Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Background of the study

The research of learning strategies has a history of nearly 30 years. 30 years ago,behaviorism psychology has a prominent position which emphasizes the study of stimulus,response and the connection between stimulus and response. Under the guidance ofbehaviorism psychology, the emphasis has been primarily put on the part of teaching ratherthan on the earning in the field of foreign language instruction. In practice, guided by thebehaviorism psychology, several kinds of foreign language teaching methods haven’tachieved significant results.Since the 1960s, with the development of modern cognitive psychology, thefundamental changes have taken place in people’s understanding of the cognitive process.People learn that cognitive activities are the process of thinking and solving problems. Thelearners are not just passive stimulus and response, but also should be positive thinkers andproblem solvers. Therefore, the focus of the study has been paid on the process of learners’implicit thinking and the learning, which laid a theoretical foundation for the furtherresearches on learning strategies.Until the 1970s, the research about learning strategies is gradually on the rise.Learning strategies research is not only based on the theory of cognitive psychology butalso on its social background.Some research find that the one-sided emphasis on skills but the ignorance of thelearning strategies can lead to negative effect, which not only cause the overall decline inthe quality of education but also indirectly increase t students’ learning burden. Studentsfeel the pain for study will decrease the enthusiasm of the students’ learning.

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1.2 The purpose and significance of the study

For many years, English together with math and Chinese, occupies an importantposition in the teaching in senior high school. However, how to learn English well is quitea difficult problem for parts of students. Although it costs lots of time and energy inlearning, the result are not so satisfying. Some researches show: ① Under the samelearning conditions, learning strategies are the key elements influencing the learningeffects. ② Adjusting learning strategies consciously is the key to success. (Wen Qiufang,2003: 1). The theory and practice of the second language acquisition reveal that themastery and use of learning strategies are significant elements for learning Englishsuccessfully. The premise of learning English well is learning how to use effective learningstrategies. Biggs says: “Only when students want to learn and know how to learn couldthey get ideal result.”

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Chapter 2 Literature Review

2.1 The definition of language learning strategies

The research about language learning strategies has existed more than 40 years, whilea lot of disagreements still remain in this field. The definition about learning strategies is inthis case. Different definitions on language learning strategies have been given by differentforeign linguists and researchers. (Stern, 1983, Weistein & Mayer’1986, Chamot, 1987,Oxford, 1989, Ellis, 2000, Chamot, 2001 etc). The definitions are listed as follows: From the eight features of learning strategies, Ellis believes that strategies can beregarded as both visible (behaviors, steps, skills, etc.) and invisible (idea, mentalprocesses). And strategies can also refer to general methods as well as techniques, as inlanguage practice it is difficult to distinguish approaches and methods techniques. Ellisagreed with Chamot that strategies are conscious, calculated activities. While Ellis didn’tagree with Rubin that strategies had direct influence on language learning. On the contrary,he thought that most of the strategies had no direct impact on language learning.In China, professor Wen Qiufang put forward her own definition (1996) thatstrategies are the methods that are taken to learn more effectively.

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2.2 The definition of good language learners

Rubin published What’ the good language learners can teach us on TESOL Quarterlyin 1975. He believes that good language learners are skilled in guessing, eager tocommunicate with others and obtain knowledge from communication, less restrictedbecause the lack of knowledge of second language. They practice language by watchingmovie, taking part in other culture activities or attempting to seek opportunity to contactwith native speakers. They not only care about grammar, pay attention to the languagelearning form, but also the meaning of language form in social environment. Stern (1975)has a further explanation on the definition of good language learners on basis of Rubin’sidea. Stern believes that good language learners could adjust learning methods to formtheir own unique and effective learning strategies according to their or other’s learningexperience. Good language learners could tolerate the discomfort brought by the targetlanguage and its culture, make them near to native language, avoid taking mother tongue asreference system gradually, and could master the internal standards and appropriate cultureof target language. Ellis (1994) believes that good language learners are concerned withlanguage form and communication, complete learning tasks actively, understand thatlearning is a step by step process, and use learning strategies flexibly to make good score.The current research believes that excellent language learners have a specific learning goal.

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Chapter 3 Research Design....... 19

3.1 The questions and approaches of the research....... 19

3.2 Participants .... 20

3.3 Instrument...... 20

3.4 Procedure ....... 21

Chapter 4 Data Analysis and Discussion....... 23

4.1 Scores of National College Entrance Examination ...... 23

4.2 The frequency of learning strategies ....... 23

4.3 The correlation between learning strategies .......... 25

4.4 The characteristics of learning strategies used by excellent English learners ........ 26

4.5 Interview........ 29

4.6 Results and discussions ...... 32

Chapter 5 The Training of English Learning Strategies in Senior High School .......... 34

5.1 The training of cognitive strategies ......... 34

5.2 The training of meta-cognitive strategies ....... 39

5.3 The training of emotional strategies ........ 42

Chapter 5 The Training of English Learning Strategies in SeniorHigh School

5.1 The training of cognitive strategies

We usually use the seven-step training mode of Oxford in the practice of teachingvocabulary, namely students learn the vocabulary by self-study without the guidance ofany learning strategies, then students do more exercises of vocabulary learning strategies,practice using the new strategies after the training of vocabulary learning strategies. Finally,teachers help students learn to do reflection and assessment about the process and effect ofusing learning strategies. The training mode also includes the strategies of looking indictionary, reading strategies, match strategies, classification strategies, associationstrategies and so on. While students are not familiar with word formation, at this time weuse the five-step training mode of Pearson. It means that teachers set an example by usinga certain strategies firstly, and then they guide students to practice using the strategies andreview and reinforce the strategies they have learnt. Finally, students could use thestrategies independently and apply the strategies in new tasks.In addition, some concrete measures for memorizing vocabulary are as follows.Teachers require students to record the key points and new words in the notebook, then usethe methods of associative memory, comparative memory, context memory, readingmemory, cards memory and so on. At the same time students increase the number ofvocabulary by review under the help of teachers. What’ more, teachers teach students howto use reference books and how to make use of reference books for self-study. Teachersalso ask students to reinforce their memory by putting the words, phrases and newknowledge in the specific context rather than learn them in isolation.

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Conclusion

This paper firstly gave an introduction including the background of the study, thepurpose and significance of the research as well as the structure of the thesis. And then thedefinition of learning strategies was given in this survey. It refers that all kinds of methodsare taken by language learners in order to learning efficiency. In the survey, we take thestudents whose English score are at or above 120 points in National College EntranceExamination and the final examination in senior high school as excellent English learnersand adopt Oxford’s classification of learning strategies in second language learning.Secondly, in this survey the method of empirical research was adopted according tothe classification system of language learning strategies and Strategies Inventory forLanguage Learning (SILL) composed by American applied linguist Rebecca Oxford. 256students were investigated and among them there were 121 students whose scores were ator above 120 points in National College Entrance Examination and the final examinationin senior high school. At the same time, 6 excellent English learners were interviewed. Thedata were analyzed with the assist of the Social Scientific Statistic software SPSS11.5 andExcel 2003 software. The following findings were revealed: The excellent English learnershave great advantages in using cognitive strategies and meta-cognitive strategies; Learningstrategies used by excellent English learners have a positive and frequent contact with eachother, especially cognitive strategies and meta-cognitive strategies have very closerelationship used by excellent English learners; The excellent English learners attempt toseek opportunities to read in English as much as possible and they always or almost alwaysattempt to various language learning strategies to learn English well; Most of the excellentEnglish learners say it’s very necessary for them to learn some vocabulary learningstrategies and they also put forward some suggestions of vocabulary teaching in class.

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Reference (omitted)