-浅谈英语专业学生常用英语学习策略.doc

中图分类号：G633.41
学号：11004110114

南阳师范学院

本科毕业论文

论文题目：
浅谈英语专业学生常用的英语学习策略
作 者：
陆丽丽
指导教师：
赵海洋 讲师
学 院：
外国语学院
专 业：
英 语
班 级：
2011 级06 班

二〇一五 年 三 月

英语专业学生常用的英语学习策略

南阳师范学院
外国语学院
英语专业
申请文学学士学位
毕业论文

作 者：

指导教师：

Discussion on the Commonly Used English Learning Strategies of English Majors

A Thesis Submitted to
English Department,
School of Foreign Languages,
Nanyang Normal University
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts

By

Supervisor：

Acknowledgements

First, my deepest gratitude goes to Mr. Zhao, my supervisor, for his patient guidance and encouragement. He has accompanied me through all the way of my writing of this thesis. Without his help, I could not finish it.
Besides, I would like to thank my good friends, Yang Yang and Wei Yu, for their help with my searching the literature. They helped me correct grammar mistakes and worked out my problems which brothered me a lot.
Finally, my thanks would go to all my family members, for their loving and supporting. I will study even harder.
摘 要

近年来，越来越多的人意识到语言学习策略在大学英语的教学和学习中所起的重要作用，因此学习策略日益被广泛关注。
学习策略是指在语言习得运用的整个过程中某个特定阶段的心理和行为活动。之所以学习策略的研究在教育学中起着重要作用，是因为学习策略能系统性的指导学习。本研究试图了解英语专业学生策略的运用情况,采用学习策略量表（SILL）对南阳师范学院外国语系英语专业大二以上的学生常用的学习策略水平进行了初步的调查与探讨。我们从八个班里每班挑选五男五女共八十人，以调查问卷的形式每人发放一份语言学习测量表来统计他们对学习策略的使用情况，要求他们在十五分钟内完成调查问卷。经过统计各种数据，调查结果表明：大学生英语学习最常用的策略是补偿策略和元认知策略，最不常用的是社会策略,英语专业学生的学习策略总体水平还有待提高，而且学生对学习策略的认识水平和理解还不够科学和系统，仅停留在了解一些零碎的学习方法水平上，对语言学习策略的运用具有较强的偶然性。根据研究结果，本论文认为英语专业学生学习策略的学习还有待加强，并从对学习策略教学和培养的探究来提出改进建议。

关键词：英语专业大学生;学习策略;学习策略教学

Abstract

In recent years, more and more people are aware that language learning strategies plays an important role in college English teaching and learning. So learning strategies has attracted widespread attention.
Language strategy refers to mental or behavioral activity which related to some specific stage in the whole process of language acquisition or language use. Because learning strategies can systematically conduct learning, so the research on it takes an important role in pedagogy. This study investigated the general level of learning strategies commonly implemented by the English majors above the second-year in Nanyang Normal University (NNU) With the Strategies Inventory for Language Learning (SILL). We select eighty people from eight classes, each class choose five men and five women. Each of them got a SILL to fill in their usage of learning strategies in the form of questionnaire. They were asked to complete it in fifteen minutes. Through date collection it was found that: compensation and meta-cognitive strategies are the most frequently used，While social strategies are the least frequently used. The general strategy level of the English majors needs to be improved. Their knowledge learning strategies isn’t systematic, just some isolated learning methods. There is a contingency in their use of learning strategies. According to the result, it’s advised that training of learning strategies should be improved.

Key Words: English majors; learning strategies; learning strategies training
Contents

Acknowledgements ……………………………………………………...I
摘要….......................................................................................................II
Abstract ………………………………………………………………....III
Contents ……………………………………………………………....... IV
1. Introduction of the Survey …………………………………………. ..1
2. Some Issues on Learning Strategies…………………………………..2
2.1 Defining Learning Strategies…………………………………...2
2.2 Classifying Learning Strategies………………………………...3
2.3 The Relationship between Strategy Use and Learning
Proficiency……………………………………………………...6
3. The Investigation on Commonly Used Learning Strategies
among English Majors in NNY……………………………………….7
3.1 Subject………………………………………………………….8
3.2 Instrument……………………………………………………....8
3.3 Date Collection…………………………………………………9
3.4 Discussion……………………………………………………....10
3.4.1 Results………………………………….………………...10
3.4.2 Analysis………………………………………………......13
4. Suggestions to Train Students’ Learning Strategies…………………..15
5. Conclusion…………………………………………………………….17
Bibliography……………………………………………………………..18
Appendix…………………………………………………..…………….19

III
Discussion on the Commonly Used English Learning Strategies of English Majors
1. Introduction
Language learning strategies have already been studied for about 40 years. With the development of modern cognitive psychology, people’s focus has changed from teacher-centered to student-centered research. Researchers on language learning have found that there are pertinence between language learning strategies and learning results. Although many studies have been carried out the relationship between strategies of language learning and the achievements during their learning，research findings make a great difference on the classifications of strategies of language learning. Consequently，further study is needed to expound the relationship between strategies of language learning and the achievements during their learning.
In the 1970s, linguists began to take an interest in the learning strategy. In the field of the second language acquisition, we are always asking, “Why do some people succeed in language learning while others fail?” in the old days, we tried to find out answers from the teachers who teach us and their teaching methods. Recent years it has a shift in focus from the teacher and the improvement of the teaching to the learners and their studying of the second language. It has become more clear that much of the responsibility for success in language learning depends on individual learners and on their ability to take full advantage of chances to learn. Individual differences have many signs, and among them, learning strategy is a new area. Individual differences decide the learner’s choice of learning strategies. On the other hand that the learner’s experiences and his level of L2 proficiency can also influence his choice of strategies. Good teaching contains teaching students how to think, how to learn and how to motivate themselves. The studies in this area can help to explain the second language learners’ individual differences, it also have a great value to the teaching. Researches on learning strategies mainly concentrate to the classification of strategies, the affect of the choice of learning strategies, the relationship between strategies achievement and strategy training.

2. Some Issues on Learning Strategies
2.1 Defining Learning Strategies
Before researching the learning strategies, the first thing we should do is to make clear definition of learning strategies. However, it is difficult to do that because different scholars have different opinions on learning strategies. Researches on language learning strategies (LLS) rise from 1970s. The complicacy of LLS makes researchers give distinct definitions to LLS from different points of view. Stern (1983) points out learning strategies are the general tendency and characteristics of techniques that use by the second language learners. Weinstein and Mayer (1986) shows that learning strategies are the thoughts and behaviors that learners engaged in during their learning, which effect the learner’s encoding process on the viewpoint of cognitive psychology. Rubin (1987) considers that learning strategies contribute to the development of language system, making learners construct learning directly. Mayer (1988) regards learning strategies as skills or specific methods. Chamot (1990) declares learning strategies are approaches, techniques or deliberate actions which students take in order to facilitate learning. Oxford (1990) says like this: language learning strategies are language learners use special actions or behaviors to make learning faster，easier, more effective and enjoyable.
2.2 Classifying Learning Strategies
Except for listing learning strategies, many researchers have also tried to classify strategies into taxonomies and typologies. Among these classifies the writer of this thesis agrees with Oxford’s classification. Oxford established a questionnaire which entitled “Strategy Inventory for Language Learning” (SILL). It is exactly that the present writer used in this thesis to make investigation. The SILL has been developed from Oxford’s fairly exhaustive list of strategies and has become popular for finding levels of strategy use through being applied in a variety of learning environments. According to Green and Oxford (1995),studies using the SILL has chosen are as follow: firstly, it is characterized by its comprehensiveness. It covers all the main aspects of learning strategies. Oxford’s work uses a very wide definition of strategy including almost any decision taken in the process of language learning. It is useful to have memory, cognitive, meta-cognitive, social and affective strategies grouped together in one test to make learners aware of the complex strategies that can be exploited to aid their learning. Secondly, this focused attention on strategies provides an interest and promote many insights into what they and others do in order to facilitate learning. Some students might have never talked about their learning, and not all students have a full understanding of how they learn English and what they should do to achieve success. Students often expect teachers to have good knowledge of this. Actually, what their teachers provide is satisfied. The SILL makes learning strategies more clear and makes the difficult task of learning a foreign language more easily.
Oxford then categorized strategies into two types: primary and secondary. But after performing a lot of statistical analyses on the SILL, Oxford presented a new framework about learning strategies. She classified learning strategies that have a direct and an indirect impact on learning a foreign language.(see fig.2.1)
Fig.2.1: Oxford’s Classification
Direct 1.memory strategies
Strategies 2.congnitive strategies
Learning 3.Compensation strategies
Strategies Indirect 1. Meta-cognitive strategies
Strategies 2.affective strategies
3. social strategies
Direct strategies and indirect strategies were each further represented by three strategies. Oxford’s taxonomy is popular for a few reasons. It’s the first who provides a hierarchical organization of strategies into levels which makes it more than just a list. Secondly, this taxonomy is much easy to understand and arouse intuitively appealing. Finally, Oxford’s taxonomy is one and only because it made no distinction that learning strategies which invoked in both language and the using of language.
2.3 The Relationship between Strategy Use and Learning Proficiency
Up to now there are a variety of studies to investigate the relationship between students’ learning strategies use and their individual learning achievement. The most popular are these two correlation studies: one is the relationship between strategy use frequency and language proficiency, while the other one is the relationship between specific strategies and L2 proficiency.
A number of researches have been made to find out whether the frequency of strategy use affects language proficiency, but there are no unified conclusion so far. In the researches even included varieties of cultural and geographical settings. Green and Oxford(1995)found that “students who used higher levels of overall strategies are all have better language performance and got higher grades”. A recent study by Wharton in 2000 further supports this finding of the studies. According to the SILL, Wharton examined the usage of learning strategy of 678 university students learning English and German as foreign language in Brunei. The result showed the students who are have higher language proficiency general use more learning strategies than others.
Another area is the relationship between students’ choice of strategies and their learning achievements. For example, Politzer and Mcroarty, in 1985, studied the relationship between a series of “good learning behaviors” with the using of questionnaires, and gained scores on a specified course. They got mixed results: as a whole the gain scores did not relate to their categories of strategies using, there were some individual items which showed important associations with their proficiency measures.
Wen Qiufang investigated 300 English majors from six collages in south China by questionnaires in 1996, he found that the learning strategies that students used are closely related to their English Band-4 achievements. Moreover, two specialists, Wu Yi’an, Liu Runqing who are both from Beijing Foreign Studies University, had a general investigation about the quality of English majors in 1993. They examined the condition of the using of strategy in language learning of second-year English majors in China by using the questionnaires. Date analysis showed that four kinds of strategies that were frequently used, i.e. monitoring strategies, practicing strategies, memory strategies and function practice strategies were have some effects on learning achievements.
3 The Investigation on Commonly Used Learning Strategies among English Majors in NNY
Till now, there are lots of researches on the necessity of using learning strategies. But most of the researches were studied the students of middle school or non-English majors in universities in China, few of the researches were indeed focus on the English majors. We may ask: do English majors have better use of learning strategies? In other words, is it necessary to train the English majors’ using of learning strategies? The following investigation was designed to show the answer. The main objective of this investigation is to find out how English majors in NNY employ learning strategies in learning English language
3.1 Subject
The participants in this study were supposed to be 80 English majors in the Foreign Language Department of NNY. They are above the second-year from 8 different classes. 5 male and 5 female students were chosen in each class. Less than half of them passed TEM-4 (Test for English Majors Band-4) or CET-6 (College English Test Band-6).
The reasons were as follows: First, the freshmen have just entered the collage and they might not have formed their own learning approaches and strategies. But after two years of study in their collage the students have already adopted themselves to the study and might obtained their own