A Study Of The Preferred Use Of English Learning Strategies By Chinese College Students: A Perspective Of Multiple Intelligences

Since 1970s, with general linguistics and psycholinguistics developing, researchers have been making considerable progress in the field of second language acquisition (SLA), the focus of which has shifted from how to teach well to how to learn well. Researchers have explored the relationship between students' language learning strategies (LLSs) and their language achievements, detected factors that influence their LLSs, investigated LLSs in listening, speaking, reading and writing, and classified LLSs. This research has highlighted the important role LLSs play in making language learning more efficient and in producing a more positive effect on learners' language use (Wenden & Rubin, 1987; O'Malley & Chamot, 1990; Oxford, 1996, Cohen, 1998). They support the viewpoint that LLSs can be taught and their teachability can further help develop the students' potential to use LLSs for the purpose of enhancing their abilities to learn the language. But on the contrary, a different position lies in Krashen's (1976/77) Monitor and Acquisition/Learning Hypotheses (cited in Griffiths and Parr, 2001) that consciously learned LLSs are not useful in the development of language. The reason for this difference in view appearing between these two stances, perhaps, is that they fail to give consideration to the important role an individual student' s intelligence type plays in his or her language learning. Therefore, it's necessary to introduce multiple intelligences (MIs) theory to the field of LLSs.The research aimed at exploring the preferred use of LLSs from the perspective of MIs that are regarded as an important factor in the success of Chinese EFL students. Because there is little research on the relationship between Chinese students' English learning strategies (ELSs) and their MIs, the researcher develops the interests to investigate these strategies in the light of the following two research questions: 1) To which extent do MIs influence the preferred use of ELSs? 2) What are the ELSs that are preferred and frequently used by Chinese EFL students of different intelligence profiles in the light of MIs?Then the study focused on establishing a new type of taxonomy of ELSs from the view of MIs. The primary audiences are EFL teachers and EFL learners who are confused in learning English and learning strategies.The instruments used in the study included one questionnaire, a structured interview and a journal. The questionnaire that was designed to quantitatively clarify the relationship between students' ELSs use and their Mis contained 3 parts: 1) Students' Demographic Information, 2) Statements on English Learning Strategies Use (SELSU), and 3) Statements on Multiple Intelligences (SMI). The structured interview and the students' journal keeping were used for qualitative analysis.Three hundred and thirty sophomores were randomly chosen from 10 different classes in Shaanxi Normal University (SNU) in China. Among them 178 students passed College English Test (CET) Band 4. Those 178 students with high English proficiency were viewed as good language learners.In the process of investigating Chinese students' preferred use of ELSs from the perspective of MIs, the researcher computed the correlation coefficients between the frequency of each strategy use and each intelligence type, and produced the multivariate regression equation between each strategy category and each intelligence type. Then information from the structured interview and the journal served as the qualitative data for the research. On the basis of the 6 multivariate regression equations and 540 correlation coefficients, the major findings derived are: 1) Linguistic intelligence is not the only one related to language learning. The preferred use of each English learning strategy is related to the intelligence factor, determined by more than one intelligence type, even by all the intelligences. Most of the ELSs require some combination of these intelligences. But the correlativity is different. Some strategies are closely related to particular intelligence. 2...