Abstract:
This study aimed to investigate English learning styles of the upper secondary Muslim students who have Malay and Thai as their mother tongues. The participants included 136 participants who had Thai as their mother tongues and 51 participants who had Malay as their mother tongues. The instrument included a set of questionnaires on the subjects background information and learning styles which consisted of 6 categories 1) auditory 2) visual 3) tactile 4) kinesthetic 5) individual 6) group. Statistical descriptive analysis and t-test were applied. The findings were as follows: 1) the most preferred learning styles by the participants with Thai mother tongue were kinesthetic, group, auditory and respectively, 2) the most preferred learning styles by the participants with Malay mother tongue were kinesthetic, group, tactile and respectively and 3) both groups of participants had similar learning styles of tactile, kinesthetic, individual, and group; the different learning styles were auditory and visual styles. The study suggested that the teachers in Islamic school should adapt the teaching styles to match with the learning styles of both Thai and Malay participants.