Common Patterns of Learner Characteristics Displayed by More Proficient EFL Learners

This qualitative research primarily explored the common patterns of three learner characteristics (i.e., motivation, learning styles, and learning strategies) shown by more proficient taiwanese efl learners based on their language learning experiences. the participants of this study were ten non-english-major sophomores who attended the same english honours programme at a private university in the northern part of taiwan. each of these more proficient language learners was given an in-depth interview to gain information required to answer the research questions of this study. the obtained results showed that: (1) the participants were both integratively- and instrumentally-motivated learners; (2) the major learning style preferences of the participants tended to be more visual and auditory; and (3) the main learning strategies the participants frequently used when learning english included meta-cognitive strategies, memory strategy, cognitive strategies, and social strategies. through these findings, efl or any other language instructors could better understand what makes a proficient language learner, followed by developing appropriate teaching approaches and materials to assist their students to attain a good level of language proficiency.