was 5%. The interest of students in learning English was very high (90%). The researcher also found that there was a significant correlation between learning style and writing ability (r calculated 0.7828 >  r table 0.497, with the level of significant 0.05 and df(n-2=16); there was significant correlation between interest and writing ability (r calculated 0.7839 > r table 0.497); and there was a significant correlation between learning style and interest towards the third year Biology students’ ability in writing pas activities at Bung Hatta University (Fcalculated 16,40 > Ftable 3,68).

            The researcher suggests to the use of various learning styles in delivering teaching materials which would improve students’ speed in receiving the lesson materials, and the next researcher may conduct any related learning styles and interests research to improve students’ skills.

Keywords: correlational study, learning style, interest, writing a paragraph, past tense