The Effects of an Online Task on Legal English Students’ Perceptual Learning Styles and Academic Achievement

Abstract

Advances in educational technology offer many opportunities in the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) classroom: the development of students’ motivation and autonomy; the integration and evolution of Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) with the emergence of different types of online learning tasks; or the concern of students’ Perceptual Learning Styles in multimodal environments. This study investigates new generations’ perceptual learning preferences and how digital tendencies may influence students’ academic achievement after the implementation of an online task (i.e., ‘Lesson’). An experimental (n=150) and a control group (n=21), from the first year of the bachelor’s degree in Law at a Spanish university participated in this study. Four stages were followed: (1) ‘Perceptual Learning Styles’ Questionnaire’ completion, (2) ‘Lesson’ performance, (3) online exam implementation, and (4) data analysis. After the intervention, results indicate the presence of the ‘Multimodal’ learning style and high levels of academic achievement of multimodal students.