Türk üniversitelerindeki hazırlık sınıfı öğrencilerinin yabancı dilde dinlediğini anlama problemlerinin ve algısal öğrenme stillerinin araştırması

Listening is a skill that many Turkish EFL learners have constant problems with and perceptual learning styles of the students is a factor that plays an important role in students? learning a foreign language. This study aimed to find out (a) the most and the least frequent listening comprehension problems of the students, (b) the difference in listening comprehension problems in terms of proficiency levels and gender, (c) common perceptual learning styles among the Turkish university students, and (d) the relationship between students perceptual learning styles and listening comprehension problems. The study was conducted at Gazi University, School of Foreign Languages, with the participation of 295 students from three different proficiency levels (pre-intermediate, intermediate, and advanced). The data were collected through two questionnaires, both of which consisted of 30 items.The quantitative data analysis showed that Turkish EFL students had listener related listening comprehension problems most frequently and task related listening comprehension problems least frequently. The advanced level students reported having more listening comprehension problems than other proficiency levels. In addition, there was difference in the types of listening comprehension problems reported by females and males. The results also indicated that the most prominent perceptual learning style was visual, followed by auditory, and then kinesthetic. However, the further analysis showed that students? perceptual learning style preferences changed according to their gender and proficiency level. Finally, it was found that students who preferred visual learning style more than the other perceptual learning styles reported having more listener and speaker related problems.Key words: Listening, listening comprehension problems, and perceptual learning styles.