Survey of Language Learning Strategy of English Majors1

1、a thesis of english education survey of language learning strategy of english majorsabstractbased on the researches at home or aboard,，this thesis investigates how well the junior english majors in a science university make use of language learning strategies automatically, whether achievement is re

2、lated to using language learning strategies properly and whether students needteachers instructions of language learning strategies. fifty students from wuhan institute of technology were intentionally chosen to attend a quantitative survey of a close-ended questionnaire, meanwhile, two learners wer

3、e chosen to participate in an interview- one is excellent student and the other is poor student. findings prove that generally the learners basically have a command of language learning strategies; more than half of the students can apply management, while less than half of the students are not able

4、 to use method strategies; students tem-4 score is in proportion to how well they use language learning strategies. at the end of the paper, some suggestion is put forward to help students develop learning strategies and improve learning efficiency.key words: language learning strategies; questionna

5、ire; conversation; learning efficiency.摘要在國際國內對外語學習策略研究的基礎之上，本文通過問卷和座談兩種形式理工科大學 英語專業(yè)學生在課外自主使用學習策略的現(xiàn)狀，進而了解優(yōu)秀生和學困生運用學習策略與學 習效果的關系以及學生是否需要老師在學習策略方面給些建議。來自武漢工程大學 50 個學生 參與了問卷調查，調查者還從問卷中選出兩個學生（一個優(yōu)秀生，一個學困生）進行了座談。 通過對問卷調查結果和座談的分析，總的來說，發(fā)現(xiàn)學生們基本能夠運用學習策略，對于管 理策略，超過半數(shù)的人能夠較好運用，但有超過半數(shù)的人不善于運用方法策略。結果表明學 生的專業(yè)四級成績與運用

6、學習策略的好壞成正比，座談后鑒于學生們需要老師給些學習策略， 就此種情況提出了一些建議。關鍵詞：學習策略；問卷；座談；學習效果table of contents abstract. i 摘要. ii1. introduction . 11.1 research on language learning strategy definition, development and classification. 11.1.1language learning strategies definition . 11.1.2history of research on language learning

7、strategies . 21.1.3classification of learning strategies . 31.2 the purpose of this paper . 52. methods . 62.1 research participant . 62.2 research instrument . 72.2.1 questionnaire . 72.2.2 objectives of the interview . 82.2.3 interview . 83. data collecting and processing . 93.1 questionnaire data

8、 collection . 93.2 interview data collection .9 4. results and discussion . 114. 1the results of the questionnaire and discussion . 114.2 the results of the interview and discussion . 145. conclusion . 18acknowledgements . 20bibliography . 21appendix . 221. introduction1.1 research on language learn

9、ing strategy definition, development and classification1.1.1 language learning strategies definitionwithin foreign language education, a number of definitions of language learning strategies have been given by key figures in the field.early on, tarone(1983)defined a learning strategies as “an attemp

10、t to develop linguistic and sociolinguistic competence in the target language-to incorporate these into ones interlingua competence”.weinstein and mayer (1986) defined learning strategies broadly as “behaviors and thoughts that a learner engages in during learning “which intend to influence the lear

11、ners process”.rubin (1987) later wrote that learning strategies “are strategies which contribute to the development of the language system which the learner constructs and influence learning directly”.later mayer(1988) more specially defined learning strategies as “behaviors of a learner that are in

12、tended to influence how the learner process information ”.there early definitions from the education literature reflect the roots of learning strategies in cognitive science, with its essential assumptions that human beings process information and that learning involves such information processing.i

13、n their seminal study, omalley and chamot (1990) defined learning strategies as “the special thoughts or behaviors that individuals use to help them comprehend, learn, or retain new information”finally, building on work in her book for teachers (oxford, 1990), oxford (1992/1993) provides special exa

14、mples of language learning strategies and this helpful definition: language learning strategies -specific actions, behaviors, steps, or techniques that students (often intentionally) use to improve their process in developing language skills. these strategies can facilitate the internalization, stor

15、age, retrieval, or use of the new language. strategies are tools for the self-directed involvement necessary for developing communicative ability.1.1.2history of research on language learning strategiesthe development of psycholinguistics in the 1960s has directed considerable attention to the proce

16、ss of language acquisition, both mother tongue and second language. in the case of second language learning, error analysis has been used as a basis for theorizing on the strategies used by the learner that has resulted in the deviant forms in the surface structure of his utterances in the target la

17、nguage. the rationale behind this approach lies in the brief that a learners systematic errors provide evidence of how language is learnt and “what strategies or procedure the learner is employing in his discovery of language” (cord, 1976)since the 1960s, the study of learner strategy has received m

18、ore and more attention in the field of english learning and teaching, and a great deal has been discovered about the learning process and learner strategies.in most of the research on language learning strategies, the primary concern has been on “identifying what good language learners report they d

19、o to learn a second or foreign language, or, in some cases, are observed doing while learning a second or foreign language.”(rubin and wenden1987).arson carton (1996) published his study entitled the method of inference in foreign language study, which was the first attempt on learner strategies .in

20、 his study, he notes that learners vary in their propensity to make inferences and in their ability to make valid, and reasonable inferences. after carton, rubin initiates research focusing on the strategies of successful learners and stated that such strategies could be made available to less succe

21、ssful learners (rubin, 1971). he classifies strategies in the terms of processes contributing directly and indirectly to language learning (rubin, 1981).wong-fillmore (1982, 1985) identifies social strategies used by successful language learners. tarone(1980)studies the communication strategies of l

22、anguage learners. research conducted by naiman, etal (1978) focuses on personality traits, cognitive styles and strategies that are critical to successful language learning. bialystoks report (1979) shows the effects of the use of two functional strategies inference and functional practicing and two

23、 formal strategiesstudy will give english teachers valuable information on how their students process information, plan and select the most suitable strategies to understand or solve a problem. as a result teachers will be able to help their students become better language learners by training them

24、in using the appropriate strategies .the results of the study will contribute to this field by giving information on the strategies that chinese learner use and how they use them to understand informationin china researches in language learning strategies have been increasing in recent years. among

25、them, the following are worth mentioning: huang xiaohua first investigated learning strategies for oral communication in 1984; wu yi an and liu runqing, etal(1993)investigate the psychological and social- psychological factors of english learning; wen qiufang(1995)compares different learning strateg

26、iesemployedbysuccessfullearnerandunsuccessfullearnersand (1996) systematically studied english learning strategies in a book entitled english learning strategies.1.1.3classification of learning strategiesdifferent scholars lay their own stress on defining learning strategies; therefore, there are a

27、variety of classifications of learning strategies. cohen divides the learning strategies into two groups; one is language learning strategies and the other is language using strategies (cohen, 1987).the former includes strategies for identifying the material that needs to be learner, distinguishing

28、it from other material, grouping it for easier learning memorizing it when natural acquisition is impossible and so on. the latter, more specially, includes four subsets of strategies: retrieval strategies, rehearsal strategies, cover strategies and communication strategies.rubin (1987)prefers to us

29、e term “l(fā)earner strategies” to mean “l(fā)earning strategies” .she recognize three major types of learner strategies based to reception-production model， learning strategies refer to the strategies that may directly affect learning, which can be further divided into “cognitive strategies are concerned w

30、ith language production, enabling learner to keep the communication going despite their limitation in knowledge and competence. social strategies concern about the ways in which learners select interact with other learners and native speakers.based on the information-processing model, omally and cha

31、mot(1985)recognize three major types of strategies. they are met-cognitive strategies, cognitive strategies and social-affective strategies.oxford(1990),emphasizing on the effect that learning strategies have on learning process, groups learning strategies into two major categories: direct strategie

32、s and indirect strategies. language learning strategies that directly involve the target language learning through focusing, planning, evaluating, controlling anxiety, increasing cooperation and other means are called indirect strategies.sterns (1992) classification of language learning strategies i

33、s composed of five parts: management and planning strategies, cognitive strategies, communicative-experimental strategies, interpersonal strategies, affective strategies.wen qiufang(1993) ,a chinese doctor in foreign language laying stress on two aspects :one is the relationship between learning str

34、ategies and learning process ,the other is the relationship between learning strategies and learning material ,divided learning strategies system into three parts: concepts of language learning strategies, management strategies and language learning strategies.their definitions are as follows:concep

35、ts of language learning strategies: students recognition of how to study english well. management strategies: in order to arrange and organize their language learning, they make a series of measures, such as making a plan, estimating progress and moderate emotion. these strategies usually have nothi

36、ng to do with language learning materials.method strategies: these strategies are directly related to english language learning materials. the ways to practice listening, speaking, reading, writing and studying grammar and intonations are included.wen qiufangs classification is based on and absorbed

37、 in western classification of learning strategies. moreover, her classification mainly concern about learning settings of china. therefore, with the classification provided by wen qiufang, chinese learners may perceive the learning aspects and learning strategies in a more direct way and they are li

38、kely to select the strategies they need with greater assurance and confidence. therefore, the present writer will choose this classification to serve as the further investigation1.2 the purpose of this paperthis study, with the intention of surveying the situation of third-year english majors applyi

39、ng language learning strategies to their study, will focus on three research questions: 1) how well the english majors in a science university make use of language learning strategies automatically 2) whether achievement is related to using language learning strategies properly 3) whether students n

40、eed teachers instructions on language learning strategies.2. methods2.1 research participantthe third-year english majors were chosen for the following three reasons as the participates of the research: firstly, as they are juniors, they are more likely to experience a great deal of english learning

41、 difficulties or problems and have their own language learning strategies; secondly, since they took part in tem-4 in april, 2005 and got difference scores, the relationship between tem-4 scores and language learning strategies can be investigated. thirdly, they are all from the same college which h

42、elps to avoid a subjective selection of subjects from the research, which will meet reliability-and-validity requirement of the present study. wuhan institute of technology is a key science university in hubei province. so the survey of language learning strategy of english majors in it can be regar

43、ded as quite essence.based on the above reasons on the selection ofparticipates, 61 third-year english majors from 3 different classes in our school of foreign language of wuhan institute of technology responded to the questionnaire on april 22nd, 2007. 49 were females and the rest 6 were males. 48

44、of them passed tem-4 test in april, 2005. the subjects all had formally for six years in junior and senior high schools and for three more years as university students. in this study, the samples were distributed in terms of gender, the score of english test of college entrance examination and acade

45、mic record in tem-4 shown in table 1. table 1:genderenglish score (college entranceexamination) 單位：分tem-4malefemale129,120119,110109,100（99,0）passfailfrequency（人數(shù)）649232552487percent（百分比）10.9189.0941.8245.469.093.6387.2712.73from the above table, we know that the subjects have two distinctive charac

46、ters. one is that the number of the female students greatly exceeds the number of the male students, which can be explained by the fact that female students are generally regarded by chinese people as being more suitable to learn foreign languages because they can do better than their peer students

47、of the opposite gender. the other character is that most students （87.28%） english score has over 110.2.2 research instrument2.2.1 questionnairethe questionnaire is composed of two parts, in the first part, personal information is presented and in the second part which is about wen qiufangs language

48、 learning system, including concepts of language learning, and methods of language learning, was administered to collect information on language learners individual opinions and methods. the questionnaire contains 40 close-ended questions, three choices where given to first 10 questions,(from 1 to 3 option attached by 1 to3 marks ), five choices were given to the following 30 questions(from 1 to 3 option attached by 1 to5 marks). all the subjects are asked to choose one o