語言是文化的一部分也在孕育文化中扮演著重要的角色，有些社會學家甚至認為沒有語言就不會有文化。有很多觀察到文化的差異對於學生的學習過程有著顯著的衝擊（王，2011），本篇研究在調查學生的文化與學習風格之間的關係，藉由比較台灣與俄國學生的學習風格，目的為尋找出（一）兩地學生在學習風格上面是否有相似處或差異處（二）是否可以藉由文化來臆測學生選擇學習風格（三）兩地學生是否有學習風格與英語能力顯著的關係。
本研究由九十三位台灣學生與九十二俄國學生參與，為英文系、西班牙文系與法文系主修大學生，根據參與者的英語程度分為三組為中級、中高級、高級。由Kolb (1984)設計的專題問卷翻譯成兩地學生的母語再分配，由單因子相依變異數分析和卡方檢定來主導來發掘英語能力有無顯著的關係。
研究結果顯示在兩地學生偏好學習風格只有些許有限的差異，來自調查數據指示，大部分俄國學生偏好學習風格為適應與發散性，台灣學生則是同化行學習風格；這數值在Hofstede (2001)可能解釋兩者在文化模式上相同，令人驚訝之處為兩這在五個文化量尺上有著相同的結果，儘管如此，因為兩地的教育體系的特性仍會讓我們的研究結果矛盾。
此外，學習風格的選擇對其英語程度也有著具有意義性效力，根據研究調查結果與包含對於未來研究實踐意義和建議。

Language is a part of culture and plays a very important role in the development of the culture. This study investigates the relationship between the student’s cultural background and their learning styles. By comparing Taiwanese and Russian students’ learning styles, this study aimed to find whether there were significant differences in their learning styles’ preference and whether cultural background may predict the students’ choice of learning styles. Ninety-three Russian and ninety-two Taiwanese undergraduate students participated in the present study. Further, all participants were divided into three groups according to their English proficiency level: Intermediate, Upper-intermediate and Advanced levels. A questionnaire designed by Kolb (1984) and translated into participants’ native language was distributed among them. The repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Chi-square test were conducted in order to discover any significant relationship between English proficiency level. The results showed some limited differences in Russian and Taiwanese students’ preferred learning styles. Findings from the data indicated, that most preferred learning styles of Russian students were Accommodating and Diverging styles. Taiwanese students mostly preferred Assimilating learning style. This might be explained by the fact that both countries scored rather similarly on Hofstede (2001) cultural model.  Surprisingly, it was found that Taiwan and Russia share similar results on five cultural dimensions. However, our findings can be discrepant due to the characteristics of Taiwanese and Russian education systems. Furthermore, we were able to find that some of the English proficiency levels of the students also had meaningful effect on their choice of learning styles.  According to the findings, practical implications and suggestions for future studies are also included in the paper.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract	III
Acknowledgements	V
Chapter one	1
Introduction	1
1.1 Background of the Study	1
1.2 Statement of the problem	2
1.3 Research questions	3
1.4 Hypotheses	4
1.5 Purpose and significance of the study	4
Chapter two	6
Literature review	6
2.1 Individual differences	6
2.2 Learning styles	7
2.3 Culture and learning styles	9
2.4 Kolb’s Learning Styles Inventory	12
2.5 Hofstede’s cultural dimension theory	14
Chapter three	21
Methodology	21
3.1 Overview	21
3.2 Participants	21
3.3 Data collection and instruments	22
3.4 Data analysis	23
Chapter four	24
Results and discussions	24
4.1 The results and discussion of Research question 1	24
4.1.1 Russia in Hofstede’s culture construct and its anticipated preference for learning styles	24
4.1.2 Taiwan in Hofstede’s culture construct and its anticipated preference for learning styles	28
4.2 The results and discussion of Research question 2	31
4.2.1 Descriptive statistics of Russian students’ learning cycles	31
4.2.2 Descriptive statistics of Taiwanese students’ learning cycles	33
4.3 The results and discussion of Research Question 3	34
4.3.1 Frequencies of English proficiency level among Russian students	34
4.3.2 Descriptive statistics for learning styles of Russian students with different English proficiency level	36
4.3.3 One-way ANOVA test results for Russian students with different English proficiency level	39
4.3.4 Chi-square test results for Russian students with different English proficiency level	41
Chapter five	48
Conclusion	48
Chapter six	51
Limitations and academic implications	51
6.1 Academic implications	51
6.2 Limitations and Further Research	52
References	55
Appendices	63
Appendix A	63
Informed consent form in English	63
Appendix B	65
Informed consent form in Chinese	65
Appendix C	66
Kolb’s LSI 3.1	66
Appendix D	72
Kolb’s LSI in Russian	72
Appendix E	79
Kolb’s LSI 3.1 in Chinese	79

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