A Research On Reading Strategies Used By Successful And Unsuccessful Second Language Learners And Strategy Training

Since 1960s, under the influence of cognitive learning theories, much importance has been attached.to the learner-oriented learning process. 1970s witnessed large numbers of learner strategy researches in the West. During the last 20 years, the strategy research has spread to China. This paper first reviewed the literature of English language learning strategies so as to clarify the basic concepts in the field of language learning strategies. Then it presented the results of a study designed to examine learning strategies used by non-English majors in improving English language proficiency. Specifically, it layed emphasis on the differences in reading strategies used by successful and unsuccessful learners. The findings indicated that, quite different from our intuition and the results of some previous researches, unsuccessful learners were not necessarily inactive strategy-users. Instead, some of them even used many of the strategies as successful learners did. Though some successful learners tended to use fewer learning strategies, they could use them more effectively once used. Finally, an 8-week training course on reading was performed and its findings were further testified: the disparity between successful and unsuccessful students lied more in the quality of strategy use. Besides, as to the training course aiming at the use of inferencing strategy, it's believed that it was very necessary to weave the training of L2 strategy use into regular, daily L2 teaching.