European Journal of Social Sciences ISSN 1450-2267 Vol.25 No.3 (2011), pp. 305-315 © EuroJournals Publishing, Inc. 2011 http://www.europeanjournalofsocialsciences.com 305 Learning Styles and Levels of Vocabulary Learning Among Iranian EFL Learners Reza Kafipour Department of Foreign Languages, Shiraz Branch Islamic Azad University, Shiraz, Iran E-mail: rezakafipour@gmail.com Mehdi Yazdi Department of Foreign Languages, Shiraz Branch Islamic Azad University, Shiraz, Iran E-mail: mehdiyazdi51@gmail.com Nasrin Shokrpour English Department, Faculty of Paramedical Sciences Shiraz University of Medical Sciences E-mail: shokrpourn@gmail.com 1. Introduction During the last couple of decades the world has been concerned with cultural, social, political and technological changes. In order to keep up with these changes, people have had to meet the needs created by all these changes. Language learning is one of the most important needs and it has become an essential component in people’s lives. Because of numerous reasons such as studying at an English medium university or living in a foreign country , people all over the world are trying to learn a second, even a third language. From the early 1970s on some researchers in the field have been trying to find out teaching methods, classroom techniques, and instructional materials that will promote better learning effectiveness. However, in spite of all these efforts there has been a growing concern that learners have not progressed as much as it was anticipated. Because there are individual differences in language learning such as gender, age, social status, motivation, attitude, aptitude, culture, etc.; what works for one learner might not work for another. Therefore, none of the methods and techniques has proved that they can work all the time, in all classes, and with all students. As a result, it might be appropriate to comply with Grenfell and Harris’ (1999) statement that “Methodology alone can never be a solution to language learning. Rather it is an aid and suggestion” (p. 10). Having reached this conclusion some other people in the field changed the focus from language teaching methodology to language learner and variables that affect language learning. This shift of the focal point has led to an increase in the number of studies carried out regarding learner characteristics and foreign language learning. Learning styles as the general approach that students use in learning a new language or in learning any other subject are “the overall patterns that give general direction to learning behavior” (Cornett, 1983, p. 9). Dunn & Griggs (1988) state that learning style biologically and developmentally impose set of characteristics that make the same teaching method wonderful for some and terrible for others. Moreover, vocabulary learning used to be a neglected aspect of language learning. In recent years, however, interest in this area has grown enormously. Teachers, publishers and researchers are