Perception of educational culture and learning styles inlanguage learning: the Romanian case

Abstract

The present article studies the relation between learning styles in language learning and educational culture in Romania before and after the fall of the communist regime. The sample consists of 204 Romanian students learning Spanish in Madrid. To measure learning styles, the Cuestionario Honey Alonso (CHAEA) was used. Educational culture, understood as behaviors, beliefs and attitudes with respect to the learning process, was analyzed using the Cuestionario de Cultura Educativa (CCE), based on the cultural dimensions theory and model by Hofstede (1986, 2001). Significant changes were found in educational culture and dominant learning styles between both periods, revealing among others a decrease of the number of theorists and reflectors in the language classroom and a correlation between reflection, oral participation and periods.